Love this city! Seattle, WA

Seattle, WA

We wanted to be able to see a few things here in Seattle before leaving for Vancouver, but also not wear ourselves out before our big day tomorrow. I woke up at 4 (7 EST) but managed to talk myself into going back to sleep then I was awake for good at 7.

It was an absolutely beautiful day here in Seattle. We couldn’t have asked for better weather. We had breakfast at the hotel and caught the 10 AM shuttle to WestLake Center and then walked a few blocks to Pike Place Public Market.

This was such a great place! There are over 100 farmers represented, local artisans and restaurants. There is only one chain vendor that is there, the first ever Starbucks. Otherwise, only locals – no chains allowed! This is the Public Market we had heard so much about, fish throwing and amazing fresh produce, interesting gifts and unusual crafts.

We had lunch at the Sound View Cafe and spent a few hours wandering around.

After leaving the Public Market we decided to make a quick stop by the Amtrak station to pick up our tickets for tomorrow morning’s train ride to Vancouver. It is going to be an early morning for us! They do not have the train that has the Business Class cars available so we were refunded a portion of our ticket price. The only downside is we won’t have seat assignments until in the morning. Hopefully we’ll be seated in a good place for Mr. Photographer.

We then took a taxi back to WestLake Center and caught the monorail over to Seattle Center. The monorail was built back in the 60’s in conjunction with the World’s Fair here in Seattle.

It was very cool – only $2 and it gave us a different public transportation option to utilize.

The day was still gorgeous, blue skies surrounding the Space Needle.

LJ did some talking with himself and a few conversations later, he said ‘let’s just get in line and see what happens’. (sidebar: he is deathly afraid of heights). So we jumped into line for tickets ($16/adults) and soon were distracted by a group of children over 100 strong in number! I just hoped to get into the elevator up before their group because I wasn’t sure how the delay would effect LJ’s resolve. We made it and headed towards the elevators. The trip up was 41 seconds (per the guide) and LJ later said he kept his eyes closed the entire time.

After getting his bearings, we ventured outside to the viewing deck. Absolutely beautiful! The view was amazing and we had a wonderful opportunity to see Mt Rainier. LJ took several pictures and we spent quite a bit of time up there. I was so glad he was able to enjoy himself.

After going down, I was blessed with a “I made it to the top” dance in the gift store. I had promised him a t-shirt after completing the adventure but he didn’t find one he was completely in love with so he asked to bank the t-shirt credit for later in the trip, haha.

We then decided to go on a “Duck Tour”. We made it on the last tour of the day, 5 PM. We had a blast.

Our tour guide was fabulous, we got a great history of some of the Seattle sights and I got some great videos of LJ singing. When we moved from land to water we were able to see some of the houseboats / floating homes on the lake. There was a little boy celebrating his 3rd birthday so the entire bus sang to him. One funny note – our guide said since Starbucks had such an economic impact on Seattle, every time we passed one she wanted everyone to say “Cha-Ching” – we did that a lot!

Duck Tour complete and now it’s 7 PM. Now we catch a taxi to Queen Anne, to a park that overlooks the city / the Space Needle and Mt Rainier. This is the spot for one of the most popular shots you see of Seattle. The taxi waited as LJ was able to get some photos.

Then we went to REI, this was the best REI we have ever seen – I think I could live there! Okay.. now it’s after 8 and we need to have dinner and get to the hotel. A quick dinner at Mad Pizza was delicious and fast – just what we needed. Depart Mad Pizza – brief walk to the hotel – and packing up for tomorrow morning’s early morning departure.

It was a fantastic day in Seattle. Yes, we didn’t exactly take it easy but it was worth it – I highly recommend a visit here! Looking forward to Vancouver tomorrow and boarding the Radiance. Until then…