Goodbye Seattle

September 16, 2021, 1:16 PM PDT by Parkzer • Face, Travel

This post is over 5 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.

After a good week visiting friends and sightseeing, my week in Seattle comes to an end. I have dedicated blog posts for the more notable things I did while in Washington, but for everything else, here’s a photo dump.

After my travel incident with a missed layover and delayed flights, I decided that the best course of action for this trip would be to put Delta Air Lines on a temporary break take Alaska Airlines non-stop from IND to SEA instead.

The flight went smoothly, I got my usual scenic photos that I always do from the air, and arrived safely and early without needing to worry about layovers.

During one of the earlier days, I spent a night in a hotel near the airport because it had the cheapest rate and also offered free parking for my rental car, which is very rare for hotels in the Seattle area. I snapped a photo from my window of the view and a nice bridge that connected both halves of the street.

I also did some sightseeing with friends at Lake Union and Dyes Inlet. I’ve seen Lake Union before because I went to Gas Works Park last year with our production crew to get some b-roll footage for our documentary, but this was my first time seeing Dyes Inlet.

One of the perks of having my own rental car throughout my trip is that we were able to get from place to place without having to rideshare everywhere or walk excessive distances. However, one of the downsides of having a rental car… is intersections like this.

To be clear, this is taken from the left turn lane of a two-lane road, i.e., there was only one more lane to my right. This traffic light had three lights, a sign that said I can only take sharp left turns, a sign that said I cannot turn left, and a sign that said I can also take a slight left, but make sure you don’t turn on red.

This sounds like a great opportunity to do a rental car review.

If you’re unfamiliar, I usually rent pickup trucks because I like the ride of a body-on-frame vehicle, and I find pickup trucks to be much more manageable and navigable because my personal vehicle is a pickup truck and I’m much more used to it. However, sometimes, renting a pickup truck is just too unrealistically expensive, or they don’t have any left available in stock, so I end up with a different vehicle. When I do, I like to review them.

This time around, I ended up with a Mazda CX-5, a compact crossover with a 2.5-liter inline-four engine with 187 horsepower and 186 pound-feet of torque.

I’m usually not a fan of Asian car manufacturers. I acknowledge that they usually make very reliable vehicles, but I like a balance of reliability and fun factor, and Asian cars tend to be very boring. However, I’d say that the Mazda CX-5 was the least bad of all the low-trim Japanese cars I’ve driven.

The interior was decently nice, the screen was unexpectedly large, and the materials didn’t feel cheap. The engine was obviously struggling and acceleration was much slower than what I’m used to, but it still got me around town.

One specific thing I noticed with this crossover was that the brakes were unusually sensitive. This tends to be a recurring theme with Asian cars, where the accelerator is slow to respond but even the slightest tap on the brakes will lurch the car. It felt like this Mazda was a particularly severe offender of this, so it made for a bit of an uncomfortable ride if I wasn’t putting extra focus and effort into smooth braking.

Apart from that, it was a fairly average compact crossover—it had the perks of fitting into small street parking spaces and squeezing into narrow parking lot spaces, but it also had the downside of being lower to the ground, having lots of road noise due to the unibody composition, and feeling like all the other bigger vehicles on the road were about to run you over because of how short you felt.

And on that note, here is the continuation of another trend I’ve started on my website—my co-worker Erin, who I visited the second half of my week in Seattle, has a lifted Ford F-150, so I hugged it.

This trip was also the first time I had ever been on a ferry. I took a round-trip to and from either side of Puget Sound, and the motion sickness I felt from the ferry was much more manageable than the motion sickness from whale (fin) watching.

Funny enough, my second time on the ferry, my brain seemed to have adjusted very well to the boat, because I had little-to-no seasickness. But then, strangely, the moment we stopped and docked at the destination, I felt an overwhelming wave of motion sickness, almost as if my brain had gotten so used to the boat that it was now very confused and angry that we weren’t moving anymore.

Here is a photo I took of Seattle while departing on the ferry.

As I mentioned earlier, I thought this was a good trip. My trip to Seattle last time was good as well, and I’m thinking this has more to do with the people I spend time with while I’m in Seattle that has made it pleasant.

A majority of my thoughts and takeaways from my previous “Goodbye Seattle” blog post still stand, but there’s one more thing I noticed from this trip. Seattle isn’t quite as busy as New York City or Los Angeles, but it’s still pretty busy. However, it’s almost as if it’s a different type of busy.

