Amy is really hard to get gifts for and rings true for her birthday in June and Christmas in December. I saw that the Friends Experience was finally coming to Seattle on Facebook and Amy had dropped some serious hints, so I thought, why not give Amy an experience as a gift? Amy has been a huge fan of Friends before I even knew who she was. She can recite word for word every single episode of the 10 seasons it aired. Ben thought that was a great idea, so I put my name on the waiting list for when tickets were released, and I would be notified that they were on sale and could nab four of them.
When I finally got a notification telling me that tickets were on sale, and I asked Trish when the best time over the spring would be. Failing to realize Easter was the next day, she chose April 8th at 1:30. Mostly because we can't do the middle of the month or at the end of the month, it doesn't leave us with much. I hate Trish's job so much. It takes a lot of her weekends away from her. Plus, Ben has some shifts at the fire station during the weekend which makes it also tough to schedule fun weekend plans. Ben purchased them and we just waited until it was time to go. Ben made sure to schedule his shifts on other weekends during April and I made sure I got ready for Easter during the week and chose an easy meal to feed everyone.
We wrapped up the conversation with keeping this special event under our hats because I thought it would be pretty cool for it to be a surprise. We even came up with a story on why we were going up to Seattle so we wouldn't run the surprise. Plus, we needed to see Jean anyway, it's been too long since we visited with her.
Throughout the months prior to going, Trish talked to Jean to make sure it was okay to drive up to Seattle afterwards to go visit and eat lunch/dinner and we kept it a secret from Amy. Trish basically told Amy that, Ben and I were coming over and we were going to spend time with Jean in Seattle because she couldn't come down for Easter the next day. It wasn't the total truth, but we didn't lie to her either.
Disclaimer: I pictured this going differently in my head than what had actually happened.
On Friday, we both got off work, packed up our stuff for a night, checked on my friend Alicia's dogs (since she was out of town for the weekend) and then headed up to Bonney Lake for some family time. We played a couple games, ate pulled pork, potato salad and chips. I finally drank of on my Prickly Pear beers I brought home from Arizona the previous week and we knew we should have brought dessert with us but for some reason didn't. We knew we needed to get up in the morning and get ready, so I got in a quick shower, and we all went to bed. We had to be up by 9 a.m.
The next day, the alarm went off and I got up and got ready to go. I had to throw stuff at Ben so he would get up and get ready for the day. Out of both of us, he is the worst one to get motivated in the mornings to get ready to go somewhere. I went upstairs and Trish was already making French toast. I poured myself some orange juice while everyone else had yucky coffee. I was a little bummed out it was rainy outside but that's the spring for ya.
We all wanted her to bring her Friends shirt without her knowing where we were going (we probably should have left it alone, but it sounded like a good idea at the time), however, Trish found a way to get her to bring it with her, kinda. Amy was super suspicious of us. We told her Jean wanted to see it. She thought that was weird but went and got it and stuffed it into her bag. Amy also has a knack for not wearing a lot of her new shirts for some reason. I think this was going to be the first time she wore this shirt, and we gave it to her for Christmas.
We left a little earlier than we should have but had kind of last minute back up plan while we drove. We got into downtown Seattle and drove around trying to find a parking garage to park in. We finally found one with a semi decent rate, made sure we had everything and made our way down to Pike's Place Market. We had to waste about an hour or so. We walked down to the gum wall first because I don't think Amy has been down to see it. I looked at the geocaching app to see if there were any Adventure Labs or new caches in the area. There was an Adventure Lab, but I was only going to be able to do one of the waypoints due to time constraints. I saw there was a new gum wall cache too. I wondered when Double Bubble Toil & Trouble (GC24H25) was archived? I checked really quick and saw that it was archived back in March 2018. Well, let's go find the new one, Chews Wisley (GC9WCY1).
You couldn't really use your phone or GPS in the area because the spotty service, so I tried to get as close to it as possible looking on the map feature. I knew it was going to be a plastic chewed gum container, so I told everyone to be on the lookout for something that looked like gum but fake and it was going to possibly be attached to a pipe because of the magnet attached to the back. We all took a couple minutes to look around the pipe area of the gum wall. Then I heard Ben say he found it. No one wanted to touch it, so I took it off the pipe and held it in my hand for everyone to see it. There were a lot of people in Post Alley looking and taking pictures at the gum wall, so we had to be somewhat stealthy. We got it opened and wrote our names on it, got a picture and I snuck it back in its hiding spot.
We walked up Post Alley and back up to the front of the market. I asked Ben if he found the virtual, Pike Place Market (GC7B9XN) yet and he said no. He worked on that one while we walked around. I saw that the requirements had changed since I did it back in 2017 with Mom. We went into the market and noticed the fish market was finally open while I was here, and they threw fish!! I have never seen them throw fish before, so this was quite an amazing experience!!
We walked through the end of the top level, looking at all the produce, flowers and art, showed Amy where the original Starbucks was and then went down into the lower level where we went into a couple of shops to look around. She seemed to be enjoying herself, but we will never really know. As it approached our scheduled time, we walked back up to the main street level and started making our way east towards Pine Street. We tried keeping try as we passed each block.
We turned around the corner and I saw the front of the store and turned back to see Amy's face. She really didn't look that excited, but she made it a point to tell us that she is a detective and that she knew what we were doing. It was like she was more excited and put more energy into to telling us she knew what we were doing (even though she didn't) than the actual surprise. It bothered me and it bothered Ben.
