I am dedicating this post to somebody who has specifically told me that he doesn’t even read our blog (because he doesn’t like to “read stuff”)- one of mike’s best friends, and the person who is the self-proclaimed master of insulting me so it’s funny- Derek Unger.

Everybody has a passion of some kind, whether it’s knitting, cars, motorcycles, running, music- honestly, it doesn’t matter what it is, but everybody has a “thing.”  Our friend Derek has a lot of interests- he likes computers, video games, television, snowboarding, biking and Mott’s Apple Sauce- but his real passion, the reason he wakes up in the morning, is fast food.

Mike and Derek used to work together, and they went out ot lunch every single day.  If you ask either of them, it was the highlight of the day.  They would spend all morning debating over WHERE they were going to go for lunch, and then spend all afternoon talking about what they ate.  It was simultaneously mundane and fascinating.

So last night, when we were running errands on the East Side and suddenly realized that we were starving to death, Mike decided that we were going to eat at “the biggest food court in the world.”  Huh?  Food court?  I was immediately dismayed.  But I was also starving to death and have no idea about what goes on in Redmond/Bellevue, so I went along with the plan.

Dude, he did not lie.  The Crossroads at Bellevue really is the home of the biggest food court I’ve ever seen.  They have every kind of food you could possibly imagine- there are just aisles and aisles of fast food.  All I could think was “Wow, we really need to take Derek here.”  Here is a tiny sampling of what we had to choose from:

Pizza, plus Japanese food and Polish pierogis (you can’t see the sign).

Barbeque, Chinese, Boba

Mexican, Sushi

Indian, Pho, Soup and Paninis

Seriously, this was just a smattering of what the place had to offer.  It was insane.  We ended up taking advantage of the selection.  I had a Greek Chicken Salad (which was surprisingly good for food court fare) and Mike had gyozas and rice and tacos al pastor.  He was pretty happy.

In addition to the food selection, there was also live entertainment in the form of a gospel choir performing:

And even a library.  Yup, a library in a giant strip mall.  They obviously realized how odd this was, hence this sign:

Random.

But by far the strangest thing I saw all night was this “Family Square.”

Yeah, that looks to me like a giant corral for children.  Which doesn’t seem like too bad of an idea, as long as somebody is hopefully watching said children.

Derek, we hope you come and visit us soon so we can make your dream of watching tv, playing video games and eating fast food all weekend in Seattle a reality!

A recap via some of my favorite pictures from the week.

Mary and I get Ce Fiore and aruge about whose yogurt is prettier.

Picking Derrick up on a street corner in the morning…

and then again at night.

The Ritz Carlton robes my dad bribed a maid to steal for him.

The fact that the boys have spent so much time playing Rock Band that they seem to be starting their own band.

The fact that my parents thought it was funny to hang this up in the guest house.

Some Diet Cokes are just TOO big.

Getting in LOTS of bonding time (too much?) with Mr. An Pham.

Thanksgiving meal #1 with Bachs, Trans, Wests and Phams.

In California, this is what happens after you eat turkey in November.

Mike, animated.

He really likes his gravy.

An’s post-turkey coma.

Post Thanksgiving Ping Pong tournament.

The audience.

What happens when you lose.

Visiting Grandma.

The Tran family Thanksgiving spread.  Eggrolls are awesome.

Time to go home.  Exhausted.

Saturday was Amy and Derek’s last full day in Seattle, so we made it a point to pack in as many activities as possible.  I think we succeeded.  I was certainly exhausted by the end of the day.

The day started early, at least according to Mike time- we were all out the door before 11:00 AM.  Since Mike is a world champion sleeper-inner, Amy, Derek and I had already had time to walk down the street to grab some coffee and check out some pretty impressive foam art:

Once Mike was conscious and clean, we headed over to Pike’s Place Market, where we had a decent lunch with an amazing view at Lowell’s:

We also bought Mike’s mom a salmon (it’s the only souvenir she would ever actually use):

Once the Market was checked off our list, we made our way to another huge tourist attraction in Seattle, The Experience Music Project.  This was actually really cool- it features all kinds of cool stations where you can learn about Seattle’s musical heritage through every sense imaginable.  Plus, we took advantage of Mike’s fancy Microsoft Discount AND two free tickets he had gotten from a friend, so the whole afternoon only cost us $10!

The building was designed by Frank Gehry, if you couldn’t guess.

The tower of guitars is really impressive.

One of the most popular features of the EMP is a section where they have all kinds of musical instruments and tools for anybody to play, even if you have zero musical ability whatsoever (like myself).  We played with keyboards, drums, guitars and even a mixing board, but I was most excited about the turntables.

Um, needless to say, I couldn’t even successfully match the tempos on the pretend turntable.  I am officially the whitest white girl on the planet.

Mike did much better when he took over.  If we ever decide to become a musical duo of any sorts, I’ll just have to be the hype-man.  I can’t make music, but I am damn good at encouraging people.

Another section of the EMP is a compilation of thousands of hours of interviews and monologues of all kinds of people involved in the Seattle music scene over the years.  While poking around, I found Mike McCready’s interview and naturally had to take a picture with his virtual self:

Randomly, my mom is besties with his wife.  When he gave her a Pearl Jam CD, she told him that their music was okay, but she couldn’t understand what their lead singer was saying.  I love my mom.

