Bellevue Trip Part 1

I'm here in Bellevue WA watching my students do their labs. On the way here I was bumped to 1st class, oh no the horror.. The nice thing about first class is they feed you for free, your luggage is free and you get free drinks. The seats being bigger is not a draw for me, it was actually the opposite in fact because they were slightly higher off the ground which made me not be able to put my feet comfortably on the ground plus with the wider leg room I couldn't put my feet on my bad which was under the seat in front of me. I know, bitch bitch bitch...

On the flight from Hartford to Minnesota I got a turkey sammich with mozzarella with a bowl of fruit and a really good cookie. I wish I had my phone/camera readily available because on the way down I got a real nice view of the city with the Metrodome on the left and Target Field on the right. By the time I got my camera out it was already past. Quick layover and onto the next flight. This time I was in row 1 which sounds cool but there was no pocket in front of me which means I had to put everything overhead including iPod for takeoff and landing. On the flight I met a guy who works as a psychiatric evaluator for the Twins, he travels from ballpark to ballpark talking to the players, coaches and managers. The food was even better on this flight, I had a grilled chicken sammich with cheddar cheese and feta, it came with a bowl of fruit again and a caramel brownie.

My rental car is anything but first class, I have a Hyundai Accent which has roll up windows, non-automatic locks and manual mirrors. It does however have a aux input for my iPod but there is a nasty whine while it's playing. The hotel is very nice, there are lots of trees, stairs and curves in the middle of all the buildings, there are two hot tubs but I have not used them yet. I did let a lady into the pool area when I got back to the hotel last night and ended up chatting with her while she sat in the hot tub, it was too cold for me to go in I think. She was a nice older lady, I figured she was a bit older and was surprised to hear her kids were between 29 and 25. I would honestly say she looked to be in her low 40s but apparently not..

Anyway, so, back to Monday night.. I checked in and got a card for Pumphouse which is a local bar with lots of beers on tap, also on the map of local restaurants was I Love Sushi which was right next door to Pumphouse. I was so not hungry after eating massive meals on the plane so I went to the bar for a bit. I had a few beers: Pyramid's Summer called Curve Ball, Mack and Jack's Amber, and Lazy Boy Amber. I started with the Curve Ball which was nice and refreshing, sorta like the old Rally Cap Ale but maybe a bit brighter if that makes sense. The next I tried was the Mack and Jack which is a local favorite, I don't know if I would put it in the "Amber" category because it was a bit spicy, not like hot spicy but spicy like it had a bite. After that I went over to I Love Sushi and had a very quick dinner, I was probably gone from the bar for 30 mins and that included sitting, ordering, eating soup and a sushi entrée which had 8 pieces of sushi and 1 tuna maki roll. The first thing that impressed me was no spoon was given with soup, then the sushi came and was expertly cut and prepared. I want to go back there I think because they had a bunch of other cool looking rolls (some with jalapeños) and I was just not hungry enough to experiment. Back to the bar where I had the Lazy Boy Amber before heading back to the hotel. The Lazy Boy was a true Amber and was one of the better ones I've had, it's not as good as James Squire but it was in the top tier anyway.

Last night I was hanging out at the hotel watching the Mets get crushed by Colorado and trying to figure out dinner when I started chatting with a girl on OKC. We chatted for a bit and decided to go get some food, I headed into Seattle. I figured the traffic would be bad but it was not, I was on her street in about 10-12 minutes but it took me a long time to get over the smegging train tracks! There was a freight train going back and forth as it dropped off cars, finally it moved enough so I was able to cross the street and park. She lives right across the street from Safeco Field which is great except for right before and right after games when the traffic is out of control. We went to a Greek place close by and I got Portabella ravioli in Alfredo sauce which was great. I had never had Greek Alfredo sauce and I really enjoyed it, it tastes like they added cucumber and or lemon to it which made it very different from Italian Alfredo sauce.

After I got back to the hotel I added her on facebook and found out she is friends with another of my friends who moved here a long time ago which just proves the small world theory. I'm actually hanging out with him tonight for dinner but more on that later..