Seattle and Weddings

Two weeks ago, girlfriend and I flew into Seattle for David & Ji-hye's wedding. Always excited to visit my favorite city west of the Hudson River, we planned to get there three days early to soak up the vibe of the city and inundate our livelihood in coffee. Our plan was to arrive in Seattle around noon on Wednesday, eat and drink non-stop with Greg until David's wedding, and then fly back out Saturday night so that we could make it in time for my cousin's wedding on Sunday. Things didn't quite work out that way. Let's just say, for now, that Delta sucks.

We visited a Japanese Tea Garden outside of Seattle, in the Arboretum because we found ourselves with nothing to do one rainy afternoon. The colors were incredible. My camera phone does no justice.

And we ate. Tonnes. Standout spots were: Shiro's Japanese for sushi (omakase ftw), Serious Pie for gourmet pizza (usually I abstain from highbrow pizza, but wtf bbq), Paseo for Cuban sandwiches, and Mike's Chili for... yes, chili.

Serious Pie. There can be a serious wait to get a table.


Paseo's Cuban sandwich. This was too good. I forgot to take a picture until it was gone.


Mike's Chili Parlor. I'd eat this any day.

We did a few other things, like some wedding ceremony and ten minutes of a reception (at which I spilled red wine onto a white shirt of my own). Just kidding. My man David got married to his lovely wife Jihye in this great city that Saturday. Sorry we couldn't stick around; my cousin's wedding was just half a day later.

Gas Works Park

We were able to visit the evo Gear store, which has a bit of an art gallery with art by Spacecraft. There are a bunch of snowboard manufacturers based in the area, not limited to: K2/Ride, Mervin (Gnu, Lib-Tech, Roxy), Nitro, and Signal.

Wow, I can't wait to go back to Seattle. Oh, and for the first time, it rained most of the time that I was there.

Rainy Motorcycle Ride

There's nothing like a hot shower after playing in the rain for six hours. Playing, in this case, meaning motorcycle riding.

I'd been having a crummy week, so I resolved to ride my motorcycle over the weekend to clear my head. It was forecast to rain, so I took out the textile motorcycle pants and my 8-year-old, yellow EMS Expedition Gore-Tex jacket, thinking that these items would keep me dry. I was so wrong.

Originally, I planned to leave Brooklyn and ride up to around Cold Spring, NY in order to ride the roads around there: Storm King, Bear Mountain, etc. But I didn't bring any navigational aids (GPS [don't have one] or maps [was raining]) so I just kind of rode around, getting lost. After a couple of hours of this, I found myself riding back towards NYC and I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed: I hadn't found the roads I wanted to ride, it was raining, etc. I was starting to think that I had wasted the majority of the day.

Then I chanced upon a sign that read 'Sleepy Hollow, 5mi.' The gears in my robot head started turning and I decided to check it out. Last Saturday, Smike and I had hiked Breakneck Ridge in the Hudson Highlands. We talked about stopping by Sleepy Hollow, of Headless Horseman and Johnny Depp fame, which was on the way there and back. We hadn't the time to stop by that weekend. I figured, this time around, I'd do us a favor and check it out.

I didn't know this, but apparently, Sleepy Hollow has a huge cemetery (90 acres) that was one of the first in America. This is the first thing you encounter as you roll into the town. It's massive, and it's open to the public, so I did what anyone else would do: I rode my motorcycle into Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

Adjacent to the Entrance of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery


Walking Path Along the Cemetery Wall


Wooden Bridge Inside Cemetery


Fungus Growing on Wooden Guardrail at Bridge


I rode on every surface imaginable that day: dry road, wet road, dirt trail, 2 in. of mud, wet gravel, etc.


The story goes that the Headless Horseman starts his ride around here.


Grave of a Revolutionary War soldier. Thank you. Some graves dated to the mid 1700s.


Tappan Zee Bridge, from Ichabod's Landing at Sleepy Hollow. NYC is 30 miles or so past this bridge.

All in all, it was good to get to exploring, but I did get soaked to the tits by the time I got back. I guess a rain jacket isn't doing much good at 100.4 mph, which was my top speed for the day.