Tuesday, 21-June-2022

It’s been a while since I’ve had an adventure like this, hasn’t it? One big adventure with a few different blog posts dedicated to it? Well… Here we go! Adventure to Seattle, solo-style!

A while back, I was granted citizenship to Austria, through an update to the Austrian Constitution allowing repatriation for descendants of those displaced by war. I compiled paperwork over six months, sent it all in, and then waited almost nine months. Then, out of the blue, I get a package in the mail – a very official package with my “Bescheid” included – my new citizenship!

Now that I have it, though, I need a passport… and the closest consulate is in Seattle. I haven’t been for a few years, and I’ve never had an opportunity to either explore the city on my own or to go backpacking in the Olympic National Forest… which happens to be right across Puget Sound from Seattle…


After backpacking Flapjack Lakes, I was planning on hiking the Quinalt Trail as a short dayhike. Just a quick mile or two, getting to see a different side of the Olympics.

But… I never actually checked distances, or driving times.

When I tossed it into my GPS… Well, the drive was quite a bit long. And Tuesday morning had gone beautifully slowly… Not a bad thing, by any means, but also not great for 7 hours of driving.

Instead, I drove to Aberdeen.

Why Aberdeen, you may ask? Well… I don’t know. I’ve been to Aberdeen in Scotland, it showed up on a map, and… you know what? I didn’t have a reason. It felt right, okay? This trip was about being flexible and doing fun things! Aberdeen seemed fun at the time!

And you know what? It absolutely was!

When I arrived, I did a quick loop through the town looking for anything interesting. When nothing caught my eye, I pulled up a map and tried to find a place to step my toes into the Pacific. Why? More important to ask – why not?

Well, I couldn’t find anywhere to dip my well-walked toes. But I did find a small park, named “Kurt Cobain Memorial Park”. Interesting… after a quick google search, I realized that I was in the hometown of none other than the original grunge artist. The birthplace of Nirvana!

Now, I’m not a huge Nirvana fan… but I do love me some good music, and I adore me some good sculpture gardens! So off I went, and onward did I explore.

It was tiny, but interesting. A small memorial with a few sculptures of note, and a shrine-like-object under the bridge where Kurt camped out before he got his break.

It was… interesting. Poignant, in some ways, thinking that someone who would make such a massive impact on the music of the world had camped out under the bridge I stood under… Definitely made me think about the role of adversity in creation.

Anyways I also ate an amazing hotdog in Aberdeen!

Yeah… bad segue, I know, but I didn’t really know how to move on from there. The rest of the drive went as quickly and smoothly as I could have asked for. The miles ground away under my wheels, and the gasoline burnt (expensively) under the hood as the Mustang carried me back to my lovely little apartment in my lovely little town.

Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Street_Bridge_(Aberdeen,_Washington)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Cobain_Memorial_Park