When I’m driving around in Los Angeles or New York City, the traffic and congestion is borderline debilitating. If I’m trying to get from one place to another, I feel like I literally can’t, and if I try, I’m at the mercy of everything around me to sort of nudge me in a random direction, and I just have to hope that it’s the direction I want to go—sort of like being in the middle of a massive mob of people and being pushed the general direction of the mob’s movement.

Seattle, on the other hand, is also congested and has pretty bad traffic, but it’s still manageable. I can still make my own decisions on where I want to turn, and if I need to find someone who just got off the ferry and is wandering around downtown, we are actually able to coordinate and meet up at an intersection in a reasonable amount of time—something that is literally absolutely impossible in Los Angeles without having angry people honking at you and threatening your life.

I’m not quite sure why this is the case with Seattle, but I definitely appreciate it.

And with that, I am back in the eastern side of the country, ready to resume my homeless journey. I have a tentative plan to return to Seattle in mid-November, but until then, my road trip adventure is taking me to Louisville, Kentucky as my next destination. More tourism blog posts coming soon…

Meet Bullet, Kaya, and Drake

September 14, 2021, 11:32 PM PDT by Parkzer • Cats, Dogs

After spending the first half of my Seattle trip as somewhat of a personal vacation with friends, I spent the second half visiting Erin, one of my new co-workers, and getting some work done in-person with her. I stayed at her house in the Seattle suburbs, and that meant I got to meet her three pets.

First up is Bullet, an Alaskan Klee Kai. He was the most energetic, and also the most photogenic—he had glowing white hair, and he seemed to enjoy the attention of me warping my body in strange positions to put myself in weird angles to get the perfect picture of him.

If you look in the background of that last photo, you’ll see another dog in the background—that’s Kaya, also an Alaskan Klee Kai. She was much more shy than Bullet, so I don’t have as many good photos of her. I could tell that she also wanted to play and be pet like Bullet, but she was also much more reserved and cautious.

It didn’t seem like she was the biggest fan of posing, so the only two shots I have of her are candid ones where she was distracted and I managed to snap a picture before she noticed.

And of course, my favorite was Drake the domestic longhair. My first impression of Drake was that he was particularly elegant and graceful with his movement, and he gave off an aura of wisdom and knowledge, if that’s even possible for a cat to do. I later found out that he is 18 years old, so I’m guessing he possessed these traits due to his old age and life experience.

Drake was just like a lot of the other well-socialized cats I’ve met—he was very affectionate and liked rubbing his face on my hands. When I would be sitting on a couch somewhere getting some work done on my laptop, Drake would eventually wander his way to me and sit down next to me to take a nap.

I managed to do something with Drake that I’ve never been able to do with any other cat, which may be surprising considering how much time I’ve spent around cats photographing them—I’ve never caught a picture of a cat yawning before. That changed with Drake, so here is a picture of the inside of his mouth (and of his teeth, which are pretty clean considering his old age):

If you’re not familiar with cats, you may be surprised to notice the little white spikes in Drake’s tongue. Those are called papillae, and are made out of keratin, a fibrous protein best known for forming human hair and nails. Those little spines are responsible for keeping the cat extra clean when it grooms itself—the way they all point in a single direction makes it very easy for the cat to remove unwanted substances from its hair, untangle knots, and eject collected hair from its mouth.

I obviously don’t have spiny papillae like cats do… but I have a close alternative. I usually use an electric razor to shave my facial hair every morning, but sometimes, when I don’t shave, I have enough stubble to make my chin feel like a cat’s tongue. When I rub my unshaven chin on a cat, they seem to always be very pleased because they think I’m licking and grooming them.

I used to do this all the time with my old roommate’s cats, and I often get satisfied purs from every cat I do this to, Drake included.

So yes, this does mean that, if I ever meet your cat(s) and I happen to have not shaved yet that day, I will probably “groom” them with my chin to make them happy.

Meet Henry and Simon

September 12, 2021, 10:50 PM PDT by Parkzer • Cats

One of the things I was particularly looking forward to during my trip to the Seattle Metropolitan Area was meeting my friend Allie’s cats, Henry the domestic shorthair and Simon the orange tabby.

