Fog, Flurries, and Furries

Hi peeps,

So as Ginny so wonderfully reminded me, it's time to get back to my touristy roots and show you what's happenin' in good ole' Seattle. Thus, I bring you: fog, flurries, and furries.

Not sure if I've mentioned it on here or not yet, but gosh darn if this city doesn't remind me of San Francisco every time I turn around. Now I don't think I've ever been to San Fran (or at least I don't remember), but trust me when I say I've watched enough "Party of 5" and "Full House" to truly know San Fran - I'm practically a resident. That said, (ah!!! visions of man hands and mullets and old ST comp team attack), this city is borderline stalker copycat quickly approaching restraining order level... I had no idea when I moved here what a hilly city this was, how windy it would be, and how friggin foggy it would get! Don't get me wrong, the good parts of SF are here as well like the obvious waterfront (for which every day I try not to take for granted the fact that I like 3 blocks from the water and see it everyday on my walk to and from the bus stop, the grocery store, or the local sports bar), the local fish (and produce!) markets, the coffee shops (I recently heard that you aren't a true Seattlite unless you can thread an automatic sewing machine needle by hand), and there is even the recent addition of a new street car (funny story - they knew that they wanted to name it "... Transit" like the other public transportation vessels, and it's in the area that's south of Lake Union. Wasn't until after they had their grand opening and cut the ribbon that they realized "South Lake Union Transit" had an awful acronym prompting many entrepreneurial types to sell the now famous "Ride the S.L.U.T." t-shirts.....) but I digress. Point being this is one hilly, windy, foggy city. It was pretty cool the other day when a co-worker said "you know I saw on the news this morning that the only part of the needle you could see was the very top - it was completely foggy up until that point" and I was able to reply "yeah, I saw that!"....from my living room!!!

But on to the flurries.... I keep hearing "this is so unusual for Seattle!", but I'm 99% positive those people are smoking crack. Ever since I moved here people say things like "oh it's not usually this cold", "this is so weird for Seattle", and "this is definitely a weird year", but I seriously call B.S. Seattle. Upon probing in the slightest, one finds that this "unusual", "rare" weather and snow has now been happening for at least 3 years...folks, this isn't unusual anymore! I'm not sure who thinks that global warming is happening, but it sure as heck ain't happenin' up here! Thus the flurries. Not that I mind them at all - in fact I quite like them, I just wish the locals would quite being so darn surprised. It's basically like people in Atlanta saying "what??? pollen???? this is sooo weird.", "it's not normally this hot and humid", or "sorry newbie, I can't figure out why we keep seeing mosquitoes - these are definitely not the norm!". Needless to say it doesn't usually stick (truthfully), but it has been flurrying a bit lately. Kinda picturesque while walking around downtown (which we love to do and do a lot!) to tell you the truth.

Crap this is getting long - wind it down, 'Ka.

So lastly for the furries... In our continual quest to experience Seattle to it's fullest, we recently ventured to a Seattle Thunderbirds Hockey game. Pretty cool, eh?? I mean we've definitely enjoyed the Atlanta Thrashers before and when we heard that Seattle had a hockey team that just opened a new venue south of Seattle we were stoked to go! So what if they're minor league, we thought...hockey is hockey and surely they know hockey even better up north! I mean we're only 2 hours away from Canada, eh!

...and so we ventured last Saturday night. We drove, and drove...and drove some more. Finally! Kent, Washington (how do you like that, Sandi?!?). Ok - looks like the suburbs....looks like pretty far away...but hey, I've been to friggin Gwinnett Arena (hard to admit but it was FOO for crying out loud!), so the Kent ShoWare Center can't be that far behind. We get there just about an hour before game time - too late to walk to the nearby "downtown Kent" for food, but apparently also too early for the doors to be open. So we wait with all of the other fans for them to open the doors and think that surely there is plenty of vendors inside for some yummy food. We wait and wait - ahha! They're opening!

Enter the furries.

.....and the kids

......and the kids and the furries and the kids.

EVERYWHERE!

Surprise, surprise, I've heard it's not "usual"... but I think I've made my point about how much I trust the locals and their sense of "norms". And just so you know - the pic above only shows maybe one third of them (ew - what's with the furrie convention?!?!). The arena was small so all seats are good - heck, we even saw a Seattle team win (finally) - but I think the long drive to the burbs, the lack of any good venue food, and last but MOST important, I think the attack of the furries was enough to scare us away for at least a little while!

Nonetheless, if anyone visits and wants to see a minor league hockey game we'd be happy to take you.... We just might not join you inside the venue ;)