We went inside, checked in with the hosts and he told us where to go once it got closer to our set time. We browsed the gift shop and took some pictures. We walked downstairs and I got our tickets pulled up so the lady could scan them. We stood at the entrance for a few minutes while watching clips of Friends episodes while we waited for our time slot and group to begin.
Were told about the rules, picture taking etc., went through the exhibit.
Amy seemed like she was having a good time but wasn't sure. It was like she wanted to have fun but every ounce of her being just went through the motions but when we did catch her smile, she fought it. She was fighting with an inner demon telling her she can't have fun...not sure why. It was strange to watch someone sabotage a good time that was created and catered for them to enjoy.
Trish, Ben and I enjoyed the exhibits. I am not sure what level of Friends fans they are, but I would consider myself an avid watcher of Friends. I have seen all 10 seasons several times but in no means am I a superfan. It was fun to see props, descriptions of episodes, pictures, history, actual scrips from the table reads, the white dog, the Barcalounger's, the cheesecake on the floor, the pivot couch to each set that was created gave you the experience that you were actually on the show. I thought it was a well worthwhile visit to Seattle. I thought Amy would be excited to wear her Friends shirt during the exhibit. Halfway through Trish had to tell her to put it on. I really don't understand. How can you act like you're super stoked to see one of your favorite shows' exhibits, have shirts and other things but not wear them or show them off or be outwardly excited about the whole experience when you're actually doing it?
While in the last room, a replica of Central Perk, a guy proposed to his girlfriend, and we got to watch her say yes...and then we clapped for them. How adorable!
When we were done, we were given the opportunity to purchase photos that the staff took of you and your group. You didn't have to, but most people do. Since this was Amy's experience, we asked if she wanted to get any pictures and she said yes. She chose the two she liked, and Ben got them for her. We used the restroom before we headed up the stairs.
We stopped by the gift store, and I ended up purchasing a magnet, Amy bought a barista Central Perk apron and Trish got her a Hugsy plush for her birthday. I figured I needed to get at least something to show that we were there besides pictures and plus, I like collecting magnets for the fridge. We walked back to the parking garage, and we asked Amy if she had a good time. She said she did, but it really wasn't that enthusiastic like I thought it would be. I thought she was going to be stoked and all excited. It was like we were strong arming her into a positive response.
We got back into Ben's Edge and meandered our way back to I-5, instead we headed north to Jean's house, up by Northgate-ish. Traffic wasn't that bad, which was surprising because it's always bad by the bridge near UDumb. It didn't take us long to get to Jean's house but there weren't any parking spots near her house on the street because there was a truck in the way, and we had no idea when he was going to leave. So, we decided to park inside of the Safeway parking garage across the street from her house. I've been here several times and it's still weird that she literally has a Safeway in front of her house.
We knocked on the door and Jean let us in. A round of hugs were given out and we visited for a few minutes until we piled back into Ben's Edge to head up to Shoreline to Leena's Cafe. Trish and Jean insisted we eat there because the food was pretty good, and the service was spot on. We put the address into Ben's car GPS and headed north towards Shoreline. I haven't been up to Shoreline since Doug lived there. I never thought I'd ever have to go back up there. I was just happy I wasn't driving.
We get to the restaurant and quickly found a place to park. We went inside and was seated right away in a corner booth. The place wasn't that busy, but we were also there between lunch and dinner. Our waitress comes by and asks what we all would like to drink, and I debated whether or not I wanted just water or a strawberry milkshake. I went for it and ordered a strawberry milkshake. Would I regret it later? Probably.
When she came back and asked for our food order, I got a French dip with fries, Trish got a salad, Amy got a chicken burger, Jean ordered the French dip as well and Ben got a club with a vanilla shake. Trish was right, the food was really good, but we all didn't realize how much food we were going to get. I hate bringing leftover food home with me so I ate as much of it as I could. The milkshake didn't help the fullness either. Once we were done, we all paid and hopped back into Ben's Edge to drive back to Jean's house.
We were able to park in front of her house on the street, grabbed our stuff and went inside for about a half hour to visit with Jean. It was getting late, and we needed to get back to Bonney Lake. We thanked Jean for having us over even though it was a short visit, we still got to visit with her. We needed to come up there more often to visit her.
We got back to the house, packed up our stuff, tried to have a talk with Amy about being grateful and thanking people for doing something nice for you and then we left. It was the first time we left the house and Ben was pretty angry. He said to me on the way home that his parents did not raise them to be ungrateful and he had no idea why Amy acted like that.
Trish had some conversations with Amy about her behavior that night and into the next week. I had some conversations with Trish about the incident, and we came to a conclusion that we just can't take Amy anywhere anymore because she doesn't appreciate them. It's like she's trying to punish herself for having fun by living through family members who aren't here anymore. We want Amy to be Amy and not someone else. We want Amy to think for herself and not what someone else thinks or believes in. It's so frustrating!
It's too bad we can't take Amy on experiences anymore because I think they are more memorable than a gift card or an item of clothing. Ben and I got home around 9:00, unpacked the Edge and got ready for Easter the next day. I had some stuff I still had to prepare for the next day. We got in some showers and went to bed just before midnight.
Next Adventure: Easter
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