Day 88-90: WA: Seattle: First, the Fun: Xeko's awesome environmental trading cards and Theo organic chocolate

Seattle: As expected, a bounty of coffeeshops and people running, biking and walking regardless of the weather. Also, in keeping with our observations thus far, Seattle's high percentage of Subarus seems to directly relate to its high percentage of environmentally conscious citizens...In fact, does someone want to start sending around a petition to Subaru re: a Plug-in Hybrid? because, from what we can tell, Subaru owners would have bought that ticket decades ago.(*side note: I also noticed an abundance of Naturopathic/Homeopathic Clinics, for the first time on this trip...)We enjoyed talking to Seattle City Councilman Richard Conlin about new legislation allowing pygmy goats as Seattle pets but, more to the topic, about his optimistic goal of Zero Waste for the city. Using a combination of education, opportunity and incentives, legislators are proving environmentalism a no-brainer for the few financially-myopic holdouts. Conlin says that he doesn't have to work terribly hard since Seattlans generally pride themselves on being "environmental."Lovely eco-Entrepreneur Amy Tucker explained the birth of her brainchild, uber earth-friendly Xeko Games (Endangered Species trading cards- SO COOL - Definitely check them out, particularly if you have kids!). She then toured us around the dang cute neighborhood of Fremont (aka the Center of the Universe), introduced us to our first taste of Truffle Oil French fries at the Baguette Box (which she allows herself once a week), and then hooked us up with a fabulously impromptu and decadent tour of Theo Organic Chocolate Factory by owner and fellow enviro-businessman, Joe Whinney. As nice as he is brilliant (in my cocoa-tinted opinion), Joe is "proud to be the first roaster of Fair Trade Certified™ cocoa beans and the only roaster of organic cocoa beans in the United States." Which is WONDERFUL but frankly, once we got a taste of his divine chocolate in our yaps, we just really didn't even care all that much about knowing the details.I have to say, whatever the reason, the happiness quotient at both Xeko and Theo seemed wonderfully and ridiculously high, and I have to recommend them both, for anyone visiting the Fremont area. Just watch out for the Troll under the bridge. He's got a thing for Volkswagons...