Now that it's March, it's about time to give up on filling you in on the happenings in December. I spent my last two posts updating you on the boring parts of December, and skipped over the fun parts, anticipating that I would eventually get around to them,
That didn't happen. So here's the fun stuff:
Music and Travel.
Music.
I kicked off the December concert season with a trip in that 17 inch blizzard to downtown Minneapolis to see the Doomtree Blowout at First Ave. The two mile trip downtown took just about a half hour thanks to the weather, and incompetent drivers. Once we finally got to the show, which had about half as many people in the audience as it should have, the energy on stage and in the diminished audience was enough for the entire month. The entire Doomtree crew rocked First Ave's main room in such a powerful way.
Just a few days after Doomtree, I headed down to First Ave again for The Current's birthday party. It was a weeknight and I probably should have been studying for finals, but I saw that Heiruspecs was playing last that night at the end of a pretty solid lineup, and I couldn't help but to show up. After arriving I realized that most people old enough to celebrate The Current. At one point in the set, there was the entirety of Heiruspecs, Dessa (of Doomtree), Big Zach (of Kanser), and Carnage all up on stage at once, all celebrating the twin cities local music scene.
Now, I swear I attended more concerts in December after The Current's 40th Birthday party, but I can't specifically remember who or when they were in my old age.
What I do remember is that in the past two months I've gone to see Trampled By Turtles twice. And both times, the show has been so full of energy, and so full of drunk/high/tripping people of all sorts of age groups and personalities: middle age housewives, twenty-something hippies, 60 year old men in overalls, you name it. In some settings that could make the show much less enjoyable, and others, much more enjoyable. In this case, each side of the spectrum showed through, but overall it was one (two) of the most fun concerts I've ever been to. Period.
But enough of that. Now let's talk about travel.
Let me make one thing clear: the only reason anyone, and I mean anyone would ever choose to keep a minimum wage job with not-so-flexible scheduling and an hour-long commute each way while going to school full time is because of some sort of unfathomable perk. For instance: free flights, ANYWHERE.
With December being the month of the first half of the U of M's winter break, it was basically the first chance I had all since getting the job to take a trip anywhere (unless you count that afternoon I flew to Chicago with my roommate to get a deep dish pizza, or the night I hung out with a friend in Portland before Halloween).
I had been anticipating this break basically since the beginning of semester simply because I wanted to FLY. And that's just what I did.
My first trip was a flight to Seattle to visit a friend of mine living on San Juan Island. I barely got on the flight out there, and got a little lost in Sea-Tac Airport on the way to the shuttle, but after that it was smooth sailing. On the island itself, I met all sorts of cool people, and I adventured with Liz to each end of the island, checking out lighthouses and wildlife and the Mausoleum and the beaches and the island camel. It was beautiful, to say the least. I wish I could take the time to remember and post every moment of that trip in detail but the trip to the island itself is really sort of difficult to put into words. I remember it all just swell, but it's not the sort of activity that most people would consider their "ideal" vacation. To be honest, it wasn't meant to be a vacation, but rather a time to adventure and catch up a bit with a friend whom I hadn't seen for a few years. It was relaxing, exciting, and a bit worrisome at points (again mainly getting from the airplane to the shuttle), but most of all it was basically perfect.
A note on San Juan Island: The island is a one of a kind place. It's almost entirely secluded but for the light pollution dancing across the Puget Sound, yet it has a sort of life to it that you can't find many other places. It was entirely pleasant to be able to slow down about 95% for a couple days.
And then the trip back. We spent the day before I had to fly back to Minnesota in Seattle. We visited the Market and the arboretum and had some quality pizza. It was a good three hours of wandering through the city with Liz and her brother. It was a very quick turnaround from the Island, but also very enjoyable. And very sunny, mind you. Liz and her brother had to head back north to catch the last ferry back to the island before the end of the night, so I was left to find my way to the top of the Space Needle by myself. And contrary to what you may believe, being up at the top of one of the busiest tourist traps around alone is fantastic. I was able to take in the entire city, walking laps around the needle to ensure I didn't miss a sight, and I was able to catch snippets of others' conversations as they mused over the city with their families, their spouses, their best friends, whoever. I was able to take in the whole city in the silence of my own thought, yet still be connected to all others atop the Needle. It was perfect.
