The Mountains Before Me (Part V)

After a very restful sleep in a giant King-sized bed and my second hotel-room breakfast of the trip, I sped away from Boise and headed to Seattle.

Honestly, I don’t remember too much about this portion of my trip. Good weather was back on my side, and I didn’t have any real drama on the road. For the most part, I put my car into cruise control and just let the road guid me. There were some moments that stuck in my head, though. More mountains rose in front of me as I crossed from Idaho into Oregon. I drove up one and at its peak was the most magnificent view I’d ever seen. The land stretched away in all directions flat and seemingly endless. I felt like I could see for hundreds of miles. The sky, just like Idaho, was bigger than I thought possible. There was a scenic lookout right off the highway, and I regret not stopping. I tried to get a couple shots out of my car window as I drove, but none of them did the view justice.

A similar view came as I went over another peak not too much farther away; I think I was near the Oregon-Washington border. I came over the peak and the valley below me looked exactly like I imagined Italy to look like. There was a gorge or canyon of some kind off to my right and mountains beyond that. And everything below me was so incredibly green. Again, there was a turn off so you could take pictures and whatnot, and again I didn’t stop. I got a pretty good picture of it (below) so I don’t regret not stopping as much. I don’t think any iPhone picture could do it justice.

Finally, the last thing I remember about the drive to Washington was this short stretch of flat road that was bordered all around by pine trees. I’m pretty sure I was up in some elevation, driving through a pass or on the side of a mountain, but I don’t remember exactly where I was. Things were starting to blur together at this point. There weren’t many cars around; no one was behind me at one point. And the sky was cloudy but not dark. I remember thinking that this was it: the Pacific Northwest. Exactly how I pictured it. Deep emerald greens, cloudy skies, mountains. It was still and quiet all around.

When I got to my hotel in Bellevue, I laid in bed for an hour. It’d been a long drive. Mountains were still making my car groan; the stress they caused me–going up and down, not feeling completely in control, worrying about other drivers­–really wore me out. I got to my hotel around four-thirty and relaxed until about five-thirty. I got changed, then, and called for an Uber, who drove me the twenty minutes into downtown Seattle. I had him drop me off at the Space Needle because that was really the only place I could think of.

“You don’t want to go here,” he said. “Too expensive. Too many tourists. Go to the Sky View. Much better view, highest building in the city.”

I lied and said I was meeting friends here. He nodded and shrugged. When I went into the building, the woman said that there was no table at the revolving restaurant, only a stationary table away from the windows.

“You can go around to the other side and go up to the viewing area,” she said when I told that I wasn’t interested in the table. It’d be $20 to go up to the viewing area.

Instead, I searched for the Sky View that the Uber driver had told me about and walked the twenty or so minutes up to that. Walking through Seattle, I fell in love. The Puget Sound was gorgeous; I caught glimpses of it as I walked. I passed Pike Place Market; I was going to come back and spend time there the next morning. The city was quiet up where the Sky View was; it seemed liked the financial district or where businessmen would most likely inhabit. Most people had gone home for the day. It was passed seven at this point.

When I got to the Sky View, I boarded the elevator with a gentleman. The attendant in the lobby explained how I was to get to the Sky View.

“I’ll take her up,” the gentleman said.

“Thank you,” I said as the elevator surged upwards. My ears popped a couple times.

We had to switch elevators, and when we did, he pushed the button above the one labeled “Sky View.” My heart beat a little faster. Being a woman alone in a strange city, in an elevator with a strange man, my thoughts went immediately to some not-so-great places.

“I’ll take you all the way up,” he said with a smile. “Are you from out of town?”

“Chicago,” I said, confused as to what “all the way up meant,” but I decided that to go with the flow and see where this took me.

We stepped off the elevator at the top floor and in front of a private bar/club (but not like the bumping music kind). The gentleman I was with checked us in at the front desk.

“Will you be able to take care of my cousin here? I can’t stay, but she’s from Chicago, and I would like her to enjoy the view for a little bit,” he said.

I swallowed and played along. “Aw, I’m sorry you can’t stay! My mom will be happy to know I got to see you, though,” I said. In my head, I was silently screaming, what is happening?

The gentleman showed me around the bar, which was the entire west-facing side of the room. The whole wall was glass and overlooked downtown Seattle and the Sound. Couches and tables and high-tops right up against the window decorated most of the space. There was a classic bar and TVs hanging on a couple of the walls. The place wasn’t that crowded; a few people lounged on a couch watching TV. A family was eating dinner and playing shuffle board on a long, narrow table. I was having trouble breathing and felt a little dizzy. The elevation, maybe? Or the fact that I was being allowed into such a fancy place? What the hell was happening?!

“I’ll introduce to the waitress and make sure she knows to charge whatever you want to my account. Feel free to order whatever you’d like,” he said.

“Oh my gosh, you don’t have to do that.”

“Welcome to Seattle,” he said with a smile.

He and the waitress chatted for a moment and then he said goodbye to me. “Tell your mom I say hello.”

“I will. Thank you again! It was so great to run into you,” I said as he left the bar.

“Sit anywhere you like. I’ll be with you in a moment,” said the waitress.

I stood there, trying not to let my mouth fall open and spun in a circle, trying to determine the best seat. There was a table in the corner that had a good view south and west. I sat down and started snapping pictures and texting my little brother, bragging about what happened and sending him pictures. The view was stunning. Everywhere I looked, there was something to see. Mount Rainer looked like a cloud. The Ferris wheel down by the waterfront looked like a toy. I could see why the Uber drive had encouraged me to go here. I could not imagine that the Space Needle had such an expansive and breathtaking view.

I ordered the cheapest glass of wine on the menu and sat by the window for over an hour nursing it. I took probably over a hundred pictures as the light changed. Sunset was still a ways off when I decided to leave. I was starving; I hadn’t eaten anything since noon. Despite the fact that he’d offered, I felt bad taking advantage of the gentleman’s generosity so I had just that one glass of wine.

I returned to the streets of Seattle and wandered around looking for a good place for dinner. The restaurant I stumbled into, Dahlia Lounge, was a lot nicer than I’d anticipated. The waiter had to help me figure out the menu. I ordered crab cakes and their homemade bread. It came out looking like a work of art. I ate slowly, careful to let the carb melt in my mouth. The sauce it sat in was creamy; the potatoes it came with buttery. The bread was warm and served with salted butter. It was quite possibly one of the best meals I’d ever eaten.

After dinner, it was dark and I was exhausted and still giddy from the unexpected turn of events at the Sky View. I called for another Uber and was back at the hotel sometime after ten. My first adventure into Seattle was beyond a success. It was legendary.