It was time for our annual trip to Seattle for the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival. We go every year, since 2001, making this our 15th year in a row. And we love it more than ever.
I’ll post some pictures soon, but first, here’s what we did on our trip.
Wednesday September 2
Nine of us were headed to Seattle this year, eight from Sacramento and one from Portland. We had various flights and ways to get there. Karl and Betty were taking the same flight, in the late morning. They came to our house and we took the Blue Van (Super Shuttle) to the airport. We took Southwest to Seattle, a quick and smooth flight. Once at the Seattle airport (SEA/TAC), we caught the convenient Light Rail and a bit later we were checking in to our condos at The Camlin.
After unpacking, the four of us took the nearby monorail to the Seattle Center grounds, where the Bumbershoot Festival would take place a few days later. We looked around at the festival preparation a little bit, and hung out at the International Fountain, then headed across the street to the Metropolitan Market (formerly known as Larry’s) and got some supplies for the week. We hauled the stuff back to the room via monorail and then all went down the street a ways to El Borracho, a Mexican restaurant and bar that has a number of vegan food options, as well the usual carnivorous fare. Then back to the hotel. This was a nice start to the trip.
Thursday September 3
Late morning, Petra and I headed over to Araya’s Place in the University District for lunch. We took the bus, easy peasy since we caught it across the street from the hotel and it let us out a block or two from the restaurant. Why go there? Well, it’s all vegan, but beyond that they have an awesome all-you-can-eat Thai food buffet. Yep. We’d been waiting all year for this and it was as good as we remembered. After a great meal, we bussed back and went to the Ferry Terminal. Eight of us took the ferry to Bainbridge Island. We went to the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art and then wandered around the town a bit. We had some ice cream (actually sorbet) and hung out on the island for a while, talking among the eight of us. It was really nice to have the group going there together.
We took the ferry back to the mainland, Cal and Laura and Mama O and Sam headed off but Karl and Betty and the two of us walked a bit to the Seattle Art Museum. Most of the museums, including the two we went to today, are free on “First Thursday”. The Seattle Art Museum is a really nice place anyway, but free is even better. We looked around a while there, and then walked a few more blocks to a familiar place, El Borracho, for dinner. We had another nice meal with our friends and then all walked back to the hotel. Another good day.
Friday September 4
We couldn’t resist. Yesterday’s lunch was so good and the whole idea of the Thai buffet is so cool that we ended up at Araya’s Place again for lunch. They had me at the curry. Or was it the Pad Thai? The peanut sauce? The Tom Yum soup? Those and so many other good items. Afterwards we went down the street to Vegan Haven, a vegan store. Then a few doors further to Pizza Pi. Yes, we had just eaten, but this is an all vegan pizza place so we ordered a large pizza “to go” to take back to the hotel for later. Sad news, though, they are closing the business on September 15th, which totally sucks. But better news, I just checked the site and they found a couple new owners and are planning to stay open! Anyway, we took the pizza back on the bus and dropped it at the hotel.
We caught the monorail to the Seattle Center and looked at the preparations for Bumbershoot, starting the next day. We found where the stages were located, the VIP areas, the entrances, and we basically did our pre-festival reconnaissance. Of course, this included hanging out at the International Fountain for a little while. It’s such a nice place. As we were walking around, we ran into our old Bumbershoot buddy John F, who usually works the VIP area of the festival. He wasn’t doing that this year, but was glad to see us and us him too. Then we checked out the Bumbershoot Visual Arts free preview. They usually have this event the day before the festival and, by seeing it then, we have more festival time for the rest of, well, the festival. I always want to get more things in when it comes to Bumbershoot. Afterwards we went back to the hotel, had a snack, and met up with some of our friends in the 11th floor “Cloud Room“. Then it was time to get some rest. Big day tomorrow.
Saturday September 5
The first day of the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival! Woot! I wait for this all year and it is always awesome. We started off the day having brunch with Cal, Laura, and Margaret at the legendary 5 Point Cafe (more). They have a couple tasty vegan options and it has a certain charm. And then it was time for the festival. We got inside and headed to our chosen first act of the day. It was Phoebe Bridgers and she did a nice folky singer-songwriter set. We liked her music and bought her 7″ at the merch booth. Next up was Elle King, who currently has a big hit with “Ex’s and Ohs”. I think that song is ok, but her set today was great. She is a vocal powerhouse and fun to watch, sassy and confident. I really enjoyed it. We walked off and caught a song by On And On. It was unremarkable and we didn’t stay. It started raining so we ducked inside to watch a comedy act, Bridgett Everett. Honestly, this was the worst, most vulgar, most repellant and obnoxious “comedy” act I have seen in all my many years. I can’t even describe how awful and rude and bad it was. If you want to know more, contact me. Yuck.
But that was only a minor negative blip on the Bumbershoot radar. The rain soon let up and we went outdoors to see more music. Next up was The Airborne Toxic Event. This band came highly recommended by my niece and her husband. And sure enough, they were very good. We watched the entire set, including when the female keyboard/violin player dove into the crowd. Don’t worry, they caught her. We might need to check out some more music from this group. After that was the band that I had most wanted to see, Cake. Although they are originally from my own town, I had never seen them. On this occasion, they did not disappoint. Their mix of deadpan yet earnest vocals with quirky songs and, yes, trumpet was spot on and they were a winner for sure. We watched that whole set too. Then we went to the main (biggest) stage in the stadium for The Weeknd. He’s super-popular at the moment so we had to see what the fuss was about. We both thought that vocally he was kind of a Michael Jackson type but without the charisma (and weirdness). We got bored with that after 4-5 songs and went to see Lindsey Stirling instead. She’s a violin player that plays along with modern rock, dancing and moving all around the stage. She was good, if a bit limited without any vocals, but still pretty entertaining. And that finished off the first day, a great one!
Stay tuned for part two…
