This past Friday wifey and I got late notice that my friend was coming into Seattle from Alaska with his sister in law and her friend for the weekend. All three are from Belarus, two now live in Alaska where they earn Alaskan wages, the third (friend) was visiting from Minsk. None of them had really toured Seattle before and were all excited. He intended to show them a good time and my wife and I were keen to join them. I invited my best friend and his gf, and his brother as well who happened to fly in the same night, so it was a great time all around.
It started Friday night with wifey and I joining them in downtown Seattle (25 miles south of where we live) for a walk around town to several bars where we all consumed lots of booze. I drove them all around in my '97 Grand Marquis. Yes we crammed them all in (4 in back 4 in front), it was hilarious.
We managed to keep our expenses down to $41 for the night out, pretty tame in comparison to what my Alaskan friend and my buddy spent, so we called it a win.
Saturday we watched football with her family and enjoyed a lazy day and had a birthday dinner for her at her parents house.
Then, Sunday my buddy asked if we wanted to join them for a dinner reservation at the Space Needle. I said yes, because it's wifey's birthday on the 10th, and figured we could live it up for the night. Also, I picked up donating plasma again for easy money and decided to spend it. We joined them a bit early for a underground tour which my friend graciously paid for. Then we walked over to the Columbia Tower to go up to the observation deck, but decided to not pay the $15/each to go up. Not worth it! Then we drove over to the Chihuly Glass Museum which was an awesome free exhibit directly beneath the Space Needle.
On to dinner. We go up the Space Needle (which, without dinner reservations costs $25!!!), and are immediately seated. The Space Needle restaurant spins around 360* every 47 minutes. The views of Seattle are awesome, and Elliot Bay, and Lake Union. The menu prices are also intense! Appetizers cost $12-$18, Entrees are $46-$99. A three course meal is offered at $74/person...
Well, we all went ahead with the three course meal option, my buddy bought a $38 bottle of Malbec which we toasted to Kristi for her birthday, and we all spent 2.5 hours enjoying great company eating great food. At the close of the evening the check came and it was $448! My friends sister in law and her friend had never seen a bill that high in their entire lives. They are from Belarus, where a good salary pays $500/mo. Our table had just eaten/spent a months salary of a Belarusian corporate worker. Apartments are $150/mo! 3 months rent on food! My friend runs a successful real estate business in Alaska, and is equipped financially to pay for this kind of excursion and he paid for the two ladies, but they were flabbergasted nonetheless. I could tell that our new friend visiting from Belarus was very seriously grateful for the experience, as she would never do this on her own.
My wife and I paid $210 for our meals, including a tip, and half of the bottle of wine. HA! HAHAHA!
So, this weekend ran a tab of $251, plus about $13 in fuel. Our only rationalization is that in the past 6 months we've spent less then $50 at restaurants, so our running tally is still $50/mo. Which is $250 higher than it would have been otherwise...
So, FACEPUNCH away, as we all agreed we wouldn't do it again, but still somehow feel like it was worth the adventure!
The plus side is that Wifey thoroughly enjoyed her birthday weekend, and we've already maxed our IRA's for the year. Now to fight spending inflation while I net $3200/year donating plasma ($6400 if/when wifey joins the party :)