Day 19: Seattle

Hi friends,

Today was a long day. I left Leavenworth at 9:00 AM. It was raining, so traffic was moving slowly. I wanted to go to the Seattle Outlets on the way to John and Kelly's place, but I got lost. My GPS was totally on the fritz. I decided to put it away the other day because it kept getting messed up. I think it needs to be updated because there are quite a few roads that it doesn't recognize. When I was lost today, I was hoping it would help me get back on track. I was wrong. While I was trying to get back on course, a state trooper pulled me over. He was totally rude from the beginning. He looked suspiciously at all the stuff in my car and the first thing he said to me was, "Where are you from?"I had DC tags, a DC driver's license, and DC registration. Was he really unclear about where I was from? He said he got me on radar going 65 in a 35. I was probably going over 35, but I was definitely going less than 65. My car was only in 4th gear and I would never go 65 in 4th gear! When I asked him if he could show me the the radar, he changed his story and said that it didn't register on the radar, but he was also pacing me. When I asked him where exactly I was speeding, he got upset and told me he didn't have time to discuss it with me because the guy in the car behind us, that was pulled over by another officer, had a warrant out for his arrest and he had to go help with that. I think he was just in a bad mood because he was working on Labor Day and felt like taking it out on someone. I'm going to see what I can do about it tomorrow. Unfortunately there's probably not a lot I can do about it without devoting a tremendous amount of time to the matter. No thank you.

I finally found the outlets and they were a total madhouse! They were having a Labor Day Sale and every store was packed. There was a really long line just to get into the Coach store. I didn't end up getting anything. After that, I went over to John and Kelly's place.

John and Kelly are friends of mine from college. They moved out here in February and live near the University. We hung out for a little while and then went to the REI flagship store. As we were pulling up to the store, I looked at it and said, "What the f is that?," to which Kelly responded, "That's REI." The place is huge. It's meant to blend in with nature and it actually does, but once you realize it's an enormous building, it's a little scary. It just kinda creeps up on you.

On our way back from the store, John and Kelly's 2006 VW Jetta made a really weird noise all of a sudden, and continued to make various other strange noises. Something is definitely wrong with it. It makes me not want to complain about my speeding ticket.

Then we went over to their friends' place nearby. We had a delicious dinner and played games afterward. Then we came home and now I'm going to bed. I'm totally beat.

One last thing - this city is awesome! Even though it was raining, it was still beautiful. I had no idea it has huge hills like San Francisco. I'm really looking forward to exploring the area tomorrow.

Bedtime. G'night!