Downtown Seattle on a Thursday morning is an interesting place. I really love Seattle so I'm never going to complain about it. I'll just always make sure to be extra cautious for the cars around me because I'm pretty sure they're not watching for me at all. But I digress. Mike and I arrived downtown and parked.
Rukari (aka rukizzel) got in touch with Mike about 11 AM and we met up with him and Scott from Canada (aka Das Kalk). Then, a whole bunch of other guys showed up including Kevin Hurd*, MrMiagy, TheLightShow & Marissa's Bunny GrimBrotherOne & GrimBrotherFour, HyperTrooper from Germany and KalamariKid. And about a dozen other guys who's names I can't remember but were all really awesome to hang out with.
The local buddy, Rukari, made a few suggestions about what we could do for the day, after an obligatory tourist visit to the incredibly disgusting gum wall. We divided up between cars and drove to Gorditos Mexican Restaraunt and then we were headed to Bellevue to see... BUNGIE HEADQUARTERS!
I drove my neon with Mike in the front seat and Grim Brothers in the backseat and another young man from Arizona that I'm really sorry I didn't ever hear his name and felt too awkward to ask later. Also, I apologize to my passengers for my lack of finding places ability but thanks for sharing the adventure with us anyway. We did find the restaurant, obviously and the food was awesome. We fit 15 people around tables. Mike and I mingled. It was excellent.
We piled back into the cars and I immediately got us lost trying to find Bungie. But... everything happens for a reason. We were the last to arrive at the Bungie Headquarters and just as we were getting there, Rukari and the rest were deciding to just take some pictures and go, lower lips tripping them up all the way. But who comes up the escalator, just as we start towards it? Urk. And he invited us in. All 15 of us at one time!
They geeked out instantly. Every one of them. I mean really, really hard core geeking. It was awesome. I felt the tingle of excitement myself as we walked into the sacred room and peered down the hall to see a life size master chief looking down at us. Whoa.
They also had scale replicas of a Carbine, Sniper Rifle, Gravity Hammer and I think it was a Bubble Shield. So what did they do? Played with the giant weapons of course. And I took pictures with a smile on my face. If there's one thing a Halo widow loves it's to see her Halo Lover happy. And boy was he ever!
We headed back downtown after that and all went our separate ways. Rukari and a few other friends stayed downtown all night at the front of the line. I hear there were even XBOX's down there at one point. Rukari stayed in line all night to be the first inside HaloFest in the morning. And he was.
We met up with a couple of the guys and had some drinks later that night. Then, we met new friends from our home state at a different bar. At midnight, we dragged our tired feet back to the car with Grim Brothers and friend in tow, headed back to the hotel in Sea-Tac. We made plans to head back to Seattle very early and then slept fast and hard until 5 AM.
I've written about the fellowship of gaming, and I got to see it in action again today. It's incredible that strangers who only know each other through their voices over the internet and a spread of community forums, can sit and be so comfortable with each other. It was a lot of fun to meet up with the people Mike's known for a while now. I'm finally be able to put faces to some of the muffled voices I hear through his headset and shake the hands that type some of the tweets I see. Thanks guys for a great Thursday. I'll tell all about Friday tomorrow.
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