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October 15, 2006

Super Tourists in Seattle

We arrived in Seattle via Jetblue Thursday night. Got a cab to our hotel, Silver Cloud Inn, Broadway. It was around midnight when we arrived so we were pretty beat. The room is really nice! A king size bed, free internet, frig and microwave (in the room) and laundry machines down the hall. The free breakfast lacks proteins but they have a waffle maker!

We started out our first full day being a total tourist. Our hotel is in Capital Hill, right across the street from Seattle University and not far from downtown. So we walked down to the waterfront and man, we didn't realize how hilly Seattle is, just like San Francisco. The waterfront is where I took the above picture. It was a beautiful sunny day. We walked along the waterfront a bit and then made our way to the famous Pike's Place Market.

This is the famous place where they throw the fish. See how big those crabs are??!! I didn't get a good digital shot of the fish throwing cuz all the freakin' tourists got in my way (haha) but I might have gotten it on my panoramic camera. We walked a little through the market and I got lured toward the smell of fresh frying donuts. They were mini donuts and we shared a half dozen of them. They were yummy! Lots of stalls were giving out free samples and I got pulled into the pepper jelly ladies. I bought the fresh garlic pepper jelly. Can't wait to try it out! We also tried some delicious orange honey roasted almonds but resisted buying any.

We continued walking in the downtown area and considered taking the monorail to Seattle Center but it wasn't working. So we continued walking toward the Seattle Center. We had lunch at this cute little Greek place next to the Space Needle. It was good!! I can't remember the name of it.

We decided that since we were there, we might as well go up to the top although they really get you with the price. While waiting to get on the elevator, they were doing those silly tourist photos, making us stand in front of a picture of the Seattle skyline. I made a totally goofy face on purpose and couldn't wait to see it. We got on the elevator and whooosh, it was pretty fast going up there! It boasts a 520 degree view and since I'm not that good in math, couldn't figure out how it was 520 degrees. Guess from looking up and down as well? Anyway, it was pleasant. It probably would have been much cooler during the sunset or at nighttime. This is a view of the downtown area from the space needle. You can see that there was a little bit of haze.

Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel and by that time, we were really feeling it in our legs. We would have taken a bus back if only they had bus maps at the bus shelters, like they did in San Francisco but they didn't so we didn't know which bus we could take. I guessed that we probably already walked 2 miles and Yves thinks it was more.

We rested a bit at the hotel before it was time to take the bus to my friend, Barb's house for dinner. Barb gave me bus directions, according to their website (they have a trip planner) but the bus wasn't where it was supposed to be. The front desk didn't know much about the buses but thankfully, we ran into somebody that knew. The bus was about 10 blocks away. The bus was baffling! First off, you pay when you get off, how weird is that?? The bus driver said because they have a free ride area. And he got me nervous cuz I asked him to let us know when to transfer to another bus and he wasn't quite sure! But he called it in and knew where it was we were supposed to get off. And then, our transfer bus was on the highway!! On the highway!! How weird is that?? And there were like 15 different buses at that stop. The driver was really sweet and let us off right in front of the stairs leading down to the bus stop, on the highway!

So I asked the 2nd driver to let us know when we reached the street Barb said we were supposed to get off and he was kind enough to do so. It seemed like it was awhile so I was just about to ask him if we passed it and he forgot about us but then it was our stop. Barb was there waiting for us and took us back to her house. We met her mate, John and had delicious BBQ that John cooked. And he was kind enough to give me 2 bottles of his famous hot sauce. We were starting to get really low on energy around 10ish and Barb took us back to our hotel around 10:30.

A pleasant but looooooooonnnnnggggg day!

Posted by luluvision at October 15, 2006 09:39 PM

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Posted by: jungy at October 16, 2006 12:12 PM

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