Seattle, Firefighting Exam and College Football Games

Ben had another opportunity to test for the Seattle Fire Department so we planned on going up that way and staying with Doug and Jen in Mountlake Terrace...mostly so he didn't have to get up at 3 a.m. and drive that morning to the test at the UW campus.  Jen said it would be fine to come and stay with them for the night.

After work on Friday Ben said he would be off around 5:30 so I would just meet him at the station and we would be on our way.  Nope!  He got two calls basically right when he was suppose to be off so I had to find some stuff to do while he finished the calls.  I went to Fred Meyer and wandered around for a bit.  I thought it might be beneficial to grab some apples and some vitamin waters...you just never know what the weekend will bring.  I thought I was there long enough so I made my way to Rochester via Littlerock Road.  I sat in the station parking lot for almost an hour and I didn't hear from Ben.  For some reason my phone does not get any service at all in Rochester so I had no idea if he tried to contact me.  I got hungry and when I get hungry I get crabby.  I texted him where I was going and he immediately called me.  We figured stuff out and I would meet him at the station after I got food and got gas.  I got him a blizzard on the way back.

He packed his stuff and made sure he had everything he needed for his test.  We got into the Escape and we were on our way around 8.  We called Doug to tell him that we were on our way.  I thought my GPS saved Jen's address from August, the last time we went up there, but it didn't, so we asked for the address again.  It was a little slow through Tacoma, like we thought it would be, once we got into the carpool lane it was smooth sailing up until downtown Seattle.  It got a little weird through downtown mostly because it was Friday and everyone was going out.

We got to Jen's apartment around 10ish.  She was already in bed and Doug sat with us for a while and offered us pizza.  Ben had some while we fumbled around to find something to watch for a while.  I downloaded the CBS app and we watched some episodes of The Big Bang Theory on their streaming TV.  You just had to connect your phone to the TV wireless and BAM, you were watching whatever you had on your phone.  It was crazy!

I got ready for bed and we passed out finally.  Jen's couch was very comfy.

The next morning Ben got up, got ready, ate something really quickly and left to head down to the UW campus for his test.  The first hour and a half was studying the booklet they had provided for him.  Then there was a intermission or a break and then the next hour and a half was the exam.

I had gotten up for good around 7 a.m. because Erika started talking to me on facebook messenger and that went on for about an hour.  Then Jen got up and chatted with me and showed me some pictures of her past for the next three hours or so and visited with Sushi, her dog.  He is a   Then we got Doug out of bed.

Ben got a hold of us around 10 and told us he would be done around 12-12:30.  We all got dressed proudly wearing our school's colors and logos and patiently waited for Ben.  Jen wanted to go to Buffalo Wild Wings, just down the road from the apartment.  In the meantime, Jen found a way to have both the Ole Miss game and the Coug game on the TV.  I didn't know my game started at 12:30.  Ben arrived shortly after the games began.  We got into the Escape and headed towards the mall area.  When we got into the parking lot, some helicopters flew by very low.  It made everyone stop what they were doing and stare into the sky.  Some people took pictures and some took videos with their phones, you can tell what era we all live in now.

We found a prime spot right in front of the building and went inside.  We opted to sit in the bar area.  My game was front and center and we had to ask one of the servers to put the Ole Miss game on.  We ordered drinks and played on our trivia pads.  Doug and Ben played some poker while Jen and I played trivia.  Then everyone was playing trivia.  I was surprised Jen knew a bunch of random stuff like I did.  I had some competition.  Then we ordered food and I ordered the wrong thing without realizing it until it came.  I never order the boneless wings and I did for some reason.  What a bonehead move!  Hahaha!

We talked bad about our games and ate our food.  The Cougars finally came from behind to eventually beat Arizona State to become bowl eligible for the second time in three years but this time we won it out right with our record.  We have UCLA, Colorado and the Apple Cup still to go and then post season!!  Jen's game on the other hand was really sad to watch.  The Rebels had a clear win but for some reason let Arkansas come back to tie it then it went into an insane overtime with a really sketchy two-point conversion win to boost the Razorbacks over Ole Miss. She was so upset she threw her hat on the ground and started swearing. I can't believe Ole Miss let Arkansas take that away from them.  They were a ranked school playing against an unranked school.  Lots of lame.

We went back to Jen's apartment and we were all so full and tired.  I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and decided to take a small nap before we drove home.  We slept for about 2.5 hours and decided to get ready to go.  Jen had to do some grocery shopping.

Traffic wasn't too bad on the way home.  I needed something to drink so we stopped at a Safeway in the Kent area.  I had to get a doughnut because I can't help myself.  We made our way onto 167 and followed it to 512 through Puyallup.  We decided to go all the way to I-5 and stop in Hawks Prairie to put his checks in the bank and to stop by the store to replace his broken watch and to get a few things he was out of.  We got back into Rochester and it was around 10:30.  He needed to go to bed and so did I.  Today was a long day.  We said our goodbyes and I headed home.  I unpacked some of the stuff out of the Escape and brought it in with me.  I showered, relaxed and went to bed.

