Seattle Big Climb

Sunday I drove up to Seattle to do the Big Climb for leukemia. It involved over 3000 people climbing 69 flights of stairs to the 74th floor of the Columbia Center, the tallest building in Seattle and a brochure said it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi. The event started at 830 in the morning, but my start time was 1 o'clock in the afternoon, which was perfect, it gave me time to drive up from Portland. While waiting for the 1 o'clock group to start I sat down and my friend Kevin who drove up with me got in line and started talking to a pretty girl, so I went to the back of the line so they could be together. The organizers started us in small groups, so I went with a couple who were in a hurry and they took off running, so I walked by myself for the first 12 flights until some kids caught up with me. I let them pass and of course they got tired, so I passed them and then they passed me again. Around the 20th floor they had water and a big fan going. At the 40th floor they had an observation room and yogurt, oranges, Red Bull, and water. I sampled everything, looked at the view and continued on. At one point I passed a woman who was red faced and struggling, so I gave her my bottle of water- she was very happy for that. At the top they had a guy taking pictures and a huge enclosed observation deck. It was a beautiful day and I could see the Olympics and Cascades and the stadiums and the sound and etc. I saw Kevin and asked how it went with the girl and he said she was married with two kids (of course), so I joined them and started talking to her. Wow, what an amazing woman, her name was Julie and besides being gorgeous, she liked to hike and go to museums and run and had the same heel pain I have and she has a life list! Yes I do too, that will be a future post. I also have a list of what I would like in a woman and she had a lot of the list covered. We talked for so long that they were closing the place down, so we rode the elevators down and exchanged info, even though she's married, she would be a blast to adventure with sometime. She recommended an area to look for lunch and Kevin and I headed down toward the water to see about food. There were a lot of cafes, but also a ton of people and no parking, so we ended up under the Space Needle at Zeek's Pizza. I had a tree-hugger pizza filled with broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, etc. Tasted great, but was pricey at $15, but you could see the Space Needle out the window. Afterwards, drove by the Experience Music museum just to see it up close- when I meet a nice woman I'll have to go check it out inside, or take my daughter. To make the day complete, when I got home I had a message from the one person who matches everything on my list except playing golf, but that another story.