Seattle, May 26-30

The second day in Seattle opens with me meeting Nicholas. He's two months old and (despite what I might have been expecting based on my bias against infants) quite a blast to hang out with. The little dude quite fairly rocks the house. On the surface, you don't think that he's actually doing much, but if you pay close attention, you'll realize that those un-coordinated kicks and wild arm flashings...along with his facial expressions and occasional coo are part of an ongoing massive physical and mental adjustment. In a way, it's like he's creating the world around him.

It is interesting to observe the differences in Chris and Maureen's behavior around Nick. I've known them for about 10 years and it's like I'm meeting new people. Don't get me wrong. They're still as badass as they've always been. It's just that their quite formidable attentions are now both focused on the same thing and it's an impressive sight.

Later that day, Chris tells me that he and Maureen took part in this birthing group and that they've been having this regular dinner thing with two couples since the births of all of their children. "Oh...and tonight is our turn to host the dinner."

That evening was a whirlwind of babies, and talk about babies, and the changing of babies, and babies being fussy and babies, and babies, and babies. There was Sarah and Paul and baby Miles, Jacob and Carine and little Joris, and Chris, Mo, and Nicholas. Then there was me. Over the course of the evening, I observed all three couples performing a delicate balancing act who's sole purpose was focused on a baby. Talk about teamwork. Paul bounces Miles while Sarah eats. Carine feeds Joris while Jacob goes for seconds, Chris holds Nicholas as Maureen gets ready to feed him. Then Sarah burps Miles while Paul eats. Jacob changes Joris while Carine has some dessert. Maureen feeds Nick and Chris sets up the bouncy chair. And on and on and on and on. There's very little talk between the partners while this is going on, eveyone knows their job and they do it. In a way I guess you could say that at this point in the babies development, both parents will lose their identities at certain points during the day and (seriously) become this single entity working to aid and abet their child. Aaaaanyway...
All of the babies were pretty cool. Nick was, of course, the cutest. But then I'm pretty biased.

Dinner was, by the way, excellent. Chris made a superb Thai inspired meal and Carine brought an excellent tossed salad with Chicken in it. The main course was a red shredded chicken curry with snake green beans, a Masama with yellow curry, fried morning glory greens and rice. Paul and Sarah brought a key lime pie. It was excellent.
By the end of the evening I was strangely tired and so went off to bed.

On Sunday, the four of us hung out for a while and just chilled. Maureen's dad came over briefly with a piece of furniture for the livingroom. Nice guy. I continued to read Discarded Science: Ideas That Seemed Good at the Time, and tried to find out some info on whether my bike had been shipped out here yet or not. It hadn't. Chris and I did some walking around and checked out a couple of bike shops. Chris and Maureen told me they were glad I was at the dinner the previous night. Apparently, I helped keep the conversation moving along. Hey man, I haven't got any problems talking about myself, especially my upcoming trip. "It was the best get together yet," both Chris and Maureen declared.

Memorial Day was also quiet. Chris's parents and his brother Rob came over to visit with little Nick. I decided to go to downtown Seattle and check out the REI superstore and explore a little. The REI homestore is a retail behemoth. Beyond huge, the only piece of outdoor equipment this place was missing was Mt. Rainier itself. I managed to make my way to the waterproof jacket department and purchased a very nice (and surprisingly cheap) rain jacket for the ride. The jacket is made my Marmot (same as my tent). I also bought a couple of dry sacks, and a biking jersey (on clearance sale, woo!) and then headed out to explore the rest of the town. I found myself having a late lunch in the Panther Lounge at this place called Cyclops. When I told Chris about it, he was incredulous. It turns out he works directly beneath the restaurant I chose to eat in. Fancy that. I made my way to the Olympic Sculpture park and was blown away by the view of Mt. Rainier from there. It was also pretty cool to see Caulders "Eagles Flying" up close.

One Tuesday, I didn't do much of anything for most of the day except sit around the house. I did find out that my bike had been sent from NYC the previous Friday, so I made plans to go down to Recycled Bicycle on Wednesday and check things out. Chris and I went down to Capitol Hill to have a few beer with poet Doug N. He's also a cyclist and we chatted about my upcoming trip and his trip from Seattle down to San Francisco. He warned us against ever carrying smoked salmon with us on a bike trip. "I had to dump over a pound of smoked salmon," he said. "Yeah. One night I woke up and found out that I had a serious chipmunk problem." I certainly hope that my upcoming trip is chipmunk free. No salmon for me. No sir.

On Wednesday, I borrowed Chris's mountain bike and rode down to Recycled Cycles. My bike still hadn't arrived, but they said they'd call and let me know when it did. I picked up a Seattle biking map and decided to go for a little ride. I took the Burke-Gilman Trail from the shop up to this spot called Swamp creek. It was about a 13 or 14 mile ride up. I stopped at a park next to beautiful Lake Washington and watched sea planes land and take off for a while before heading back It was a short 30 mile ride, but was the first ride I had had in over a week. It felt good. I should have used some sunscreen though.
When I got back, Maureen and Nicholas were off for a doctors appointment. This appointment has something to do with (shudder) vaccinations. We're talking needles here. When they got back, I spent some time playing with a surprisingly happy Nick. Man, for a 13 pound critter, he sure gets heavy pretty fast. I was talking to Chris about this after he got home from work and he pulled back his sleeve to show me his "Papa Guns." Note to self: baby as workout method.