Just got back from Portland and Seattle with Anna.  It was cool to check those towns out.  We stayed with Anna’s friends (and now my friends).  They rule for putting up with us for a couple days.

We were in a pretty good location in Portland.  Cute little neighborhood and we were real close to that cool all-vegan grocery store called Food Fight that I’ve heard about.  And the Herbivore store had just opened up next door.  No one knew I had a faux leather jacket on and it was very confusing and traumatic for them.

Beautiful river stuff.

We baaarely made it on the train taking us from Portland to Seattle.  They were closing the gate and we ran in all James Bond style, jumped on the train with sparks flying all around.  We had to drink beer just to chill out.  The conductor totally busted the people sitting next to us for drinking on the train, then just looked at Anna and I as we were drinking our beers and didn’t say anything.

Once we got to Seattle, our very good friends picked us up and we went to Becky’s house where I met Jerome.  My first impression was that he was going to immediately kick my ass.  Then, almost by instinct, we exchanged bro smiles and were instantly bff.  He taught me how to use a sword.  That’s the definition of friendship.  I thought I was going to either be grazed and/or get covered in glass.  Welcome to Seattle!  Jerome rules.

While waiting for Anna to do stuff I decided to hit up this place called Wayward Cafe.  Part of the reason I travel is to check out Vegan-y food so I checked it out and it was aiight.

My Mom went to Washington State back in the pre-me days so it was cool to check out.  No one ever told me that it’s the most beautiful school ever.

My Mom used to hang out on/in Lake Washington back in the day, so I called her from there and we chatted.  I imagined her waterskiing in 1958.

Ohh shit dawg!

Randomly ran into the ReLoad store.  Really sick bags and other handmade stuff.

I heart R2D2 mailboxes.

The Seattle Public Library is amazing.

On the way up and then back down the escalator they had this art project thing where there was this egg shaped head with a dude’s face projected on it and it was talking.  I never told Anna this, but this really pissed me off for some strange reason.

I wish I had a dog in Seattle.  One can only dream.

We stayed in Georgetown which ruled and there was this awesome bar called Georgetown Liquor Company.  They had tons of vegan food options and they even had a Bush countdown thingy!  Oh and zillions of restaurants have Feild Roast veggie meat in their sandwiches.  Field Roast is going to be taking over the world.  We stayed two blocks away and Anna convinced us to infiltrate the headquarters, so we met the receptionist.  She hooked us up with hella Field Roast schwag.  I told her I eat one of their sausages every morning for breakfast and there was an awkward silence.  Like ‘yeeeeeah, you’re kinda weird dude’.   Time to go.  bye!

We had an amazing vegan Thanksgiving feast at our friends’ house.  I had three dinners.  Every five minutes a different animal would appear.  I joked with Rick that I’ll probably see a horse soon and he said they have a horse (of course)!  Amazing people and an amazing time.

The next day we took a mini bonus road trip into the mountains to see waterfalls and, what else, drink beer in an old mining town.

I love what you do for me Roslyn!  This town hasn’t changed since like 1860.  It’s where they filmed Northern Exposure.

Roslyn Brewing Co was awesome.  Dark lager is amazing when it’s 21 degrees outside.

I have these friends that are rabid Morrissey fans.  Like, drive-to-Vegas-and-get-a-hotel-room-to-see-him rabid.  I happen to be a fan of the Moz and crazy adventures too so I was down.  At first driving over there seemed like a good idea, then a real bad idea, then a good idea again once we actually started driving.  I feel bad though because Erica drove the whole time and I didn’t even offer to drive.  Sorry Erica!

Jason bought this scarf at the gas station for like $1.  His tip is to always buy something random at a gas station while on a road trip.

We got to our Treasure Island hotel room just in time to swill vodka, change into our threads and hit the show.  The show ruled!

Elevator antics!

It rained and a lot of people were afraid to go out so it was kind of quiet and creepy on the strip on Friday night.  The rain made all the lights even more sparkly.  The lack of people made it extra fun and easier to get away with being drunk and obnoxious in public.  Just kidding, we were totally sober and well behaved the whole time.  Seriously.

The view from our room.

The ride home was kinda rough because were not into spending 9 hours in a car again.  So Kevin worked on his car stereo DJ skills.  Dude pretty much invented the art of car stereo DJ’ing.