Day 378

turns out i didn't have internet for more than just one day. i can explain.

we left parker's house and headed for downtown seattle where melody, ian, nate, and jeremy were going to meet and pick me up on. remember that old dick's burger diner from a month ago? parker, robert, and i headed there, said our goodbyes, and they dropped me off so that they could get back to portland. i waited under the shade of the side of the building with my backpack and rolling bag and with a milkshake until ian's familiar maroon windstar cruised into the parking lot not even an hour later. fernie reunion.

ian's a good dude but this australian did not have my confidence in his driving abilities. at least not when we started off this afternoon. while on a one-way, he decides to pull a u-turn to get back to the flow of traffic, all the while cars are honking and he's getting angry exclaiming that 'there are no one ways' in his hometown in australia.'

the five of us wandered pike place market for a bit and saw a sign for mar's hill church. we went to the downtown campus and sat in the second half of the service (none of us had gone to church in the morning). the church looked like a trendy furniture store or maybe an urban outfitters but i met some cool people who answered my questions about mark driscoll's ministry. as brent and i talked we (once again for me) found similarity in the 'west coast is my mecca' trend. he was from iowa. but we talked about all this and about his journey and the over-clicheness it has become to 'go out to find yourself'. he jokingly asked if i'd found myself on my trip and i laughed, saying that i think i had a long time ago. i don't think i've ever left myself since. all that jazz. he told me about the ministry in seattle- to which some have apparently nicknamed free-attle, since churches in places like denver give homeless bus tickets to seattle. people really do want to seem to appear to be trying to be caring about loving other people and making a difference in the name of Jesus. that is huge in the pac north. no doubt.

still, our crew was a sight to see. ian, in hs faded jeans and crumpled flannel a, had gotten a special 'haircut' that turned out to be a buzz except for three patches at the front, middle, and down the back of his head. they're not connected and definitely not a mohawk because they're not even all going the same direction. he looks crazy. nate cut most of his 4 years of dreads off except for a clump of strands in the back. an ultimate mullet. i just wore a bandana as has become usual and an undershirt-free flannel shirt. i was elated, then, when a passerby on the sidewalk cursed us 'hippies'. yes, we are. but sadly we'd seen this guy in the church service a little bit earlier where we'd all left after a sermon about loving people even if they're different. nice. we were definitely different today. ian looked homeless and crazy and i'm surprised we got served at a nice, waterside restaurant who's happy hour menu was significantly cheap.

we head back to central washington tonight to camp in preparation for tomorrow's full day at the sasquatch music festival at the gorge.