June 20, 2003 to June 23, 2003

Ever since seeing the movie Singles when it was released in 1992, I had wanted to visit Seattle. Eleven years later I would finally get the chance, two days into my 5,000 plus road trip across America. My generation, Gen X, was inextricably linked to this place, and I had to see if for myself.

JP, one of my best friends from childhood, and Marcos, who I had met in LA in 1999 and had become like a brother, both lived there. The former in Sammamish, a suburb about 20 miles from Seattle, and the latter in Belltown, a neighborhood right in the heart of the city. I would get the chance to spend quality time with both of them.

I arrive first at JP’s house in Sammamish after (in my pre-cell phone days) having to stop at a gas station to call him to get more detailed directions. I stayed 4 nights total in the Seattle area, which I believe is two nights at JP’s and 2 nights at Marcos’ place. The reason it’s fuzzy is that I didn’t use my tape recorder for audio notes while I was there, and while I jotted down thoughts into a marbled composition book I brought along for the trip, it was sadly lost.

A quick note on the disappearance of this 2003 Notebook . . . it still pains me. While 90% of my journal from that trip was recorded and transcribed via the tape recorder, I did write entries in that notebook that I would love to be able to read now. I’ve been keeping journals on and off since the early 90’s, and this is the only one I’ve ever lost. It must have happened during one of my moves. C’est la vie . . .

The only notes I have from my detour into Seattle come from what I dictated into the tape recorder on Monday, June 23rd. I was heading back to Sammamish for my final night in the area before leaving for Idaho the next day. Here they are:

*****

“Last night in Seattle I toured the Capitol Hill section with Marcos.  Then went to the Camlin Hotel, The Cloud Room is the bar there and sadly its closing soon, so we got one drink at last call.  Up on the top on the patio looking down on Seattle was amazing, wood paneled place, old bar, very cool. 

So what did I think of Seattle? 

Definitely seems like a cool, livable city.  It didn’t completely blow me away like San Francisco or New Orleans, but that cold be a good thing. Seems there’s a lot more hidden stuff you have to seek out and find.  Lot less crowded than S.F. and a lot less everything than L.A.  I think I would love it if I stuck around. 

Can’t make any complete judgments, need to think about some more.  But Seattle is linked for good or ill to my generation, and what a thrill to finally walk the streets of a place I’ve been so curious about for so long. Loved Gas Works Park (went to it with John and Beth), The U of W. area, Wollingsford .  Don’t know if I’d want to live in Belltown, it’s cool, but maybe too loud.  I visited a couple of good restaurants in Seattle- the Elliot and McCormacks’, which was the 2nd one of them that would eventually became a chain. At the Elliot with JP we had lots of crab, and at McCormack’s I had some tasty oyster stew and Rockfish while I waited for Marcos to get out of work when I went on a walkabout.

I loved spending time with JP and Beth, and their home in Sammamish is beautiful. For someone that has lived in city apartments his whole life, very happy for them that they are making a home for their family (Jack is a toddler and Sarah is a baby) in such a wonderful area. I saw deer on the road when I was driving there the first night.

So great getting to hang out with Marcos again, and that rooftop party he took me to was a lot of fun.  I also remember talking to one of Marcos’ friends at a bar, can’t remember her name, but we had a terrific conversation about Seattle in the early 90’s.  She did say it was a special place to be back then, the music and the culture and of being young at that time and place. I have notes I took last night when I got home drunk on all of this.”

*****

I remember Marcos’ friend very well (though still not her name), and she had lots of tattoos, short and somewhat spiky black hair, and had a very chill vibe (so unlike the people I met in LA). One of my goals of the trip (in addition to getting material for a new novel), was to write a decade-later retrospective article on Gen X with Seattle as its backdrop. It was to be a magazine article that I would shop around, and I was excited to do it. That night in Marcos’ apartment I wrote several pages of notes, capturing a lot of what that women said and other conversations I had with people that night at the rooftop shindig . . . but those words are lost forever and I never wrote the article.

The book that was supposed to come from taking this trip would have covered the introspective on Gen-X had I ever written it. But clearly it’s still stayed with me all these years later. I will return to the material someday.

But onward on the adventure . . . the next stop in 2003 will be Hemingway’s grave in Ketchum, Idaho. Hope you continue to ride shotgun with me on this adventure!