Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Prize Flight


It was just over a month ago that Brooke and I returned from a mini-vacation to, as the above photo's climate hints, Seattle. Besides being a relaxing long weekend in a new city, it was especially fun trip because most of the major expenses were covered by the good people at Evite.com.

Back in January we used Evite to alert friends of a small gathering for the Super Bowl. As Brooke was sending the invitations (which included this gem), she was prompted to click a box and be entered into Evite's Big Game Sweepstakes or some such. She clicked as instructed, figuring it probably wouldn't hurt to give away our friends' personal email information, and promptly forgot about it.

A couple weeks later, Brooke got a call saying she won second prize in their drawing: tickets to any regular season NFL game as well as the associated airfare and hotel. After making sure it wasn't a prank and weighing the tax consequences we eagerly accepted the prize and set about choosing a destination. Ideally we'd love to cheer on the Bears at a road game, but didn't find any destinations on their away schedule that tempting. After some discussion we settled on Seattle ("seattled"?) since neither of us had been there but were eager to see the place.

It did not disappoint.

We got one full day of the stereotypical Seattle rain we expected but then two unseasonably sunny days which made for great sightseeing. We indulged on great seafood from local restaurants, great coffee from the birthplace of the stuff and, consequently, the great kindness of establishments with public restrooms.

It was the sort of satisfying vacation that you leave feeling like you saw and did more than people who lived there for decades. Packed with planned activities, but not too hectic. The perfect way to shift from an eventful summer into a busy fall.

Feel free to experience the memories in this photo video (with soundtrack by an up-and-coming Seattle talent).



5 comments:

Patrick and Jenni said...

Looks like you had fun. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Sheila said...

I've only driven through Seattle; looks like a fun getaway destination. Some of my favorites are there: coffee, the ocean, KEXP. Another sexy getaway is Milwaukee. Free hotel stay at Casa Schirz when you mention this post.

Gogul said...

That Obama fella said change was coming and goodness gracious, look, he got John to post on his own blog.
Yes we can, and apparently John can too.

Corry said...

Looks like you had a wonderful time with the perfect montage to show for it. I'm amazed at the amount of pictures you take.. (amazed and impressed). Do people stare.. when you take pictures of your food? I never think to do that.. however, maybe I just eat it too quickly before anyone can whip a camera out.
Thanks so much for sharing. I loved it!

Patrick said...

The guitar fella has some talent.