vip in the city

Through the Cascades

After last night’s marathon Cure set – MT joked over breakfast coffee that Robert Smith was still on stage – there was an executive decision to be made. Although the Memorial Day lineup looked promising — including Jamie Lidell, Ghostland Observatory, The Hives, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Flight of the Conchords (of the HBO show), The Mars Volta and The Flaming Lips — ultimately we decided that for this, my first visit to the Pacific Northwest, it would be a pity to miss Seattle entirely.

Josh Bis (Science vs Romance) dutifully recaps Day 3 of Sasquatch on the KEXP blog. (More photo highlights of the festival here.) The talk of the final day was The Flaming Lips finale — a jolting spectacle which featured five fully nude women, U.F.O.s, Teletubbies, flashing lights, smoke machines, balloons, confetti and streamers. (Um, fully nude women. Link NSFW, obviously.)

So with most of the day left before I had to board the redeye home, we headed into the city. From Ellensburg, it was to be a two-hour drive east on Interstate 90, over Snoqualmie Pass (population: 201) and through the snow-crusted Cascade Mountains.

Emerald City, here we come!

Tags: Cascades, I-90, mountains, Sasquatch, Washington

The road to The Gorge

Picked up the PT Cruiser at SeaTac, “The Hospitality City” — so-called for the intense concentration of hotel chains clustered around the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. I was able to walk with my luggage from the Radisson lobby up to the rental car counters across from baggage claim in less than ten minutes, a journey which would be unthinkable at any of the NYC area airports.

The most arduous part of this leg of our travels was finding the exit out of the multi-tiered parking garage. (Most confusing signage ever!) But once we hit the I-90, it was a straightforward and breathtaking two hour drive to The Gorge Amphtitheater.

I heard on the local news this morning that area ski lodges would remain open for Memorial Day weekend. I was incredulous until we passed through these snow-capped mountains, a mere hour out of the city.

Once through the mountain pass, the climate warmed considerably, and the landscape gave way to an almost Southwestern vista: flat lands of sagebrush that seemed to stretch for miles. Just the place for a wind farm:

At the turnoff to The Gorge, preparing for an amazing lineup of music.

Sasquatch Musical Festival photos up on flickr! Beirut, Ozomatli, The Whigs, Fleet Foxes, Kathleen Edwards, The New Pornographers, M.I.A., Grand Archives, The National, The Breeders (Kim Deal!), and headliner R.E.M.

Tags: I-90, Sasquatch, SeaTac, Washington