You are under 21 and yet you want a drink. This contradiction
has only one legal solution: cross the border into Canada, where, in
British Columbia, the legal drinking age is 19.
One advantage of going to college in Seattle is that you now live
close to a saner country—a place with national health care and
the good sense to stay out of Iraq and a sensible drinking age. You are
also blessed by the size of Vancouver, BC—it’s not just a city in
a sane country but a big city in a sane country. And like all big
cities, it has lots of bars filled with other young people to meet and
fuck.
Vancouver also has lots of cheap but decent hotels. My
recommendation: the Shaughnessy Village in Vancouver’s hospital
district. This concrete tower offers small but cozy rooms that can hold
three persons at the cost of fifty bucks a night. If you decide to stay
here, ask for a room on an upper floor facing downtown Vancouver. For
fifty bucks you will enjoy a million-dollar view. As you legally drink
and fool around with your friend (or friends), the lights of the city
will magically illuminate your lurid little room.
Another advantage of Vancouver—that it is only three hours
away—is undone by a major disadvantage: From around 9:00 a.m. to
9:00 p.m., the border is practically impenetrable. The lines to the
border check are longer than the Great Wall of China, and nothing, not
even the hardest of drugs, can speed the never-ending wait. (I
recommend taking the train on Saturday morning and returning on Sunday
night—the train takes about four hours, is comfortable, and has
bathrooms with just enough room for rocky sex.)
Another disadvantage just now is the weakness of the American
dollar. Canadian prices are inflated by taxes that help support this
sane country’s social services, which makes drinking bloody expensive.
And while the Canadians enjoy a generous health-care system, they do
not enjoy generous pours. But a weak Canadian drink is better than no
American drink. 