On the flight back there were just enough seats open for me to be welcomed into the first class cabin, where I had three vodka-cranapples and fell fast asleep, just after bidding farewell to the Seattle skyline out of the aircraft window.
Next up: Pittsburgh. Flying out on January 1st and returning on January 3rd, this was quite the short trip. Nonetheless, it was still great. Again I was visiting a friend. And again, I wish I could do the city and the friend justice by explaining the whole thing in great detail. But I'll just have to give you the highlights, and skip over the play-by-play. I was greeted by 50 degree weather and a constant mist, which was tropical in comparison to the 0 degree Minnesota weather. It was the day of the NHL winter classic, so hockey fans were out and about in all corners of the city, and might I add they were not very pleased that it was raining, because it was delaying the game and melting the ice. After walking through the city for a bit and trying to find the riverside past all of the construction, we took a trip to a suburban movie theatre and checked out Black Swan, then drove through Allegheny County's cheesiest Christmas display; a three mile long city park plastered in Christmas lights and elves and Christmas dinosaurs and a variety of other festive lighting displays.
The next day was the day I finally got to see The Mattress Factory and the city's skyline. The Mattress Factory is a modern art museum outside of downtown Pittsburgh that has all sorts of exhibits that incorporate all of the senses. There's no way to explain most of the exhibits without bringing you to the museum and walking you through every floor, so let's take a road trip sometime, yeah?
Between Mattress Factory and skyline, there was eating, going to a legitimate hookah lounge, and getting the car towed for parking without a permit (oops...), but then there was skyline. The entire family piled into the SUV after dinner and drove up the side of Mount Washington to an overlook a mile or so up the road. I don't know what it was that made it so, but the view from that lookout of Pittsburgh's skyline was amazing. It easily ties with, and arguably beats out Seattle's skyline. It could have been the rivers reaching confluence, or the view of Heinz Field like you'll never see it from a blimp above the Steelers' games, but that skyline from that perspective was simply breathtaking. Most of all, I think it was the striking resemblance to the Minneapolis skyline to which I've grown so accustomed and set my bias toward that made me so interested in the Pittsburgh skyline. If you want to check out the view (not quite the same as what I experienced) shift your attention here. And just so you don't forget what really matters, here's Minneapolis again.
The rest of Pittsburgh was sleep and a ride back to the airport early in the morning.
Disclaimer: I watched Jersey Shore for the first time in Pittsburgh. I'm not proud of this.
Finally, Amsterdam. I wish I could talk up my trip to Amsterdam more than I will, but the truth is that I was only there for a total of about 22 hours, and round trip the flight was 17 hours. I booked the flight out on a Wednesday at noon, and got the last seat on the flight out at 7:30PM. I landed around 11:00AM Holland-time, and made my way to the hostel, basically falling right asleep as soon as I got there. When I was awake, though, I did my fair share of exploring and decided that the two best things about Amsterdam are these: the fact that there is a two-way bicycle path for every road makes biking easy, and therefore there are more active, healthy people who know how to live; and the combination of the architecture and the channels making a great majority of the city accessible by boat makes the place absolutely beautiful. I'm definitely going back this summer.
The flight back was phenomenal. My seat assignment was seat 2H (which is business class, if you weren't sure). The second I stepped on the plane, they asked to take my coat, and then the flight went a little something like this:
Champagne-Take Off-More Drinks-Meal-Wine-Wine-Wine-Sleep-Wake-Meal-Touchdown.
I was pampered. It was great.
So, there's December and January for you. I'll try to keep up now.
I think I'm going to also start finishing up posts with links to videos/songs that I enjoy. I could pretend that there was some sort of deep connection between my current situation in life and this song, but I really just like the music and the video that accompanies it.
Enjoy.
Head Full of Doubt/ Road Full of Promise - The Avett Brothers
No comments:
Post a Comment