Henry was extremely difficult to photograph because of how deeply black his hair is. A majority of my photos of him ended up showing him as a dark blob while the rest of his surroundings appeared normal. My camera also had trouble auto-focusing in on him, and would often focus on the background because it wouldn’t realize he was actually the subject I was trying to capture.

I experimented a lot with various different lighting situations with him, and after some tactical editing, I managed to get a handful of photos where he looks like an actual cat and not just a shadow.

Simon, on the other hand, was much easier to photograph. I got some normal shots, as well as a few of him playing with a toy and dozing off in the sun.

Hello, Seattle Meowtropolitan

September 10, 2021, 11:05 PM PDT by Parkzer • Cats

I was a dog person growing up, but after meeting a lot of amazing cats, and then living with my most recent roommate Winnie (and her three cats) for nearly a year, I realized that my personality style is much more compatible with cats than with dogs.

My friend Allie, one of the people I’m visiting while in the Seattle Metropolitan Area, is also a big fan of cats, so we went to a cat café. The one we selected was the Seattle Meowtropolitan, which is in the Wallingford neighborhood near the Woodland Park Zoo.

I’ve generally been told that cat cafés are a hit-or-miss depending on the demeanor of the cats. Often, people go to cat cafés and come back to me letting me know that it was less of a cat café and more of a regular café where you sit and drink coffee and there just happens to be sleeping cats around you.

I think I either just got lucky with Meowtropolitan, or they are a good cat café that creates a great environment for their cats so they’re more comfortable being active, but I had an amazing time.

The unfortunate part was that, due to the pandemic, appointments were required and they were limited to 30-minute time slots that begin at the top of each hour, so we weren’t able to stay for a satisfying amount of time. By the time I went around meeting all the cats, gave each one some pets, and started taking photos, there were just a few minutes left, which I used to video call one of my friends who loves cats, then we had to leave.

Allie also enjoyed the cat café, and said she missed the cats a few minutes after we left, so I think we’ll definitely be going back the next time I’m in town. Hopefully by that point, we’ll be able to stay for longer than half an hour, and I won’t forget my regular camera so I can do a miniature photo shoot with as many cats as I have time for.

Whale-watching tours are a joke

September 9, 2021, 11:01 PM PDT by Parkzer • Travel

Last year—almost precisely one year ago, in fact—I visited Seattle during the COVID-19 pandemic with my assistant. We got a CityPASS and stopped by the Seattle Aquarium, Space Needle, Chihuly Garden and Glass, and Woodland Park Zoo. The one other thing she wanted to do, which we didn’t because we ran out of time, was go dolphin and orca watching.

Now that I am back in Seattle for a week, I decided to go on a whale watching tour to make my former assistant jealous (she is my former assistant because, as of a handful of months ago, she has a full-time job being an executive assistant to a CEO at a fairly large company and makes much more money than my company could afford to pay her). … I guess you could consider this plan of making her jealous to have backfired, as you will see shortly.

The touring service I used was Puget Sound Express. I picked this one because it is apparently a family-run business, and as you might already know, I’ve been trying my best to spend my money at small businesses and family-run operations ever since the pandemic to help them out using my COVID-19 relief funding.

Prior to departing, I walked around the ship to see the various areas of the watercraft. The door to the cockpit was open, so I snapped a photo.

I wouldn’t really say that I’m a marine life or boating enthusiast, so I decided to book a half-day trip that lasted four hours (as opposed to an all-day or multi-day trip). I was joined by two friends, and because our reservation was for a group of three, our booking came with a private table alongside the windows of the indoor passenger area of the boat. Our trip departed from the Port of Edmonds.

The route of the trip was to head out through Puget Sound, travel north, go into the Rosario Strait, and travel around the San Juan Islands. The first portion of the trip was a fairly straight shot out and away from the Seattle Metropolitan Area, with the boat maintaining speeds of 40+ MPH (~65+ KPH). Along the way, and once we got near the Islands, there was some nice scenery.

After looking at those photos, you may be wondering, “where are the whales?” … to which I would respond, “great question.”

At various points throughout our trip, the crew would make an announcement that there was a whale sighting. To be clear, my expectation going into this tour was to see sights comparable to the photos that pop up when you search online for “whale jumping out of water.” Instead, all we saw were… their fins.

The crew would be pointing out how there were killer whales in the water, and somehow even be identifying them by code names assigned to each whale, yet all we were able to see were fins pop up above the water once in a while. The crew would even be talking about how the whales just caught a seal, and how they each need to eat one seal a day in order to keep up their fat stores to survive through the winter… but still, all we saw were fins.

