Day Five: Twin Falls to Seattle

Rounding out the journey across the country, we awoke to easily the best continental breakfast on the entire journey. SUCCESS! Though topping the others was not hard, I think following the smell of warm apples to the room filled with tasty breakfast items was certainly a reward for all of our driving. I had a bagel, a cinnamon roll, a big pile of eggs, and some cereal. Not to mention three different kinds of juice.

The drive through Oregon and Washington to Seattle was easily the worst, if for nothing else but because we were anticipating Seattle. I was just awaiting the magic Matt had hyped up to God status, and being stuck in a car wasn't doing it for me. The Oregon sign was a bit of a letdown...as was the Washington one, really. The second range of mountains proved to be the more imposing ones, since we were lower in elevation this time around, and 4,000ft is impressive when you're at sea level.

We've had to stop for gasoline a bunch today, and it's nice to round out the end of the Great Matt-And-Jill-Ethanol Crisis of 2010. I have never seen worse gas mileage than when we used the cheaper, "enhanced" 10% ethanol blend gasoline in Nebraska and various stations around the past few states we've been in. It's made the waiting a little longer than we wanted, but it was worth it.

About an hour away from Seattle, Carey, Matt's friend from high school, called to inform us that when we got there, we would be eating some food from Pike's Place Market at another high school acquaintance's house. I had no idea what to expect, except the possibility that we'd be drunk. And perhaps we would finally find that beer that Matt is rumored to actually enjoy upon our arrival.

Seattle is beautiful. I don't know what I thought it would look like, but I immediately felt at home. It was sunny, and boats were everywhere on the bay, while residents zipped around their bikes from location to location.

We found Carey's house with little difficulty, to find him in his basement...where he lives. He bought his own house, and rents out the top part of it to a house full of girls, who, we discovered, left him a watermelon; perhaps in an attempt to get him to fix the leaky faucets and perform other landlord duties. We scooped him up after finagling an absolutely tiny place for him to sit in the Prius packed with Matt's personal belongings, and headed over to meet Hallie[sic?].

After a brief meal of delicious hummus and tzatziki, with some slightly overcooked potatoes.

Lo, and behold, we found it. THE REVEREND. The quadruple-filtered ale Matt says he enjoyed at a gathering with a couple of friends a few weeks previous. We wandered down to the market to get drinks for ourselves for the evening and found it and some delicious hard pear cider. Matt's verdict?

"Meh."

The pear cider appeared to be a good choice for both of us, though. And we have an extra bottle of The Reverend for the road. We retreated to Carey's basement after the evening, and have settled ourselves into Carey's futon. I have a good feeling about this city.