Diggin the Duwamps

You see, I learned that the original name of the city of Seattle was Duwamps. And that Seattle was the name of an Indian Chief. And that those little pieces of purple glass in the sidewalks of downtown Seattle are actually skylights for the network of tunnels below. That's right, I took Bill Speidel's Underground Tour. It was actually super fascinating, really enjoyable, and our tour guide Lucy was just the right amount of funny to not make the silly jokes Speidel incorporated into the tour so cheesy. Suuuper...

I made friends with two groups from Orange County, California...so that was nice.

I gotta say, I woke up feeling like I would randomly run into Jason The Bachelor today. Mainly because A - I'm really missing random celebrity sightings, and even tho he doesn't really count, he would enough for me. And 2 - He likes girls whose names start with "M," so I qualify.

But first things first...I got here yesterday in 3 hours from Portland. Met up with Heidi and Jill and headed to Greenlake. A lil walk, some coconut shrimp, and a lotta talk and we called it a night...

Jill has promised me that she will pose in front of Heidi's Subaru for cover art purposes for the single Elena and I wrote about the all wheel drive's popularity in the northwest. (Jill is pregnant, which is also apparently a ubiquitous NW spring sight.)

This morning, I woke up and started the day off right Top Pot Doughnut style. After the Voodoo Froot Loop experiment, I kept it simple here with a Cinnamon-Sugar simplicity and really enjoyed it.

From there I went on the aforementioned underground tour...perused Elliot Bay bookstore...and wandered around Pier 50 and into this old store tourist trap of weird things. I watched a nickel Charlie Chaplin movie and paid 50 cents to get my fortune told from one of those machines like in the movie "Big." The card is across the room in my jacket pocket but it basically said I believe in fate and a pre-destined plan to my life and that I'm gonna be happy...I'm pretty sure that's probably what it tells everyone, but it's nice to hear.

Next I drove around and got confused a lot, but finally - randomly - ended up in Ballard where I wanted to be...Archie McPhee was my first stop, but I also meandered through a children's book store (natch!) and a kitchen goods store...I skipped KDL's cupcake rec because I couldn't decide that I was in the mood for one. So I skipped it.

It should be mentioned that KDL offered me a personalized guide email of like 16 things she hasn't shown me in the three times I've been here with her. She also packed me an amazing bag of snacks for the road that is still about half full and still gets perused practically every time I get in the car. She also was my phone-a-friend when I got confused coming back to Heidi's in the dark. She's pretty awesome.

After Ballard, I headed over to visit a family I used to babysit for in San Diego. Ian was 2 when I took care of him there. Now he's almost 7 and his little sister is 3, but this is the second time I've randomly gotten to drop in on them up here, so that's fun.

Tonight I hung out with a crew usually reserved for destination weddings. Not surprisingly we don't need out of town nuptials to have a good time. The beer pong of yesteryear has become a pea exchange between babies, but laughter is laughter, right?? Superfun times.

Not sure what's on tap for tomorrow...I really got a lot done today. Would still like to see the tulips in Skagit Valley...thinking Vancouver can wait until another time...