Here is a photograph of a fin.

Needless to say, my disappointment was immeasurable.

So much so, in fact, that my friends told me that their favorite part of the trip was seeing how disappointed I was. The thing is, I don’t actually outwardly express negative emotion; I’ll go as far as to point out objectively that seeing a few fins in the water is not what I was hoping for, but I won’t be hostile or anything. That made it extra funny for my friends, considering that my utter disappointment was clearly visible on my face, even though my words were trying to soften the situation and indicate otherwise.

I checked in with someone else who had gone on one of these tours before, and she let me know that her experience was fairly comparable to mine. Thus, I think it’s pretty obvious at this point that I absolutely do not recommend going on one of these tours. Apparently, if you’re lucky enough, you can see marine wildlife from the regular ferries that go to and from Seattle, without having to pay extra for one of these tours.

Going on a tangent, one thing I confirmed from this boat trip is that I am fairly prone to seasickness in general. I mentioned about half a year ago that I went on a boat for the first time for leisurely purposes and got savagely seasick. I thought that this whale (fin) watching ride would be better because the boat was a lot bigger, but it didn’t seem to matter much. It was definitely comparatively better than the tiny, overloaded boat I rode in before, but I still felt like I was going to vomit within half an hour.

Overall, I’m still not upset that I went. The scenery around this area was actually very nice, and it’s not something that I ever would have seen anywhere else without going out of my way to plan an aquatic event. It was also served as a pleasant trip out with friends.

Goodbye Indianapolis

September 7, 2021, 6:25 PM PDT by Parkzer • Travel

After a week in Indianapolis, my time in the city is wrapping up as I prepare to go to my next destination tomorrow. It was nice seeing my childhood best friend again, and it was an interesting experience driving through downtown Indianapolis and remembering seeing some of the shops and monuments when I was last here over 13 years ago for my cousin’s law school graduation ceremony.

Apart from the tourist attractions and destinations I already blogged about, we also went to a few other restaurants, mainly trying to hit ones with good ratings or recommended by food blogs.

One of the restaurants that Ed’s mom wanted to go to for brunch was on a farm. There was a cat outside on the farm property that was a bit scared of me at first, but warmed up pretty quickly after I swooped down, blinked slowly, and held out my finger. He started headbutting my hand and legs and wouldn’t stop, but I eventually managed to snap a photo.

We also visited Canal Walk. I wasn’t really too interested in renting a gondola, but we took a stroll up and down alongside the canal.

Canal Walk had a lot of miniature waterfalls along the side, which I liked.

This was also right by White River State Park, so we visited that as well.

As a Marriott fanboy, I obviously had to take a photo of the J.W. Marriott.

My hotel of choice for this trip was the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Indianapolis Northwest.

I didn’t really use the amenities because I was particularly active during this segment of my trip (e.g., I wasn’t hungry for breakfast because I would get so much food with Ed and his mom, and I didn’t use the gym more than once because I went to Ed’s apartment’s community center or just got exercise walking a lot from touring). But, from what I did see, the hotel was nice and resembled the other Fairfield Inns that are well-maintained—basic, clean, straightforward, and simple.

I always skip housekeeping throughout my whole stay, so part-way through the week, I stopped by the front desk to get a refill on shampoo and conditioner. I happened to run into the manager, who got me my bath amenities, and we also had a nice chat about my voluntary homeless adventure across the country. She seemed very intrigued and impressed that I took the initiative to do something so unconventional.

Overall, I thought Indianapolis was pretty nice. It wasn’t that crazy of a city, but it still had enough special traits and characteristics (like with racing) that it had its own unique identity.

It was also nice visiting Ed for a week. We used to see each other fairly frequently when we were in high school, then went to different undergraduate universities and usually would only meet up during holidays. It was unfortunate that my trip to Indianapolis was immediately following a month and a half with my parents, because I think having a week or two of alone time as a buffer period between the two visits would have made me appreciate the social interaction a bit more. But, nonetheless, it was a pleasant experience.

Tomorrow, I’m going to be flying to Seattle for a one-week break from my road trip to visit some friends and co-workers. I’ll be spending a week on the Pacific Coast, then flying back to Indianapolis to pick up my truck and continue on my journey to the next state. More tourism blog posts to come soon…