Memorial Weekend

Friday evening we went out to Shilshole Beach on our motorcycles - it was 89*!!! There were hundreds of people out having BBQ, volleyball games, frisbee, flying kites, kids daming up tide pools and playing in the surf, a huge group of people in a circle singing songs and dancing, people with bongo drums....it was like one of those idealistic scenes of Memorial Day in movies that you know never happens in real life. We bought popcicles and strolled among the crowd - it was fascinating.

Saturday we started out early at the car wash and cleaned our bikes - all of that shiny chrome!!! We then went out to West Seattle to Alki and again experienced Memorial Day as it should be - it was only 83* , but we saw the stereotypical skanky girls in shorts rollerblading, families out having fun, one girl posing in her thong, people playing in the sand, more volleyball, and lots of too white people rapidly turning red. Unfortunately we both had work to do and John is still hacking like he will bring up a lung so we headed to Starbucks for worktime for a while and then home.

Towards evening we hopped on our bikes again and went to Pioneer Square for gyros. We parked in front of the Central Saloon with a bunch of other bikes and walked to get food, then sat out in front of the New Orleans drinking a beer, listening to live jazz, and watching all of the people. The trouble with riding a motorcycle though is that you can only have one beer and establishments tend to frown at you for taking up their tables without ordering after a while.

We ended up back at Starbucks again for more people watching. One guy was determined to paralell park his huge Escalade truck thing in a space that was way too small - he tried 5 times, then pulled a u-turn in front of traffic and parked with only 2 tries in the loading zone on the other side of the street. Just then a mini-cooper pulled up and neatly zoomed into the space he had been trying to get into. This caused much laughter and a few cheers for the mini-copper driver and the determined guy who was now j-walking across the street. The determined guy raised his arms triumphantly to those sitting in the sidewalk tables and the mini-cooper driver looked a bit confused since he hadn't been there to see the whole drama unfold.

Hmmm....anything else exciting....oh - more drunk people at 2:15AM. The bars close at 2 so we often get the drunk idiots coming down our street to claim their cars. This group was screaming obscenities and ripping parking signs off of poles by kicking them repeatedly.

Today - not so exciting. I worked on stuff for our last project that is due Wednesday and my arms are really sore from...
oh yeah...
I forgot to tell about that part.

The thing is, when you wash a motorcycle you need to be a little more careful than with a car - water can sometimes get where it shouldn't. When leaving Alki, my bike wouldn't start and John pushed it for a little ways and then it started fine. So later that afternoon I decided I would go out for a little ride by myself. (This was before Pioneer Square) My bike started fine, I got up the hill to first ave, stalled it, and it wouldn't start again. So, I pushed it along like John had, trying to start it - nothing happened (remember - I am on 1st avenue now - lots of people). I continued to push, panting a bit now - my bike weighs 500 pounds - and the valet at El Goucho (swanky steak house) offered to help me push it to the corner where I could then glide down the hill and start it. Well, it didn't start going down the hill and at the bottom of the hill I had to walk it another block to sit in front of our place and wait for a few minutes for it to make up it's mind and stop being contrary - it started after sitting for about 5 minutes. My arms, back and legs are really sore today!!!