Skeeball
August 24, 2006 by Beth
1 Comment
We got a late start today which irritated old man Tom… but hey, we’re on vacation. Our first stop was Hurricane Café, where we dined after our flight Wednesday night as well. We ordered some delicious omelets with bacon, cheddar, tomatoes and sour cream (an interesting, yet delicious twist on an omelet). We continued from breakfast to Seattle Center where Tom challenged me to a few carnival games. He was defeated. Every time. I rule. After his many losses, he tried to regain his manhood by challenging me to a game of mini-golf. He was defeated. Again. I still rule. After a few more losses, I finally let him win a few games of skee-ball. Tom smiled again.
It happened to be perfect timing that my cousin Nikki had a baby while we were in town. Before we got too deep in all the tourist attractions we planned on for the day, we took a detour to visit the new mom. I tore Tom away from skee-ball (his only saving grace) and we headed to the hospital. Who would have thought that on vacation we would get to make trips to the homeless clinic and the hospital? We sure get crazy on vacation! I enjoyed a lovely visit catching up with my Aunt Kim, cousins Nikki and Tammy, and new baby Anthony. This was also an excellent opportunity for Tom to get to know some more of my insanely large family. After some chatting, we headed back to Seattle Center.
We were running low on time so we went to the Pacific Science Center since it closed the earliest. We got to see sweet exhibits about dinosaurs and space – the final frontier. ATTN: Chris – Ducky from Land Before Time was not a duckbilled platypus. See this photo to prove it. Probably the best part of the center was their butterfly house where we got to see lots of ferocious butterflies in their wild environment.
After stopping for a quick snack of terrible spinach and artichoke dip, we continued on to the Experience Music Project. We determined that we would not have enough time for the whole experience, so we instead headed to the adjacent museum, the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame… A.K.A. Nerd Museum. It was a collection of the nerdiest memorabilia I have ever seen in my life. The majority of the museum was books on display. I mean, honestly, I can go to the library for less than $19.95. Skip this if you are ever in Seattle. (Unless you have life sized cut-outs of Star Wars or Star Trek characters). I thought Tom would be the master of his own domain in this museum, but even he was out-nerded by this place. Upon leaving, I had the immediate urge to watch the Conan O’Brien skit of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog with the Star Wars nerds to remind myself that I laugh at these freaks…. I am not one of them.
I was tired of Tom gloating in his 4-2 skee-ball victory after getting his butt kicked in every other game so I re-challenged him. He was defeated. Again. I rule even more.
We decided to skip the Space Needle as we had seen similar views from the Smith Tower observatory deck Thursday. It would have been cool to see, but we didn’t find it necessary to look at the same view for a second time, or for a second fee. It is open until midnight, though, and I bet the night views are beautiful. Plus, we heard they had a $25 cheeseburger… it must be very good.
I must add here that every time we were passed by one of the Ducks tours, Tom asked me if I would like to ride the ducks. They are the cruises that go on land and water with obnoxious tour guides. No Tom, I do not want to ride the ducks. How annoying. P.S. I beat you at every game we played today.
We stopped back at the hotel for a little rest and relaxation before heading out to check out Seattle’s night life. Nobody we really knew of was playing anywhere in the city, but Tom had an inkling to go the Crocodile Café since it was some famous landmark that Pearl Jam had played at years ago. If this place was any indication of the night life in Seattle, there isn’t any. The place was cool and nostalgic, but absolutely dead for a Friday night. The performer we saw was good, he was very mellow and didn’t draw in any crowd. He was just an opener for a later act that we didn’t see, so who knows, maybe it was a packed house later. Maybe not.
We stuck around for only a short time and then headed to the hotel to enjoy a bottle of champagne that we had bought the previous night and fell asleep before drinking. We barely made it through the bottle before falling asleep once again. I slept soundly, thinking of how I beat Tom at his own game.
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For the record, I was winning the skeeball tournament and then offered to play some more games at the end of the night, which ended up being my downfall. I should’ve quit while I was ahead.