Seattle, Day 2

So Friday morning Mike and I woke up and needed to entertain ourselves while Matt was at work. After getting dressed we headed out to explore Seattle without a clue. I had packed my G1 holiday gift from Google last year, and figured this would be a perfect time to try out those find local things apps I had downloaded.

Before actively looking for breakfast we headed over to the famous Pike Place Market to watch some guys throw fish and just generally check it out. It was really cool and seeing all that fish made me really hungry, even at 10:30-11am. After seeing what we thought was all there was (in actuality we saw maybe 1/7th of the market) we started wandering around looking for a place interesting enough to eat. It was at this point that I decided to try out the G1 and not only get us an idea of where to eat, but also directions on how to get there. However, what I failed to take into account is that in order for it to work I needed to be connected via wi-fi, which, while not typically a problem in the silicon valley is an issue in basically every other city. So it was a two-fer: technology and holiday gift fail.

Eventually we settled on a place called Dome Burger in Seattle's Pioneer Square (the historic district). We grab a quick meal and decided to head over and check out the Space Needle, another of Seattle's famous attractions. The walk wasn't bad, especially for two kids who are fairly used to trekking around Manhattan. We walked and talked, caught up since the time difference typically prevents me from staying in constant communicado with my friends back East. At some point we must have gotten on the topic of food and I lamented, as you would expect, about the lack of pizza on the west coast. We discussed what these places meant when they referred to themselves as "New York style" and I commented that the concept was lost on me because not only do they not taste like actual New York pizza but they charge ludicrious prices per slice, sometimes upwards of $3. This caught the attention of a kid in a bowler hat close by who mentioned that he was originally from New York and shared my view. He introduced himself as "The Tramp" and pointed out his friends Blood-something or other and by that point I had completely tuned out when he named his third compadre. I was too busy wondering why his name would be "The Tramp". Your name can't start with "The". Why not be Tramp or Tommy The Tramp. That would have been more respectable. Anyway, he mentioned that he and his friends were also headed towards the Space Needle for what he described as a massive hippie fest. Oh good. Fortunately a few blocks later they split off in an off direction towards one side of the needle and Mike and I headed towards the needle proper.

After waiting in line Mike and I bought our tickets and went up to the top. Here's a few pictures I took of Seattle from the top of the Space Needle.
After taking our share of photos and learning a bit of history thanks to the interactive maps on the inside we headed down to the gift shop where I did a mitzvah. I stopped Mike from buying an over priced mug in the gift shop, not because he's getting married and shouldn't buy an over priced gift shop novelty, but because it was perhaps the uggliest mug in the history of the universe. Let me see if I can describe it. Sort of an oblong shape, and the color scheme was a bit of black but mostly over powered by a grayish green color that should give anyone a knee jerk reaction nearing projectile vomit.
Anyway the gift shop wasn't all bad. I was really excited when I saw this because a friend had recently posted a blog entry about Lego releasing sets based on famous architectural pieces and I thought that was really interesting and long overdue.
Shortly after exiting the Space Needle's gift shop we got a call from Matt that they had a keg in their office and we should swing by for a few drinks. Never one to turn down a free beer, not to mention getting a chance to check out an actual ad agency from the inside beyond what you get to see when you interview, we started making our way over.
When we got there we were created by Matt and some of his co-workers. They showed us up to the Publicis offices and pointed us towards the keg. Walking down the halls was exciting as some of the agencies was hanging on display. Additionally, they had some of the familiar perks I had at Google, namely ping pong and a pool table. Unfortunately I'm as good as I used to be at ping pong and lost two straight games to Mike. However, I did manage to make some difficult shots in pool which made me feel slightly better about my chances for one day learning how to actually play the game. After filling our cups Matt showed us his office before we adjourned to the deck to enjoy our drinks in the sun and take in their great view (seen below). Anyway that's about it for the story, the rest of the night just involved prolonged drinking at various bars throughout Seattle, which was fun, but nothing much to talk about.