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i’ve lived in seattle for going on 4 years now, and the best part about it is that i am still learning and seeing things in this city that i have never seen before… things that surprise and excite me. and this weekend i was surprised and excited by something really cool that i discovered: last week i was on my way to work on the 66 bus (i was leaving for work from the honeybucket and taking a bus that i dont normally take, a new route for me) that goes down eastlake and into downtown. with my forehead resting lazily on the window, bouncing along with the bumps of the university bridge, i stared blankly out the window, waiting for something… anything to catch my attention. and then, all of a sudden, there it was! the biggest, coolest treehouse that i have ever seen. and as the bus drove on down the road, i promised myself that i was going to check this place out, and explore it as soon as i could.on saturday, our dear friend steph (aka rhino) took the bus up from tacoma to spend Groundhog Day ‘08 with us and go to Girl4Girl. after a delicious breakfast at wayward jess, bookis, and i drove downtown to pick up steph. jess decided to take the scenic route down eastlake, giving me the PERFECT opportunity to do a quick investigation of the treehouse. driving down road i spotted it again, “there it is! STOP, jess!” SKIRT. we skidded into an abandoned parking lot under the freeway, pulled up infront of the treehouse, and got out. it was more perfect than i even imagined. from the pavement there were six or eight steps leading down to a small bridge across a muddy little impasse. this lead to a well constructed, 14 rung ladder that lead up to the treehouse. the treehouse itself is amazing. it is built into a wide spreading, branchy tree with plenty of limb coverage. in the center was a domed enclosure about the size of the inside of your average 4 door sedan, surrounded by a wrap-around deck, complete with lawn chairs, paper grocery bags, and plastic milk crates that clearly read “use by persons other than owner is punishable by law.”so i yelled up. “heelllllooo? is anyone hoooome??” there was no answer, but i still felt pretty weird about just climbing up. i mean, what would have happened if an angry little old woman came out with a sawed off shotgun and had no mercy on my intruding soul? so we looked around on the ground level a bit and discovered (you wont believe this) a MAILBOX. it was nailed to a nearby tree. it had a letter in it! and was labeled with stickers that spelled out “tui tui,” which i think is the cute way of saying “tree tree,” the obvious nickname for a place like this. so after seeing all we thought we could see, we made our way back to the car. and just before we shut the doors to drive away, he came out. a man emerged from the depths of tui tui. he must have been 40ish but was weathered beyond his years; sunken cheeks, skin the color of the seattle winter sky, and worn clothing that i can only imagine smelled of mildew and un-wed mothers. and THIS is how the conversation went:TreeHouse Man: “were yew yellin up here?”Me: “yeah. i just wanted to say hi.”THM: “you got a cigarette?”ME: “no, i dont. jess, do you have a cigarette?”(she shook her head, a little apprehensive about me talking to him)Me: “how long have you lived here?”THM: “about a year and a half.”Me: “wow, really? cool. is that part an enclosure? does it go inside?”THM: “yeah…”Me: “cool. okay, well, see ya later.”THM: “yeah. now get outa here before i call the cops… or worse.”we jumped in the car, and sped off (with delivery driver jess behind the wheel), leaving TreeHouse Man and Tui Tui far behind us in a matter of second. i was scared, but only momentarily… and now more than ever i want to get a tumbleweed tiny home. [if you've never seen these, please check them out. awesome.]