Holy Cow! Can you believe it's September 12th already! What the heck happened to this year??? I heard (and I quote) "the Dec. 26 earthquake off the coast of Indonesia was the fourth largest in one hundred years. Scientists have determined that this major shift in the Earth's plates changed the planet's shape enough to shorten the day by fractions of a second and to shift the North Pole by an inch. "The general shape of the Earth is slightly oblate, that is, it is not a perfect sphere but is slightly squished down, making it about 26 miles wider at the equator than between the poles. This shape, however, is not rigid, with climate being a major distorting force. But the magnitude nine earthquake last month almost certainly altered the shape as well. Recent calculations have estimated that this catastrophic land displacement caused a small reduction in the bulge, making the planet more round. The waistline was reduced by not quite a millimeter because of the earthquake," said Benjamin Fong Chao from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. This slimming down sped up the rotation of the Earth, much like when a spinning ice skater pulls in her arms to increase her speed. The length of the day correspondingly decreased by 2.68 millionths of a second." http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:h8i0Yo4dXrwJ:www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/050112_earth_shape.html+can+an+earthquake+shorten+a+day%3F&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=1

Well I'm thinking that 2.68 millionths of a second is making a difference....don't you?

Well, if you read Heather's blog you know she went to Seattle and to the Gorge, although I didn't make it to the Gorge, I did make it to Seattle, yep, nothing says summer fun then a little family bonding on the long weekend. Thankfully my family majorily gets along and we only joke about wanting to kill each other.... Moving on.

We left like crazy people at 8am on the Monday Labour Day Monday....who planned this trip? luckily though, we took Sumas and we had a two car line-up! Hooray! By the way, my mom and I had already been up since 530am by this time to take the dog for a walk. But it was a lovely morning and we walked to Starbucks and got yummy lattes! It was a really pretty morning, all dewy and pink and crisp! I love fall!...I guess technically it isn't fall yet. So after the border came the big test! My dad, letting me drive the entire way to Seattle! Would he yell? Would he backseat drive??????????????????????????????????? NO! He was amazing...he didn't say a word...maybe that was because he was too tired from the late nite rock show he played...he came home at 330am! Did I mention he's 51? Since when does the 51 year old dad party harder then the 21 year old daughter?
We arrived in Seattle at around noonish, after many coffee breaks, followed by numerous pee breaks....we drank alot of coffee....and that's saying something since Seattle is only like, what a 2hr drive from the border?

We arrived at casa de Best Western right under the Space Needle, which was cool, cuz, hey, who doesn't love to be centrally located? We had a great veiw of the park, and when we got into our hotel room, what did my lovely ears hear? BUMBERSHOOT! http://www.bumbershoot.org/ That's right, a wicked indie/hip-hop/everything festival was happening right outside my window! It was awesome...a part of me is a little sad that I had just missed Kanye West....you gotta love that ego.

Due to the holiday and the fact that however many thousands of people were crammed around EMP, we headed off to Pike Place Market. I love that market! It's like Granville Island but three floors bigger, and with guys that through fish at each other! There were some really great buskers, and I bought a pretty toque, which I can't wait to wear! After our adventure at PPM, we headed back up to our Hotel and changed...it was very hot and sweaty that day. So we're all huddled in our nice air conditioned suite, when dad says, "some guy just told me there's a labour day sale at this guitar store! Amelia, I need to borrow your car, I'll be back in like an hour tops...." You should have seen my mom's face! It was priceless...but what can you expect from a guy who plays in 3 bands!?! Be-grudgingly I handed over my keys watched my dad run out the door (he didn't end up buying anything in the end anyway) While my dad was gone, my mom, brother and I hung out and ate warm mnms from a vending machine and watched MTV...which by the way, doesn't play music.

EMP....oh EMP.....you used to be so much cooler....But half your music exhibits were shut down, and I honestly feel a little ripped off. I did however appriciate your Graphic Art Poster exhibit, because there were some very wicked concert posters, and it was cool that while we were there we got to watch some fire breathing punk act scream their lungs out! So it wasn't all bad. So by now it's 8pm, and we're feeling a tad peckish....and if any of you know my brother, you know how picky he is and that his diet consists of hot-dogs, cereal, and various other types of junk. So we come all the way down to Seattle and instead of eating in some cool bistro, or nice resturant, we eat at Red Robins! Wow.....by the way, our waitress was really sick with a gross head cold.

The rest of the night was boring.

So, after the worst sleep of my life (on a little cot that sunk way down in the middle) we all woke up, at 7am! Actually, it was kind of cool to get up super early, we all got dressed and walked down to Union Square and saw the madness that was Bumbershoot and the madness that is back to work/school traffic in downtown Seattle. We walked all over the park and grabbed some Starbucks for an early morning snack. We got back to the hotel at around 9, packed up and started our drive back home....but not before we stopped at the happiest place on earth....the Seattle Premium Outlets! Hoorah! Bannana Republic 50% off!!!
......I didn't find one thing!

We went next door to the big Tulalip Casino...a lovely under the sea theme, we were told to go there because of the great food. So we snuck my brother in and headed for the great food! Man casinos are annoying! I don't understand how people can sit there and listen to the constant beeping and jingeling and....people who play the slots look like zombies! Did you know that since we allowed casinos in Canada, people are packing up their sleeping childern sneaking them into the car and leaving them in the parking lot while mom and dad gamble away their college tuition. What is wrong with this world????

That was the end of our trip, the rest is just driving home and all that boring stuff.

I have to say I really like the state of Washington. People always complain about Americans and the US, but Seattle and surrounding area are pretty cool, their nice and helpful and polite, and it's pretty clean too.

Happy September! Oh yeah....and only 10 days till my 22 birthday!

Also...one day I will figure out how to put pictures on my blog! maybe even this afternoon!