Right next to the oral history compilation, Mike found his favorite thing in the entire freaking museum, the egg chair:

After we finally wrested Mike from the grips of the very soothing musical egg chair, we finished our tour of the museum and checked out the Science Fiction Museum, which is attached to the EMP and included with the price of admission.  There were some cool/kitchy alien and robot stuff, but we didn’t get any pictures because they are really strict about photography.  Boo to them.

We then spent some time wandering around the Seattle Center.  We were all too cheap to go to the top of the Space Needle, but we did take pictures in front of it:

We finished the day with dinner and drinks at Boom Noodle in Capitol Hill.  I had gone there with Justin the week before, and we liked it.  Derek is a conisseur of ramen, so I wanted to take him there to try it.  It’s not the most authentic ramen in the universe, but it’s decent, and they have really good gyoza and a cute, modern decor.

I had mussels for the first time.  They look scary but taste delicious.  Yay mussels! I also made Amy stick the pretty pink sake bottle in her purse so I could bring it home and use it as a vase.  I’m nothing if not classy.

We finished the night by going home, where we got our domestic on by making homemade Nilla Wafers and eating ice cream.  Cookies are always a good way to finish a day.

Between Justin, Amy and Derek, we had 10 solid days of entertaining out of town guests.  Thankfully, Seattle has a lot of things to do to aid us in this task.  Evidently, we constructed some sort of “pop art” theme when we planned out what to do to keep Amy and Derek entertained.

On Friday, while Mike worked from home in the afternoon, the three of us went to check out the Great Seattle Graffiti Wall.  Amy, our resident photographer and art aficionado, had specially requested that we check this out during their trip.

Finding it was kind of a pain.  I had tried to Google it, but I kept getting different intersections, so we ended up driving around aimlessly for an extra 20 minutes.  When we finally found it (we finally noticed a graffiti-covered wall at 3rd Ave S and S Stacey Street) we were thrilled!  Derek and I were even more thrilled because it was right by a McDonalds, so I could feed my Diet Coke addiction and he could snack on some Chicken McNuggets.  (Seriously, Derek loves chain and fast food more than anybody ever in the history of the universe.  It’s comical, but it’s also comforting, because I love Derek).

After Derek’s snack, we proceded to do exactly what you are supposed to do when you see a giant wall of brightly-colored legal graffiti: we took pictures of ourselves!

Uncle Dung!

Derek giving me a boost.  I know you’re marveling at my grace.

Sister act!

I actually really like this picture.

Amy had tried to get us to take a group shot using her camera timer.  We ran away just before the camera went off.  She was irked.

Finally, a semi-successful group shot.

Amy took video to get a picture of the entire wall if you want to check it out (warning: you can hear a lot of wind in the background):

After spending an hour or so jumping up on walls that were covered in bum pee, posing like giant nerds and marvelling at the wall in general, we were cold and hungry and ready to go clean up before getting dinner at Lunchbox Laboratory in Ballard.  I was really excited to try this restaurant out- it is a build-your-own-burger place (a lot like The Counter in SoCal, only with a wider variety of meat and a decidedly less bourgoise feel).

There were definitely a LOT of choices, which Mike found a bit overwhelming.  We both said we’d like to try it again, but The Counter ekes out the win in head to head burger competition.  Mike and I split a Butterfinger Shake though, which we agreed was the best milkshake ever.

The smile is Derek’s seal of approval.

As awesome as Mike and I are, this latest crop of visitors didn’t fly all the way up here just to see our shining faces.  In fact, the main reason that Amy and Derek came to Seattle was to see The Stars.

The Stars were playing at The Showbox at the Market, right by Pike’s Place Market.  What a great venue!  It held a good amount of people but still felt intimate.  Plus, for the lazy amongst us (ie Mike and I), they had plenty of tables around the bar that allowed us to sit down and still have a great view of the concert the entire time.

We started off all sitting at the table, where Mike and Derek engaged in some fascinating conversation:

Most of their conversations seem to center around their mutual love of computers, mountain bikes and chain restaurants.  God, how I had missed listening to it all.

None of us had ever heard of the opening band, Think About Life, before, but I immediately developed a crush on their lead singer.  Amy, our official photographer, failed to take a picture of my future husband, but here is one I stole from Google Images:

He was wearing a bow tie last night, which made him even more awesome.

Then The Stars took the stage!  Yay!

I really hope that this was a good omen for future musically themed outings.  Their playlist included Amy and Torquil, the lead singers, kept me thoroughly entertained even though I have the shortest attention span for music EVER.

The pretty flashing lights probably helped up the entertainment value too:

Yay for living in a city with such a great music scene!

I already posted the “Jimmy” hat (haha), which reminded me about my favorite baby brother in law and got me all weepy a few days after moving up here. Today I present you with another little reminder of something in SoCal that I miss indescribably (though this one made me laugh instead of cry, which is good):

Michael BACK? Seriously? Derek, you’ve known Mike for 12 years. And you are friends with all of his siblings. And there are only 4 letters to remember.

::shaking head:: Oh Derek, I can’t wait to see you again. You are my favorite hairy overgrown child.