The Pich' Blog: The Best Vacation I Ever Took Day 1

Decided to do this in segments. Here is Day 1. Pics at the end after you read.

Here I am beginning to type and I'm already worried I'll leave out something cool from this trip. Quite simply put it was the best vacation I've ever taken. Before we launch in to the Vacation itself lets answer the question... "Why are you going to Seattle?" Simply put it was for a wedding and to visit a friend. Then I added some time in before we left NYC and after to see the two baseball teams newer stadiums to which I hadn't been. So with those items on the agenda the trip already looked meaty and damn tasty. What I didn't realize would happen was all of my favorite stuff from the trip wasn't stuff I had planned. The random stuff became king, and of course those other items were awesome too. It was pretty much the trip that kept giving. Which was awesome because I had never been on a vacation for such a length of time since I went somewhere with my parents, and I hadn't been on a vacation period in over 2 years. Ok, ok without further ado I take you to Monday August 12th...

Day 1

6:00 am the alarm goes off. I got barely any sleep because I was excited but did enjoy some rest after a grueling weekend of softball. I had just played 9 games of softball in 2 days on a torn hamstring (on light duty but still giving all I had). The season had taken it out of me and I was ready to relax and stop running. I pulled myself out of bed and packed the final things needed and got out the door. I stopped at a store to grab a snack, Monster, and a few other travel size accessories for the eventual plane rides. I parked my car in front of Gutterson Fieldhouse and walked over towards Royal Tyler Theater with quite the limp. Of course a few other people showed up and quickly realized the Megabus wasn't there. Apparently it picks up in a slightly different locale. So one of the peoples fathers packs us all in to his car and we book up there as the bus is pulling away! One of the more spry guys runs the bus down and holds it for us. That dude saved the day!

I slinked into the first available seat on the lower level just happy to be there and out of breath. Already an adventure just a few minutes in to the trip!

I started to discover and learn things about the bus as I traveled. Learning and discovering things is a popular theme to this vacation which was also why I liked it alot. I like to learn new things. Later that intuitiveness leads to the formation of a great team. But I digress...

Among the first things I learned on Megabus were that there's power outlets at every seat. Then I quickly realized that the hacking woman across from me was actually noisier when she slept. This led me to deduce that I should have sat somewhere upstairs on the bus, but with my leg still hurting and no one next to me I could stretch out across the bus. I was feeling ambitious so I started to organize some of my jokes and then later switched to reading, get this, a book! I got about 9 chapters in before I started to get tired and then it was nap time. Sleeping on public transportation is another theme that we'll keep coming back to. When I awoke we were soon near Amherst, MA and our first stop to pick up more people. A ton of people got on and I feared I'd lose my leg room, but the disgusting woman across from me was actually useful in keeping folks away from me too. Another stop in Hartford a short while later left every seat packed but ones near us and off we went for NYC!

I was facing backward by the way and I relished in seeing the New England go behind me as I headed for my vacation. I also took great satisfaction in knowing I paid $21 for this trip! Twenty-One! I mean talk about a deal! As I got closer to the city my texting about where and when I should be places was frantic. Finally the bus stopped and I followed Danielle's directions to the correct subway stop where after I got off I remembered right where to go and soon I met with Danielle.

She took my bag up to her office and we went to go get her some lunch at Trader Joe's. While there I discovered something a lot of people have already known about but I think rural America needs to know about it... escalators for carts. They make 'em they're amazing. Ok moving on. After we checked out we met up briefly with Christian. He would be the other fella joining Danielle and I on our trek out west. Danielle got to bring 2 dates because we also both know Michelle, we both are awesome, and quite frankly that how Danielle wanted to roll. She liked to refer to us as her "harem" but we later became known as Team Northwest. Anyway back to the story.

Eventually Christian left and Danielle had to go back to work. Now I was to meet up with Katie for the evening plan which was a going away party for a friend of hers. I was a little nervous to see Katie as I hadn't seen her since the time she came to visit me in Vermont when we were "dating" or trying to... I don't know but I shouldn't have been worried cause it was great to see her and we quickly caught up as we took a taxi to a bar on the pier. It was called the Frying Pan. Great bar/venue on a floating dock with boats around it a caboose on it and all of it is available to be on. They serve food, live music, sweet views of the city, and good damn times. It would be my favorite spot if I was a regular there.

Now most of Katie's friends are also from her line of work, costumer for plays/shows, so I don't have a super amount of stuff in common with them, and her friend who was leaving was leaving for Yale. However this dummy made some solid conversation, picked my spots for jokes, and then struck up a conversation with a young lady who had a different job then the others. She was a figure skating teacher. Later her boyfriend who used to work at the rink she works at came over and now i had someone I could talk shop with. Cards were given, emails were exchanged, and I left feeling great because I had a lead on a job! Of course ultimately we left because the ladies decided to spark up a doobie and we got kicked out. Weed is another common theme on this trip although I did not partake. We left and hit another bar before heading back to Katie's place. Danielle had bailed on joining us and was sleeping cause she had to work the next day. So we headed for Katie's which is is Astoria and not far from where Danielle lives. In fact Katie lives in Danielle's old room in the spot known as "The Hideout." Some Quantum Leap was watched and I slept feeling like I had already had a solid start on Day 1!