Over the weekend of July 4th, a group of interns and staff members took an adventure to the gem of Puget Sound Seattle! We made the ten-hour trek after work on Thursday, driving by Idaho's beautiful Lake Coeur d'Alene and through the breath-taking Rocky Mountains. After a long journey and few short hours of sleep, we were off to our first destination: the Pike Place Market!
Pike's Place is a large farmer's market, where merchants sell everything from deliciously fresh fruit to chocolate pasta to Chinese pastries. We saw fishmongers chucking their fish and singing, tested out many different kinds of olive oil, and, of course, ate very well. After a full market morning, some of us set out for the Seattle Art Museum while others took a long walk through the city. In March, the Washington state legislature passed a measure funding regional centers, museums, and heritage preservation just one of the many Key Votes we cover on the PVS website.
Our evening entertainment probably wasn't included in Washington's SB 2252, but we did see some excellent Zombie creations. Red, White and Dead was Seattle's attempt to host the largest zombie flash mob in history. After seeing zombie pedestrians, zombie clowns, zombie pets and zombie babies all night, we had to join the ranks of the undead. We got our faces painted in oh-so-elegant zombie fashion, and then watched a free showing of Shaun of the Dead. To our great delight, the event was a success we helped set a Guinness World Record!
On Saturday, we decided to celebrate America by going to the International District. We wandered through grocery stores and natural medicine shops apparently, dried squid is a great bar food. After some awesome Chinese food, we traveled to the Experience Music Project and Sci-Fi Museums. In the evening, we had a relaxed night of eating pizza, chips and salsa, and ice cream (not combined) and watching fireworks in a park.
After brunch on Sunday, we headed home. One car ran into some trouble on the road, but other than that, our trip was all smooth sailing (Washington hasn't had many Key Votes on transportation issues this year, but check out the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Project). Thankfully, we caught up on some sleep during the drive back Seattle was a whirlwind adventure, well worth the long journey and sleep deprivation.
-Emma Green (Georgetown University, 2012, Government major, Arabic minor, from Brentwood, TN), Key Votes Intern
