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Seattle, Day 2: The View from Kirkland.

My Seattle trip, as told through my iPhone 3G’s pics, videos, and my ramblings. Archer showed me a beautiful spot along Lake Washington that I could just sit and relax in the sun, right along the edge of the water.

It was a great, therapeutic spot for me to read, write, and just...listen. I had finally escaped the blanket of humidity in Pennsylvania; the fat arms of the sun there had been pushing me down into the ground. In Seattle, the sun had decided on a change of heart, exchanging its heavy-handed east coast oppression for smooth, feathery fingers of warm light. The weather was a perfect blend of crisp chill and breezy warmth. As I looked out across the blue of Lake Washington to the mountains over the horizon, I felt I was in a better place than I'd been in a long time.

Seattle, Day 2: The Death of Kahili.

My Seattle trip, as told through my iPhone 3G’s pics, videos, and my ramblings. While Jake was working and Archer was at school Wednesday, I spent some time in downtown Kirkland, a trendy little town right along Lake Washington. My first mission was to find Kahili Coffee, a cool coffee shop that served all Hawaiian coffee. Jake and Archer talked this place up to me, and Archer recounted how she spent many hours there studying.

Archer found a convenient spot to drop me off along Lake Street and off I went to explore Kirkland. This is definitely a hip place, I thought. I was hipper immediately, by osmosis. To find my way around, I took out my iPhone and found Kahili on my Yelp! app. Oo, it's pretty close, actually, I observed to myself. I walked a few blocks and, according to Yelp!, I had found Kahili, on the west side of Lake Street just before Kirkland Ave.

But there was no Kahili.

I crossed the street and looked into each storefront, scanned the signs above doorways, checked the little alleyways to make sure it wasn't hiding.

No Kahili.

Come on! I started to assume my Yelp! app had done me wrong, so I double- and triple-checked using Maps and some other apps. All said the same thing. Upon further examination of what was on my Yelp! app, I stumbled across a review that told me everything:

Kahili's closed.

And then it dawned on me. The spot that I had passed 3 times in my search for Kahili but had dismissed:

Yes, the dusty and destroyed interior was enough to confirm to me that Kahili Coffee was no more.

I shed a silent tear. Not so much for Kahili, but for my pride, which had ignored the obvious and active construction zone numerous times in my futile search. I figured I would let Jake and Archer know.

And onward I marched, past the Starbucks across the street, in search of a local coffee shop I could nestle into and do some work. I found my answer in Caffe Ladro.

This turned out to be a great little place with nice staff and smooth lattes. This is also the place where, as I sat at the window bar typing away on my black Macbook with my iPhone earbuds plugged in, iPhone sitting to the left of the laptop and iPod classic sitting to the right, I discovered another gentleman the same age as me, also typing away on a white Macbook with his iPhone earbuds plugged in, iPhone sitting to the left of the laptop and iPod classic sitting to the right. Creepy.

I'll never know how my day might have turned out had Kahili still been in existence, but at Caffe Ladro I crossed paths with my cosmic Apple twin, the white to my black, the Yin to my Yang, the G.I. Joe to my Cobra.

Seattle, Day 2: Cutest Wakeup Ever.

My Seattle trip, as told through my iPhone 3G’s pics, videos, and my ramblings. Since I had flown into Seattle fairly late, I didn't get to see Syrahav when I arrived at the Atkins' residence. The next morning, in the deep recesses of my dreams, I could hear a noise. The only way I can describe this noise is to say it's a cross between a puppy's bark and the whisper of a rainbow.

This noise, in fact, was Syrahav saying, "Hi!" over and over again at the edge of the unfolded futon on which I was sleeping. I really can't remember the last time I emerged from sleep with a smile on my face. This day, I did, and I was laughing. What a great way to wake up: