Murphy’s Birthday Trip

Howdy folks, Murphy here. No I’m not dead. I’m so not dead I actually aged another full year and wanted to share some photos I took of the occasion with all of you! Keep in mind as all of this unfolded I had almost no knowledge of what we were going to be doing…

The Day started off on a weird low note. El Wife and Melza brought me to the grave site of one of the greatest guitarists of all time: Jimi Hendrix. The memorial was gorgeous and it’s set in a pretty normal cemetery in Renton. The center piece of the entire site is a gorgeous stone “gazebo” with carving of Jimi and some of his lyrics. We were not the only ones there but one thing I noticed is there was no stereotype for the visitors. Young, old, hipster and honest musician… it was really a cool thing to see.

From there we headed north into Seattle and picked up Chief and his lovely wife, Heather. With the group on tow we managed to wind our way around the water front and find the Seattle Underground Tour. I had heard tale of this but wasn’t sure what to expect. As the story was told to us, Seattle today sits atop the buried remains of the original city of Seattle. Through gaps in planning (or the complete lack of any) and different opinions on how the city should be rebuilt after the great fire 1889 some of the city wound up being rebuilt at higher levels that the streets themselves. It’s a long story but if you really want to hear it you should check out the tour. Anyway we spent about 90 minutes touring some of the remaining underground areas that reside below the streets and sidewalks of Seattle. I was impressed and learned quite a bit about my new home.

So the tour took us up, down and all around the area around Pineer Square. It was a really cool tour but I was kind of annoying the tour guide because I was always the last out of the various holes and stairwells because I Was trying to get good pictures that didn’t involve other people. Don’t get me wrong, I like getting shots of people, but for this I wanted the guts of the city. Oh Well.

After that it was time to head down to the Odin Brewing Company for a private tour and tasting with Dan, the owner. This was my favorite part of the entire trip. As many of you will remember from the Seattle International Beer Festival episode of Spankwagon, I declared Thor’s Equinox to be my new all time favorite beer. Well after sitting down with Dan and listening to him tell us the story of Odin and how each of their beers are crafted, I am happy to reaffirm my statementL Thor’s Equinox is my all time favorite beer. Now keep in mind that Dan came in on his day off to do this for us and this is not something they usually do so it was a great honor for us to be there that day. Odin is a small brewery but rapidly shaping up to be a power house in the Pacific NW. You can find 2 of their 3 beers bottled and at your favorite specialty beer store, but if you want Thor’s Equinox you’re going to have to find it on tap…for now.

We left Dan and then headed back into Seattle proper for dinner and drinks at Fado’s… But not before we stopped off to see the attempt at the world’s largest simultaneous dance: Thriller. there were about 300 people dancing here and supposedly more around the world. I’m not a huge Thriller fan but it was cool to see… too bad the music broke seconds before they were supposed to start. After that it was back to Fado’s! I know some of my Vegas friends are cursing their brains out right now, and they should be. Fado’s was one of our favorite hang out in Vegas so having one here is an added bonus. Since it was the 28th we also had a bar full of Sounders fan as well watching the play offs against Salt Lake. It wasn’t a great night for the Sounders but it was awesome for me. Jacki’s cousin and her husband showed up to help us along in our celebration and I was happy to see them. Josh is n uber nerd like me and Justin so the discussion quickly went the way of Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters and who would win in a fight: Daredevil or the Operative from Serenity.