Almost Famous at Alki

This morning our house is chock-a-block with jetlagged Austrians, they’re stacked like cord wood down in the basement. (If you’ve been to Austria, you know they are very skilled at stacking. They are a stacking people, a nation of stackers. ) Last night, we took them for pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) which I swear is good for jetlag and just about anything else, After pho we headed down to Alki Beach where we came across the sight of a blazing beach house. Perhaps more upsetting than the site of a house on fire was the fact that people would not get the hell out of the way, already. People, people. Make way. The car in front of us came to a full stop to gawk, the street was full of people, meanwhile, SOMEONE’S HOUSE IS ON FIRE. A-hem. A public service note: If there is a a fire or other emergency get the hell out of the way.

We were wrapping up our promenade as the sky was blacking with smoke, but it was a truly lovely evening at the beach before that – the weather was warm enough for shorts and a t-shirt, the volleyball sand courts were in full use by gorgeous boys and girls (something for everyone!) and a group of people had set down a dance floor made out of big cardboard boxes and were involved in some serious stepping to Latin beats.

Last week we were at Alki with Janelle from Intelligent Travel – same place, different diversions. I wrote about our encounter with the paddlers from the Intertribal Canoe Journey here, but Janelle has give West Seattle and Nerd’s Eye View a lovely write up on National Geographic’s blog. Her post comes complete with my 16 second screen test. I’m sure that the Travel Channel now thinking that Samantha Brown needs more than a working vacation and should be replaced in the interim by someone shorter and more Jewish.