Girls Night Out

When: Saturday, August 2, 2008

Where: Seattle (Pier 57, Belltown, and Pioneer Square)

Why: Peeps in Town and really do we need a reason?

Who: Hope, Diane, Kyla, Maricel, and Mo

Before we go further, allow me to apologize for the poor quality of the pictures. It was dark and the drinks consumed added to on the fly snap shots.

Second, for those of you who do not like seafood let alone seafood pictures, there are some later on in the post. Consider yourself warned.

Third, this is gonna be a long one. Sit down and settle in for the story.

Fourth, if the spacing is off, I blame blogger and me still not making 100% nice.

Here is the crew for the night. I believe you know Kyla, Maricel, and me by now. The other two lovely ladies are some of my visiting friends from the Big D, Hope and Diane, in town for the night before heading out for an Alaskan cruise. The night, or rather I should say late afternoon, began by picking them up from the airport. I am sure they didn't like their delay but we appreciated the extra time. As is we were heading out for a night on the town earlier than we're accustomed to.

As they checked in and freshened up, we took to the bar.

Once Kyla spotted the Hangar One Raspberry vodka behind the bar, it was on. We mixed it with soda and of course added a lime. Can you say perfection? And who knew the raspberries they use in making the vodka are purchased from Washington state? We were keeping it local y'all and didn't even know it!

After round two we decided a couple orders of sexy fries were needed. Ours were from their hotel, the W in downtown Seattle.

If you ever have the chance to try these, do! Yummy doesn't even begin to do them justice.

After we finished another round of drinks and received a compliment from some random dude in the bar, we paid our bill and hailed a cab.

While we are on the subject of cabs, did you know you're not supposed to fit five passengers in a regular size cab, even if four fit comfortably in the back?

If you didn't, now you do. Let me just say we had a few run ins with some cabbies. Comical and frustrating; some details to follow if you continue to read.

Luckily we found a cabby willing to break the rules and headed down to the waterfront. One of the things Hope wanted was crab while she was in town. Crab she got. We tend to forget how fortunate we are to have quality seafood available to us anytime desired. She shared with us the meat from one of the claws was more meat than she has been able to get from Texas' version of a dungeness crab.

If I move away from here, I'm gonna miss meaty crab and sharing a round of oyster shooters with my girls for sure.

This is our usual menu selection, the Westport. It includes dungeness crab, snow crab, shrimp in the shell, steamed clams, pacific mussels, andouille sausage, corn on the cob, and red potatoes in their jackets.

You can't eat food like that with utensils nor without a bib. These FTBs wear 'em well and manage to make them look good.

From here, we hit the streets to hail down another cab to take us to the first place of the night. While we were being turned down by one cab after another, a brave soul driving a pedicab offered to take us part of the way to Belltown. For free.

Now remember a cab won't take five peeps but this guy was willing. You might be asking yourself how did five of us fit in there? Hope jumped in the basket. Diane and I sat in the "cab" while Kyla and Maricel sat on our laps.

It might not have been the smartest of moves, especially considering the events to follow later in the week, but we made it safe and sound. Horn blaring. Laughs a plenty. And yes, we did pay him.

From there we hiked, and I mean hiked, up a couple flight of stairs and some Seattle hills. I brought up the rear and was the only one having trouble keeping up with the group. I swear I thought my heart was going to leap the eff out of my chest.

Navigating Seattle hills can be tricky but in heels and being out of shape, it is a whole 'other story in itself. Guess who will be upping their cardio?

Let me just say by the time we arrived at Tia Lou's I was done. Spent. Buzz gone. All I wanted to do was sit down and enjoy an ice cold water.

The rest of the crew got their drink on, which was all good. Maricel and Hope hit the dance floor after Hope lost a bet with the outdoors deck bartender. Kyla and Diane hung with me on the sidelines.

We decided to depart Tia Lou's as the music wasn't all that great. We stepped outside and should have gone to Amber but the line was long and I thought they would enjoy the music better at Twilight.

We attempted to hail down a cab. Promptly we were denied due to the party of 5. One cabbie stopped, we piled in, told him our destination and he went ballistic. Vein popping out the side of his head, urging us to get out of his cab, insisting he couldn't stop in the middle of a street to pick up a fare, and the place we wanted to go to was right down the street. So, in a word, get out!

Um buddy chill. I honestly thought at one point he was going to bow up on us. If needed, we can hold our own. And dude, we wanted Twilight, not Twist.

After hailing down some more cabs and being denied, we finally found a cabbie willing to take the five of us. We arrived at Twilight. Better music. Crowded. And hot as all get out.

A round of drinks and some dancing ensued. When the boys with the hideous cologne arrived in a group and took up residence near us, we jetted to Pioneer Square and hit up Trinity.

Finding a cab this go around was a bit easier but still it took until the third one willing to take us.

I promise not every club in Seattle starts with a T. We were just hitting up those spots this particular night.

Trinity was our final destination and fortunately we didn't have to fight our way in the crowds. We ended the night in their VIP section, chillin', watching the mass amount of people trying to shake their groove thing from the balcony.

Before we headed out, to find yet another cab, we encouraged Hope and Diane to partake in a local scooby snack. If you're not going to hit up Queen Anne for a scooby snack at Mecca, you have to partake in a hot dog slathered with onions and creme cheese outside the club.

Don't knock it until you try it. Maybe it's the booze. Maybe it's the simplicity of eating a hot hot dog straight from the grill in Pioneer Square after hours. Maybe it is the sharing of one with your friend. Whatever it is, there is something mighty delicious about an onion creme cheese dog that hits the spot.

Post scooby snacking, we hailed the final cab of the evening and headed back to their hotel. I'm so very proud of Hope and Diane for hanging as long as they did. It was dang near 4:30 AM their time when we dropped them off.

Good times y'all. Good times.

Peace and Love Peeps.