Oysters – Mmmm

Today we sadly left Colleen and her family because we had to travel to Seattle. I drove the chase car with Esther and Kate. It was our job to drop by a New Seasons grocery store where Colleen had secured a sponsorship for free food. It took a while to find the grocery store, and I believe Esther got fed up with my driving. She convinced me that I REALLY wanted to eat my sandwich, and that I didn't actually want to drive. Anyways, we found the grocery store and bought cereal, vegetables, peanut butter, and bread.
The estimated Bus travel time was three hours, but Esther, being the geography major that she is, managed to extend the drive to a total of seven hours. For some reason she and Kate assumed that traveling along the coast wouldn't take any longer than the highway, and I wasn't awake to talk any sense into them. Thus, I awoke in the car in the middle of a forest in Washington. I must admit, it was a beautiful drive – except for the clear-cut sections. I was getting very hungry, and as we passed through the small fishing town of South Bend I pointed out a small restaurant serving fresh oysters. A man was smoking the oysters in a smoker outside and basting them with white wine and barbecue sauce. I ordered a half-dozen smoked oysters with garlic bread, and Esther ordered an oyster sandwich. The oysters were so good! I'm usually not an oyster fan, but these fresh smoked oysters were the culinary highlight of the entire trip. Esther, after assuring the bus crew that we would make it to our event in Seattle on time, decided to ask the restaurant owner how far we were from the city. He estimated the drive to be about three hours. We were planning on arriving at our event at 5:00, and it was already 2:45! We drove along the coast a bit farther, and then hopped on the highway, only to get stuck in traffic.
Instead of going to the event, we decided that it would be best to pick up Frances at the airport. She was scheduled to arrive from San Francisco at 6:00. However, we were delayed for a half-hour because the bikes were on top of the roof of the car – preventing us from going into the parking garage. We finally managed to fit both bikes in the back seat of the car, and I tried my best to cover the greasy chains and gears with plastic bags. After picking up Frances, we drove to Elliott's house in Seattle, but, Esther being the fantastic geography major that she is, managed to get us lost in downtown Seattle. We finally arrived at Elliott's around 8:00, only three hours late!
After meeting Elliott and his friends and roommates, we went to a gorgeous lookout over the city of Seattle. Elliott suggested that we all get dinner at "Dick's," so we drove to the hamburger joint and got $2 hamburgers. Many of us agreed that Dick's outdid In-N-Out Burger. However I am sure that Chris would disagree.
After Dick's, we went back to Elliott's house and played pong! It was the first game of pong that I had played since the end of school! Lucas and I held the table for three games, but lost when both sides were down to half a cup. The party slowly died down, and we all went to sleep.

-merritt