Jenn and I took a nice long (three-day) weekend in Seattle this past weekend, and I think it generally rocked.

Friday Jenn only worked a half day and we left by 2:00p for Seattle. Traffic sucked. It took an hour and a half to get to the Oregon/Washington border, and I only live like 40 minutes from the border. Terrible, terrible traffic.

We got to Tacoma, to my aunt and uncle’s house, at close to 6:00p. Dropped off our stuff and headed over to a different aunt and uncle’s house for a barbecue.

It turned out the barbecue was for all of the July birthdays in the family. My uncle George and I have the same birthday (July 23), and I have two cousins with July birthdays.

We ate barbecue food, took a boat ride (they live on a lake), and just took it easy. After all was said and done, we returned to the first aunt and uncle’s place in Tacoma to stay overnight.

Got up the next morning, went to breakfast at the clubhouse (they live on a golf course), and Jenn proceeded to get sick. I think the heat was starting to get to her (it was like 100 degrees the whole time we were up there) and her stomach was rumbly, too, not to mention a headache.

We returned to the house where my aunt rubbed some Tiger Balm on Jenn’s head. Apparently she has some sort of coworker who swears by Tiger Balm… I don’t know if I buy that, but Jenn’s headache did go away.

We left there and headed for the W Hotel in downtown Seattle. We found it, but it was too early for check-in, so we parked at Pike Place market and walked around there.

There is no shortage of stuff to see at the Pike Place market. From fish vendors to fresh flowers to donuts and handmade wares, if it exists, it’s probably at the market. We saw all sorts of crazy crap. The first Starbucks is there - that was neat.

After that we walked around downtown and looked at the Pioneer Square area. Again, lots of interesting stuff to see.

We got back to the hotel, shin splints and all, by around 3:00p. We checked in, but they didn’t have the room quite ready, so we waited for an hour sipping iced tea and enjoying the air conditioning.

When we got to the room, I have to admit, I was impressed.

Everything’s modern. The bathroom fixtures, the furniture, everything. It reminded me a lot of Pottery Barn, actually, mixed with Dania or Ikea. Normally I’m not into that, but it was cool.

The best part was the bed. I don’t like hard mattresses - we have one of those air mattress beds - but this thing was plush. I really dug it. I may just have to buy one.

The art was cool, too. Something about the sort of “fantasy” style of the art on the key cards and postcard and such… very neat. I’m having their concierge look up the name of the artist. I stole some of the art and threw it up here so you could see what I’m talking about. It’s photography, but done in a stylish and whimsical setting. Cool.

We had dinner at the “Earth and Ocean” - the restaurant in the hotel. It was really fancy and very good food, though I have to admit places like that where they wait on you hand and foot then charge you an arm and a leg are intimidating to me. Regardless, very tasty. I’d eat there again.

By the time that was over, it was late, we were full, and we were tired from walking all over, so we took our desserts up to the room with us. We couldn’t stand it, though, so we ate the desserts when we got there - raspberry parfaits (or, as it said on the menu, “She Wore a Raspberry Parfait”) - rather than saving them for later.

The next morning we got up and headed back to the Pike Place market to have some breakfast. We ate in a little French bakery (tasty!) and watched the early morning crowds. After that, we headed back to the hotel and checked ourselves out.

The drive home wasn’t nearly as bad as the drive up. We made it in about three hours, give or take, and had enough time to unpack and get stuff ready for Monday. We even went to see The Bourne Supremacy (which was good, but nothing like the book).

I had Monday off, but Jenn worked. Not that I didn’t work, mind you. Laundry, yard work, shopping, general clean up… I kept busy. I did find time to go get myself a couple of birthday presents (the Transformers PS2 game and La Femme Nikita season 2… which, as of this writing, says it’s “unavailable” at Amazon - that’s weird, because I found it just fine at the store).

All in all, not a bad way to spend one’s 28th birthday.

And now I’m back at work. I always realize when coming back from vacation how I’m not a big fan of the whole “work” thing, but I guess you gotta pay the bills.

Oh, and a minor note: I actually have a contractor coming in on Thursday to deal with my drywall issue. Woohoo!