Bono vs. Seattle

or how i learned to pay for parking and gas and still have the perfect weekend.

It's Friday evening. Sunny and in the 70's. We are outside under a red umbrella. Mish is enjoying a pinot gris. I get caught starring at the rising bubbles in my pilsner. We both are feeling relaxed. Its happy hour at a little cafe down the street from our apartment. Our drinks are soon complimented with a frito misto, spinach lasagna, fried oysters, and a house salad. The waiter tells us to "just relax and enjoy." I think we will.

Saturday morning: I run out to Happy Sparrow for kolaches, make some tea, and spend time reading out on the porch. The sun is rising and I can feel its warmth on my back. Mish remarks that she is enjoying the slow-paced morning. Me too. Around noon we make some sandwiches for lunch and finish packing our bag. In an hour or so we will be off to Seattle.

When I got back from a month of fishing in Alaska last year Mish handed me 3 envelopes labeled "Date #1" "Date #2" and "Date #3". When I opened the envelope marked Date #3 I pulled out two tickets to see U2 in Seattle. What the freak! That was almost a year ago.

So now we are in Seattle doing laps around Qwest Field. Weaving in and out of cars and people. I have $11 in my wallet. Well, $10 plus some change I found on the top of my dresser. I am prepared to spend $11 on parking. I see a man in a bright yellow vest waving an orange baton. My eyes go from him to the A-frame sign propped up next to him. It reads, "EVENT PARKING $40". Shut up! Are you kidding me. $40! That is more than we spent on one of the concert tickets. Mish and I refuse to pay that. We even tell one of the parking attendant guys we'd give him $20. He smiled and politely told us the price is still $40. Oh well. After some prayers and about an hour of dodging cars and concert-goers, we happen upon a somewhat discreet parking garage less than a half mile away from the stadium. The price is fixed and not influenced by events so we park and happily pay the $7.35. (I would be willing to share the location of this garage for a small fee of... $40! Ha!)

We are way up in section 329. Lenny Kravitz just wrapped up his set. I think I used to have his best of album. Wonder where that went? The sun is dropping down beyond the coastal range now. Enough so that the stadium lights are in full effect. Lights dim, then explode back on revealing a little band from Ireland you may know as U2. The next 2+ hours are spent in sing-a-long with 70,000 others. Biggest choir I've been apart of. The singing finally comes to a close and those 70,000 dissolve back into the city. Mish and I head to Redmond for a late check-in. Turns out hotels are cheaper outside of Seattle.

Sunday morning: its another slow start. Breakfast at the hotel washed down with some cable tv. Then its off to Bellevue to hit up Seattle's famous hand-forged doughnuts. Top Pot didn't disappoint. We make a promise not to eat them until the next morning. We briefly chatted with the employee there and he recommended we check out Gasworks Park. And so we do. And I could have spent the rest of the day there watching boats go by and sea planes take off. It was an amazing view of downtown Seattle we hadn't seen before.

I'm not sure what the world was like before smart phones. We're sitting at the park and we are starting to feel a little hungry. Mish google's 'best fish-n-chips in Seattle'. Next thing you know we are walking a short half mile to the Pacific Inn Pub for a pretty dang good lunch.

We gas up and spend the afternoon driving back to Portland, and we finish off the weekend with a couple of beers and great conversation on our porch. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better a thunderstorm rolls by in the distance.

I'm sorry if it seems like I am bragging. Or that we do this all the time. But we don't. In fact. the last time I had a weekend of was over a year ago. I'm a husband, student, and barista right now. My life has been crazy the last couple of years. So that is way I am so thankful to have had an amazing weekend like I did. I feel refreshed. I am happy to have spent it all with my best friend and "soul mate". I've got a pretty cool wife. If you haven't met her yet you should.