Day Twelve - Seattle 89

We left Boise, Idaho this morning for our last stretch of driving before we conclude Harvey & Lloyd Go West. Though the route was shorter than previous excursions, it seemed as if it would never end. Having already exhausted every musical, nutritional, conversational avenue, we were quite frankly, at the bottom of our bag of tricks. We trudged through Oregon along the Columbia River before finally entering Washington state. Making due at a road side Dairy Queen for lunch, I noticed a slight tendency of stalling between the both of us. As if we were both terrified of the inside of our car. After what seemed like days, we finally saw a sign that read: Seattle 89. I was so excited I would have done a victory dance had Chevy manufactured Malibu's a little larger. We finally had hope. Pushing on, we finally rolled into Seattle where we encountered rain for the first time in almost two weeks.

Our hotel for the next two nights is the College Inn in Seattle. As we pulled up to the front door, I could taste the apprehension between us both. The College Inn is located above Cafe Allegro in the Washington State University district. It is a European style hotel complete with shared restrooms and showers down the hall. Our room reminds us of an old apartment building used for late night stake outs for Chinese take-out eating detectives.

Having settled in as much as one can in this place, (which is actually growing on us now) we decided to seek out some dinner. I thought Italian sounded just right and so the search began. We found a place listed online called, Stella's. With a name like that, how could you go wrong? We drove around through the rain, vainly searching for a restaurant that has apparently been closed for some time. As we rounded the same corner for the fourth time, Lloyd mentioned seeing a spot that looked interesting a few blocks back. A few more tries at parking and we entered Mamma Melina's. The first thing I noticed was an old man singing opera while standing next to a much younger piano player. The lighting was dark and the tables were full. We were seated in a corner and making a long story short, we may have hit the jackpot for dining out with Mamma's. Turns out the singing guy is actually a local artist and genuine opera singer. He sang happy birthday to a nearby party followed by another number in his native tongue. The food was incredible and the atmosphere very comfortable.

We left Mamma's and returned to the College Inn. I sat down and began to write this. Now I'm done with this post.

Almost Finished,
H.