Next Adventure:  Caching in Lacey on Veteran's Day

The Olympic Club, Shankz Mini Golf and Dead Ending Haunted House

Today was Halloween.  Yesterday we had a horrible rain/wind front come in and it just about rained and hurricaned all day long to the point where events, haunted houses and trick or treating were canceled.  Most importantly our haunted house in Puyallup we were suppose to be in was canceled.  The wind and the rain ruined the structures rendering them unfixable with the amount of time we had to do it in before the event started.  It was disheartening, especially for the people who put a lot of effort, time and money into it.  Luckily, most of the plastic was ruined and that is a cheap supply to purchase again.

Ben had to be at work for half the day on shift at the fire station and I was at home helping mom do chores and watching some Pac-12 football.  I was disappointed our game was one of the night games instead of the afternoon game.  We had a good chance of beating #8 Stanford if we play to our potential.  Throughout the day Ben and I talked about what we wanted to do for the evening and I really didn't feel like doing anything but staying home and watching scary movies with him.  He wanted to go somewhere and mentioned Shanks, a glow in the dark mini golf place in Chehalis.  He said he heard they added Halloween decorations.  That might be fun.  I said sure, let's do it.  He was going to meet me at my house and take the Escape back down for the festivities.  He said he would be there close to 5:30.

He got here and I had to get him motivated again because he got so comfortable he almost fell asleep.  I put my Cougar gear on, grabbed him, got his clown outfit from his car, got into the Escape and made our way over to my grandparent's house for some trick or treating.  I do this every year regardless of my age.  They don't get any trick or treaters at their house but they do enjoy seeing their grandkids show up and visit them.  This year I brought Ben with me.  Previous years he was not able to due to work.

We got to Grammie and Grandpa's house, walked in, got our picture taken and she gave us some candy.  We stayed for about a half hour or so visiting.  We told them what we were going to do next and they said that sounded fun.  We said our goodbyes and told them to enjoy the rest of their Halloween.

We headed towards Chehalis and decided to eat some food before we played haunted mini golf.  We really couldn't decide on anything so by default we chose the Olympic Club mostly because they have good food, beer and pool!  I parked in the back and we walked up to the bar and ordered drinks.  Ben tried the Black Widow and I had the Ruby Ale.  We ordered burgers and borrowed the pool balls.  We played three games, I lost them all but made a good run, ate our burgers and watched part of the Cougar game.  We were up at this point.  We paid and returned the pool balls.

Yard Birds was only a few miles away from downtown Centralia.  We made our way south.  I've never been to Shankz but have seen it the few times we've been to the Yard Birds building over the years.  I remember coming here with my family back when it was a shopping center and not a giant swap meet with random businesses inside.  We paid for our admission into the haunted glow in the dark mini golf, got our golf balls and clubs.  Once inside, the glow and the dark theme they had was really cool.  The first half of the course was an under-the-sea theme and once we rounded the corner and headed to hole 9, the course turned haunted with skulls and bloody body parts.  It was awesome!  Even our scorecard glowed in the dark.

Halfway, Ben was ahead of me by one, 24-25.  Now we entered into the haunted part of the golf course.  They had a lot of skulls, spider webs, spiders and some wolf and ghoul creatures scattered all over the three rooms of the remaining holes.

Surprisingly, we were the only people in the putt putt area playing.  From the looks of the parking lot it looked like there should have been more people inside the building.  Later, we found out they were all there for the haunted house upstairs.  I beat Ben in the second half of the 18 holes, which gave me the edge at the end.  I beat him overall, there were four holes in one, both of us used our mulligan and we saw some cool decorations.  We returned our stuff to the front desk and Ben talked to one of the guys who set up the decorations inside the golf course.

When we left the putt putt place, we noticed this table and people standing in line to get into something.  Then a person dressed in a Yard Birds costume came by and chased Ben with a plastic bloody knife, yelling me me me me me!  Ben thought it was hilarious and posed for a picture.

We walked up and asked what was going on.  It was a haunted house called Dead Ending and they've been operating out of the upstairs of the Yard Birds building since 2012.  We decided to go up and see their haunted house and some mental notes on how they did and what kind of rooms, characters and props they had.  They had a guide go with us to relay us what to do and where to go.  It was a don't touch the actors and they will not touch you type of haunted house.  They had a 3D glow in the dark room, some creepy Nazi experimental rooms, a giant spider room and a guillotine with very convincing actors.  They even had an elevator, which made it even cooler.  We were impressed.

Ben chatted with the owners while I looked at the snake they had in the cage and then I wandered around the building for a bit while the Yard Bird followed behind me with the knife making a me me me me noise.  We left and headed back home.

Once home, we found a movie to watch, Premonition, ate popcorn and chilled for the evening.  Ben had to leave to go back to the fire station.  Happy Halloween everyone!

Next Adventure:  Seattle, Firefighting Exam and College Football Games

Halloween Pic at Work with Annykay

The imaging floor upstairs were taking pictures of people in their costumes.  I was Scooby-Doo and Annykay dressed as an angel.

They posted them on the L&I website about a week later.  I found ours and saved it.  It was pretty cool that they did stuff like this.

Next Adventure:  The Olympic Club, Shankz Mini Golf and Dead Ending Haunted House