Seattle or San Francisco?

OR



So I am having an extremely hard time deciding on my vacation destination this year. What I absolutely know with certainty are two things. I am going somewhere in May, and it's either going to be Seattle (which would encompass Vancouver and Portland) or San Francisco. My brother has been working in San Fran for 6 weeks now, and maybe making a permanent transition to that market very soon. Two of my best friends Gary and John live near Seattle. This is a tough call for me. John and Gary have extremely busy schedules. John works 2 jobs, 60 hours a week and Gary is in the Navy and has a demanding work schedule during the week as well. But... I really want to see these guys and explore more of the Pacific Northwest then I got to the last time I was out there. I was hoping to branch out to Vancouver which is only an hour and 45 minutes from their house, and Portland which isn't too far either. My conflict about doing this though is their work schedules. If they can't get free time, then I will be stuck on an island off of Washington with absolutely nothing to do or transportation means to get me anywhere.

On the other hand, my brother Nick stays in the heart of downtown San Francisco. I could stay at his place/hotel and even while he's working I could just walk out and enjoy the city. So this is a tough call. I am thinking about possibly going both places. One of my favorite bands of all time Carissa's Wierd are getting together for a reunion show in Seattle in July, which I absolutely have to go see. I should have about 7 paid vacation days accrued in May, and I will have two more by July. So maybe I will use up 5 of those days to go to San Fran, and then 4 of those days to go to Seattle. I don't know why I am rambling on about this on my blog really. I think it's mostly in an attempt to talk out loud about things rather than just thinking them out inside my head. Taking two vacations to the West Coast though is going to be extremely expensive. Doubt I can afford it. Not to mention I am taking a weekend trip to Philly in early June to see The National. I think I'm going to sit here at work and ponder this some more in the meantime, while I listen to a live concert I just downloaded by Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold.

You can download the whole thing here if you're interested: http://chocolatebobka.blogspot.com/2009/07/mp3-white-antelope-two-headed-boy.html