2007 July 12-16: Tour #3 - The Westside of Washington

So we drove from Pullman to Seattle to visit my Mom for her birthday on the 15th. We drove on highway 26 and then met up with I-90 right before Ellensburg. We arrived at my Mom's place on Lake Angle right next to Seatac. It was a really cool place right off of the nice lake. They had 5 cats but we met only 2. Bulldozer is the big orange cat who is 15, and he was so awesome. Christelle really bonded with the other cat named Squirt. We all went to Herp's Burger and Teriyaki and had the delicious Teriyaki Chicken, Chow Mein, and Gyoza meals. Then we headed to Safeway to buy all the food for our camping trip.

We started out at my Mom's place in Seattle off of Angle Lake near Seatac, and headed over to the Olympic National Rainforest after a nice big breakfast of my Mom's delicious french toast and hashbrowns. We found a camp site at Gatton Creek Campground which only had 3 sites and 2 were full, so basically in the entire area we got the last open spot out of all the campgrounds. We walked the Rainforest trail, and various other trails and saw lots of beautiful sites. The trees were huge and the creeks were beautiful. We also found a couple slugs that were pretty.

After packing up the camping gear at Lake Quinault we headed along the coast line on 101 to see the beach. We stopped at Copalis Beach but it had formed a water barrier so we couldn't reach the beach. So we headed down the road farther and got to Ocean Shores and got out to see the beach. There was lots of people, horses, mopeds, and kites. We beach combed for awhile, then went to the Quinault Casino (even though it isn't at Quinault) and had a picnic in the parking lot. We went inside and got cleaned up and then Christelle and I went to beach comb in the less populated beach by the casino while my Mom played some slots. We saw jelly fish, broken shells, lots of dead crabs, sandpipers, and even a seal playing a few waves out. It was really fun. After we collected some neat ocean rocks we headed back to my Mom's place. We hung out and enjoyed the lake view and the park nearby. It was a fun day.

So we woke up early and my Mom made us a delicious breakfast of hashbrowns, bacon, and french toast. It was her birthday today and so we took a bunch of pictures with her before we headed out. We would have stayed longer, but it was Christelle's father Jack's birthday today as well. So we packed up the car and headed out for a 7 hour journey to make it to visit her Dad. We went the way through Leavenworth, Wenatchee, Coulee City, Davenport, and then up to Kettle Falls. The drive was very scenice and beautiful and the traffic was very light. It was a good drive even though it was long. We went from breakfast at my Mom's to dinner at her Dad's. We visited with her Dad, Mom, brothers, and her Dad's cousin Nancy, who was a hilarious addition to the dinner table. She was really outgoing so her brothers talked more then usual and it was a good birthday dinner for her Dad. The next morning we woke up early to drive home and get a kitty. This was the last day of our tour #3, and even though we had a ton of fun, we were glad to be going home.

2006 October 28 Haunted Houses

So Christelle and I made a friend named Jessica in Chem 105 lab. She is a funny outgoing cowgirl that drives a huge truck. Anyways, she invited us to a fun Halloween, double haunted houses(her husband worked on some of the stuff on one) and a haunted cornmaze in Palouse, WA. We first all met up at Basillio's downtown in our costumes, and then we headed over. They all had on awesome costumes too.

When we reached the haunted houses the lines were huge, but very few people were in costumes so we were the hit show at the place. Everybody knew us, especially our scary huge clown man that scared all the kids everywhere. It was awesome. Plus we got to leave line and go do the corn maze while Cruella Deville held our place and let us back in. She was the Mayor's wife, or somebody of power, and then we hung out a bit with the mayor too, who was in an awesome skeleton costume. The cider and stuff was only $0.50 too!!! So even though it was super freezing we all had a good time.

