The Wall of Gum plus Fast Moving Meatballs...

So many things to write about -- so little time!

Last week my mom and I went to Seattle to visit my cute sister and her husband... We were gone for six days and they were packed with adventure. I can't write about everything, but I will touch on a few of the highlights.

We had the GREATEST time! I got to experience numerous "firsts" for me and the experience made me realize all over again just how big and diverse the world really is. Living in a small town gives me a false impression of how life is really "not" for most people...

1. PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: I know this may SEEM a little weird to most people, but I have never really had to ride a bus to get to Point A or Point B except for a little stint in elementary school on a big yellow bus or the rides we took on the Trolley in San Francisco. I have been pretty blessed to live in the places that I have and own my own cars or trucks. I couldn't help but notice how unfriendly people have been conditioned to become. Most of the riders on the bus have their head phones on with their music turned up and they look straight ahead. There were a couple of instances where my faith in the human spirit was restored -- like when a couple of young men (at different times) took a look at my mother and gave up their seats so she could get off her feet.

2. THE WALL OF GUM: Has anyone ever had the chance to see the Wall of Gum under Pike's Market in Seattle? I was fascinatd by the morbidity of it all -- and the smell! Gross... I have chewed a lot of bubble gum in my time but I honestly don't think I would have ever put a piece on the wall. I wonder how this started? I wonder how much gum will cover that space before the owner finally gets tired of it all?

3. FAST MOVING MEATBALLS: Some things in life are more memorable than others just because of the ironic humor involved. This particular experience is one of them... My sister is just a tiny lady and when my aunt took us to an Italian sandwhich shop, I took one look at the size of the meatballs on my sister's sandwich I about choked with laughter. (Sorry Lib, but I have to post this comment-->) She picked up the sandwich and a great big meatball rolled out of it and onto her lap then onto the floor, which of course prompted the singing of the Meatball Song. I was even more amazed by the fact that she was able to eat the rest of the sandwich.

4. HOT GLASS: Until last week, I had only seen people working with or blowing hot glass on television. My aunt took us to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. It was awesome! We got to watch some men working on a glass project. I could hardly take my eyes off them because it was so fascinating! The rest of the museum didn't even compare in excitement for me, but I was fascinated by the sculptures created out of glass from children's pictures. Awesome!

5. FIELDS WITH DRAINAGE SYSTEMS: My uncle and his wife took my mother and I on a day trip through the country. (Honestly, I couldn't tell you where we went, but the drive was gorgeous!) The thing that surprised me the most was when I asked my uncle why they had weird shaped irrigation ditches in their wet fields (they were obviously fairly new ditches, too). He told me that it was to drain the fields from water... Totally different from my experience because it is so dry in my state that we have to add ditches to put water in the fields.

6. SUSHI: My sister took us to a sushi bar -- I had never been to one and I can be honest when I say that I didn't want to eat raw fish but I did like the other stuff that was available.

7. CORNER MARKETS: Most of the shopping centers are within walking distance from my sister's new apartment. I think it would be hard to buy groceries for an entire family and carry them home but I can see how it would be pretty convenient for my sister and her husband.

8. FARMER'S MARKET: Last Saturday we walked over to the farmer's market. I had been to something similar in Dallas when I was a teenager, but this one was quite different. A cute little Russian woman took one look at my mom and decided that she was a friendly soul, so she walked up to us and started to tell my mom how excited she was because they just don't have things like this in her hometown in Russia. We purchased some hand-made artisan bread and smoke-flavored Gouda (yum!)...

9. HARD ROCK OF SEATTLE: Okay -- so the Hard Rock has mediocre food, but great atmosphere! I have been to the ones in Dallas, Salt Lake (before it closed), Las Vegas, San Francisco, and now Seattle. Awesome! This particular place has a lot of Seattle Grunge "stuff" and some things from Clapton, Elvis, Nikki Sixx, Hendrix, ET CETERA. When my mom and I were looking at things on the second floor a drunk (I think) man told us that we should "check out the third floor -- there [were] some pretty cool things up there." On our way to the stairs, he was still near and I looked up the stairs to the third floor and got the feeling that we really shouldn't look so I told my mom that we should take Lib & Brad with us. After dinner, the four of us went back up the stairs to discover that there really wasn't anything on the third floor -- except some benches. What ideas did that creep have in mind? I am sure glad I didn't have to find out.

10. HYUNDAI SHOPPING: My sister purchased one a few years ago when our dad found a great priced car for her. We had to go to the dealership to purchase a new gas cap on this trip and on our way out the door we stopped to look at the new cars (just for fun). When I (jokingly) made the comment to my mom about buying a new car and storing it at Lib's place the salesman did everything he could to keep us from leaving the store... This leads me into the next point of "new experiences"...

11. NON-SEATTLE-RELATED CAR SHOPPING: The Saturday before my trip, my husband and I went "up North" to get the new tire installed on our Honda. The car has been shaking for quite some time at high speeds because the tires on the back of the car were bad, but thanks to my blow-out on the highway a couple of weeks before I was left with no choice other than buying new front tires at least. When we asked to put the new tires on the car, the mechanic told us that the back tires were in such bad shape that he didn't recommend putting them on the front... This of course, made me realize that the car had only driven 37,000 miles and the tires shouldn't be that bad. I am not an overly superstitious person, but I am pretty sure that Honda is possessed by something evil (ha ha) so we drove around to different dealerships "looking at" cars -- I have been doing this for months because I wanted to get rid of this one... We test-drove a Toyota Tacoma and my then-dream car -- a 2010 Camaro. Neither one appealed to us, so we drove a few miles to the real-big city and drove around the Honda dealership... It was at that point that my pocketbook gave birth to a brand-spanking-new Civic. It is basically the same car that we had before, only a little sportier. It is the same color with the same monthly payment -- only extended by 2 1/2 additional years. It has a better sound system and and extra gear. It uses up a little more gas per mile than the old one, which is a slight bummer, but it is great because it growls when I start it up like a sports car! The best part??? It hasn't been in a minor car accident and hopefully it won't be (knock-on-wood) and hopefully it won't start falling apart at the same rate that our old one did after the car accident.