Hello Portland

September 2, 2020, 11:59 PM PDT by Parkzer • 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This post is over 5 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.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.

Setting the record for what I believe is the most I’ve ever driven in a single day, Monica and I set off this morning for Portland, Oregon, a three-hour drive down south from where we’re staying in Seattle. Unfortunately, our Seattle trip isn’t long enough for us to be able to spend more time in Portland, so we were only able to allocate a single day for the cause, and did the reverse three-hour drive straight back to Seattle upon nightfall.

Our former PUBG Coach and Manager, and current Acquisitions Assistant, lives out in the Portland suburbs, so we stopped by to visit him while we were in the Pacific Northwest. We grabbed some dinner together with him at a Korean barbecue restaurant, during which we proceeded to literally somehow start a grease fire at our table. After that gem of an experience, we grabbed some boba tea and went sightseeing around Portland.

Portland was nowhere near as interesting as I thought it would be, but at the very least, I can now check off Oregon in my list of states that I’ve visited.

Hello Seattle, feat. Chihuly Garden and Glass

September 1, 2020, 11:43 PM PDT by Parkzer • Photo Album, Tourism

After our visit to the Seattle Aquarium and the Space Needle, our final stop of the day was at Chihuly Garden and Glass, a museum and exhibit of Dale Chihuly’s glasswork.

I adore animals, so out of today’s three attractions, the aquarium was my favorite, but the glass museum came in a close second. I had never seen anything like this before, and it was interesting seeing something seemingly as plain and boring as glass be sculpted into such interesting art pieces.

Similar to the aquarium, the glass museum also had both an indoor and outdoor portion. The outdoor segment had glass art pieces mixed in with the garden, and it was interesting not only to see man-made art mixed in with nature, but to see the reflections of surrounding attractions on the glass.

Hello Seattle, feat. views from the Space Needle

September 1, 2020, 11:12 PM PDT by Parkzer • Photo Album, Tourism

After our trip to the Seattle Aquarium, our next stop was the Space Needle, a spire and observation deck in Seattle Center.

With a name like “Space Needle,” I thought this would be an astronomically tall structure with explosive views in every direction. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed, as it was actually only 605 feet tall.

To put that into perspective, the condominium I live at in Las Vegas stands just shy of 500 feet tall, and the Stratosphere nearby on the Strip stands nearly double the height of the Space Needle, at 1,149 feet. I had actually also recently dined in at the Top of the World restaurant on the 106th floor of the Strat. Considering that, coupled with the fact that the view of my balcony is about the same height as the Space Needle, and you can imagine that I’m pretty desensitized to heights.

With that being said, it was still a nice view, and I think anyone who doesn’t already live the high-rise life would definitely appreciate it.

These are photos of Seattle from the observation deck, going counter-clockwise.

I still haven’t managed to figure out which mountain is which, and every time I ask, I usually get the answer of “I think that’s Mt. St. Helens, but I’m not sure” … so here is a picture of downtown Seattle with a mountain in the background, and I think that’s Mt. St. Helens, but I’m not sure.

And here’s Monica. I’m definitely sure that this is Monica.

Hello Seattle, feat. the Seattle Aquarium

September 1, 2020, 10:10 PM PDT by Parkzer • Photo Album, Tourism

I tasked Monica (Tempo‘s mobile esports manager) to build us a fun itinerary for our stay in Seattle, so she got us some city tourism passes that lets us see a handful of different attractions for a discounted price. Our first stop was the Seattle Aquarium.

I had my first aquarium visit over three years ago at the Shark Reef Aquarium at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas (this was back when I still lived in Southern California). Then about a year ago, I went with Monica and one of my former co-workers to the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha, NE. Today, Monica joined me again for my third aquarium visit.

This aquarium was an interesting hybrid of a multi-building indoor/outdoor aquarium. I don’t recall the Shark Reef Aquarium too well, and the aquarium in Omaha was mixed in with a zoo, so I’d say that this aquarium in Seattle was the most memorable aquarium experience I had. I have a lot more photos from the visit, but as you’d imagine, it was pretty dim inside the aquarium, so not too many of my photos came out nice and crisp.

Out of the three attractions we visited today, I’d say that this one was my favorite one.

Hello SeaTac

August 31, 2020, 9:26 PM PDT by Parkzer • Travel

I flew into Seattle–Tacoma International Airport today to visit some friends, do some exploring, and work on a project with Tempo‘s game development crew. I’ll be sticking around for a day shy of a week.

Western Washington state was one of the most interesting places I’ve flown into because of the unique and dynamic terrain. The first notable thing I saw in Washington was Mt. St. Helens… which I’m not actually entirely sure if it actually was Mt. St. Helens, because I’m not familiar with the area. It could have possibly been Mt. Adams or Mt. Rainier, or maybe the mountain in the background of that first photo was Mt. Adams or Mt. Rainier.

In order to align ourselves properly to land on the runways at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, we did a little loop up by Seattle and got pretty close to downtown. My window wasn’t very clean so the photos didn’t end up as crisp as I would’ve hoped, but I think they’re still pretty decent shots.

I think Delta Airlines is the best domestic U.S. airline when it comes to COVID-19 response. Back when I flew back home to Las Vegas from Orlando, I intentionally took an inefficient flight path through Minneapolis–Saint Paul just so I could fly Delta Airlines instead of American Airlines, because I trust Delta far more than American. (I flew American outbound to Dallas–Fort Worth, and it seemed like American wasn’t even blocking off middle seats anymore.)

Delta recently made it into the news because it had an incident where it literally brought a plane back to the gate to eject two passengers because they refused to wear face coverings. I was already committed to flying Delta whenever possible before that, but with that news, I knew that Delta would be the best choice.

It seems like Delta is continuing to emphasize their customers-first attitude, because after I woke up from a one-hour nap during my flight, I found this handwritten thank you note sitting on my arm rest.

Hello SoCal

August 17, 2020, 7:03 PM PDT by Parkzer • Dogs, Face, Travel

I’m notoriously bad at taking photos while traveling if I’m actually having fun. I had a travel companion for this month’s Southern California trip who made it a lot more interesting, so I don’t have too many photos.

What I do have photos of, though, is meeting a glorious little puppy named Fernie.

I met Fernie when I stopped by the Tempo content house in Beverly Hills. One of our producers is taking care of Fernie, who is from Mutt Scouts, a 501(c)(3) non-profit dog rescue based out of Los Angeles, California.

Fernie has an interesting story—she has a weak esophagus, so she needs to be held upright after she eats, otherwise she may choke and die. We’re hoping that Fernie’s esophagus strengthens as she gets older, but for now, our producer helps Fernie stay alive by sticking her into a little vertical container with blankets inside and holding her upright after she finishes a meal.

Flight attendant: “Would you like Veggie Straws, banana chips, or cookies?”

“Yes.”

…

Ok, that’s not literally what she said—she just replied “one of each”—but I felt like this was the perfect context for that meme, seeing as most people just select one snack … heh.