Then we came back to Pullman and hung out at Jessica's place and ate her delicious foods, including lil' smokies and the pirate lady made the best ever crab dip, yum yum. Then we all watched Monster House, it was actually pretty good. Then we walked home (a whole block!) and passed out at about 3am, oh wait, daylight savings... then 2am I guess. So yeah, now we are sitting around sleeping in, and doing math. Yay, Yay, Yay. Oh yeah, not to mention we went to a craft fair and got some natural honey and some natural COCONUT!!!!!!!!! soap that is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!! Craft fairs are the best. 

2006 August 24-31 - TOOL @ The Gorge

2006 08 27 - TOOL @ The Gorge
Now this was a busy day. Christelle woke up and went to work at 5am; I woke up at 7am and finalized the house. Christelle got home around 10am again and then we cleaned out the fridge into the cooler, packed up our cleaning supplies and headed over to my Dad's so I could take a shower. Then we were supposed to meet my brother Buc who was in town from Belmont, CA at a tattoo shop, but that didn't work out so we met him at a Zip's and had a nice long catching up session, then Janis came as we were leaving and then we departed.

We went back to my Dad's and ate delicious spaghetti and had ice cream afterwards while watching America's Funniest Home Videos. My sister didn't eat with us because she had already left for the TOOL concert to camp out a great spot. After eating with Dad we had to go back to the apt and turn in all of our keys, unfortunately the $600 worth of 16" tires I had in the garage had to stay, as well as Christelle's old huge wood TV on a lazy susan base. Then we headed to the Gorge running late. We stopped and got some food to take in, and then went to the show.
We got there about 30 minutes before the show started but had to wait about that long in the line to the Honey Bucket to get ready for the show. Then we got back in line and they herded us through. Christelle successfully and easily snuck her camera in, but the caps to our water bottles were confiscated for some retarded reason. Then we found the shirt booth, we waited in that during the entire opening band, then we got our awesome shirts and headed to the hill.

It was intermission at the time and I looked down among the masses and just opened my mind to the way. I ended up taking a winding meandering path to the right side of middle by about 15 degrees. At one point I stopped at a barricade of people and had to choose right or left, so I followed my instincts again and as I took the path we found my sister smiling and waving at us. It only took us about 3 minutes to find them in the huge ass crowd, it was awesome. We talked excitedly and sat on the blanket as we waited for TOOL to come on. After waiting for about an hour or so the show started, and boy was it crazy.

The entire stage was all white and there was no back drop behind them, just these weird white cubes. Instead of playing the videos on a screen they played it on the entire white stage and the weird white blocks, it looked amazing, but I would have like to see the full videos in detail, but hey, it was awesome anyways. The sound was amazing, we were up on the hill so I couldn't feel the bass as much as I would like to but it was plenty loud. A few times Adam Jones' effects and stuff got a little to piercing on the ears, but it was only a few times.

They played an awesome set list, Maynard broke the silence by saying "blah blah blah" and then instantly starting into

Stinkfist, a badass song to start out the show with, Jesus, it was even the extended version with all of Maynard’s little voice fills, then

The Pot, which was so friggin awesome, I wish I could have been up at the front to feel the bass, because that song was badass

Next was Forty Six & 2. At this point we couldn't believe the lineup they were playing; every song was just so awesome,

Next was the much anticipated Jambi, it was amazing to see these guys actually playing this stuff, so great,

On to Schism, Danny Carey's electric drum stuff was sounding so sweet, and I think it was after this or before it I am not sure, but they just did this awesome little jam between them, it was sweet.

Then Maynard broke in at the end with "wake up drunk bitches!" and the crowd roared.

Then the craziness started with Rosetta Stoned, for Maynard’s voice on this one it was a triple repeat that was fast so it garbled the words but you could make out the somniferous almond eyes or whatever that means part and it was funny, he was awesome to watch doing this part and confirmed my suspicions that it was about Justin because he went over to Justin during it and it felt like there was something there.

After that Maynard said,” some of you might remember this one from long ago" and then busted out Opiate, he had a lot of feeling while he was singing and it sounded great. They did a little part where Maynard would sing for us to repeat, which nobody was smart enough to understand while the band jammed, then they would sing one line, the band would keep playing, then they tricked us a few times before they came back into the chorus, it was awesome.

Then they did a short Merkaba with some ear piercing moments, but an awesome pulsing back lit Danny Carey looking like a heart in the sea, this led into Sober which was started quite roughly by Justin but evened out once everybody else came in and then said they were leaving.

The crowd was roaring and applauding and lighter started to get held up... then more and more people put them up. Then the ENTIRE crowd had lighters, cell phone lights, everything in the air, it was the most amazing breathtaking moment at a concert ever. It went on for a few minutes and then Maynard replied with true appreciation, "Thank You" and they started into the encore of Lateralus, which should have had that badass video they always had on a back screen, but the other visuals were unique and awesome.

Then to Vicarious which was definitely a live powerful song, and then closing with Aenima, right before though Maynard went "woohoo!" in a hilariously faggish voice, and then said "Peace Out", the lighting and stuff went with the music really well and it was an awesome way to finish it off. During the last three songs these crazy light vines rose and did crazy patterns while the super powerful green lasers blasted out over the crowd and onto the stage. There was no end to those laser beam and they lit up the sky, the smoke machines they were using were at the highest caliber like the lasers too. After they were done, they walked around the huge white stage and really soaked it all up, it was awesome they stayed out a long time talking with the people in front and throwing drum sticks and water.

It took about 1 hour just to get out of the venue and into the parking lot. Then we all went to my sister's car and chilled for an hour while the craziness of 15,000 people trying to leave a grass parking lot all at once. As we were sitting on the tailgate talking some douche bags next to us in the back of a truck were talking about us. I was the only one who actually were paying attention to them and they were like, "these idiots don't even know we are just sitting and listening to everything they say", and "well at least we got these guys to entertain us" followed by sneers, so I said,” lets go to this side of the car cause these guys are all douche-bags" and the lame people were just silent. Then we sat in the grass on the other side and had some good conversations without a bunch of jackasses listening in.

Then we departed and went back to our car. It was starting to clear out but we waited another 45 minutes for it to really clear out, then we headed out without any stress like it would have been earlier. By this time it was about 2am and we had a 3 hour drive ahead of us and would then have to get up to go to school at 8am. We stopped at Shari's in Moses Lake and had a delicious meal and then headed home. We were super tired and had to switch drivers like 5 times, but we made it home at about 6:15am, and then got about 2 hours of sleep before going to 5 hours of school. Fun night, fun night

20051223 - Border Crossing and Gambling

So we ate our free breakfast buffet that came with the package, and it was amazing too, Canadians really do know how to make amazingly good food. Then we packed up the car, and then went on a walk along the beach. We met a nice little lone bird who was having a blast swimming around and stuff, it was cool. Then we got into the car and started the 8 hour trip home. At the border crossing above Oroville we were searched and they ransacked the car for like 40 minutes as we sat in the holding area bored out of our minds watching an ant on the floor, getting lost in the continuous tile work.

Then we stopped in Republic for a bathroom break, and I got a german sausage and two glass holiday bottles of coke, and Christelle, who had been driving since the border, got a eggnog double latte, and we felt much more refreshed. Then we went to the Chewelah casino for a little gambling. I had 9 quarters and a lot of 1’s that was going to spend, but on my 7th quarter in the Double Jackpot Black and White, I got a black 7, double jackpot, black 7, which is worth 200 credits, and it had been a quarter machine so I won 50 bucks. So I put 5 on a hand of blackjack, dealer had 19 so I lost, and then we left. It was great.

Then we headed on home where we returned the car and then I ordered Pizza Pipeline with the winnings I had. We got a medium white garlic sauce with mushrooms and artichokes, and a medium pesto with olives and Canadian bacon, it was so delicious and we had traveled for so long that we at it all but 2 pieces. Total driving miles from Tuesday morning to Friday night was 931.6 miles. We were exhausted and fell asleep at 11:30 pm. I had to work at 3:45 am the next day :-(