Sleepless in Seattle

We were sad to leave Glacier but ready to get to Seattle.  We wanted to get as close to Seattle as possible, but we would need to overnight it somewhere.  Since we knew we were going to be spending some money in Seattle we set up our camp late on a BLM land not too far from our route, these are government owned lands that are free to camp on.  We heard the train and the cows mooing in the distance the whole night but it worked out okay.  We got up early and hit the road towards Seattle.  We decided to go to the Woodlands Park Zoo since we had a half day still and could stop there before going to the hotel.  The zoo was really nice and Elisabeth had fun. 

Our hotel was outside of the city center but it was just a bus ride to go into town so we could park the car for free and it was an okay hotel (I guess anything is awesome after 3 weeks camping!!).  That night we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner that was within walking distance of our hotel.   We drank a few Coronas and ate until our stomachs hurt – It was a lot of fun. 

The next day was our big day in Seattle.  We woke up early with the time change and I found a really cool trail right behind the hotel to go running.  We ate as much breakfast at the hotel that we could before heading into town.  We got off the bus at Seattle Center where there is the Space Needle.  It was pretty foggy at the time so there was no point in going up to see the view because there was none!!  So we walked around there for a while and then took the Monorail into the city center. 

We walked around downtown looking at the stores before heading down to Pike’s Place Market which is my favorite part of the city!!   The market was completely crazy….there were people EVERYWHERE!!!  But I loved the market and all the choice of fish that was there.  The market branched off in all of these crazy directions and at every turn there were very unique stores with handmade goods and unique gifts.  The most amazing part of the market was the huge florist with all the different combinations of bouquets imaginable at very low prices. 

We walked along the store fronts trying the samples on the way and trying to decide where we wanted to have lunch.  There was a fish stand that also cooked up whatever you wanted while you sat at the bar in the middle of all of the fish.  We wanted to go here but by the time we came back there was a crazy line.  It was easy to pick out the popular spots to have lunch because they all had lines stretching far into the streets.  There was another place that was known for its clam chowder that had the longest line.  Finally, we found this little restaurant that had a patio area squished between the buildings and there was one table left on the patio so we went for it.  The sun had just come out before we sat down and we had a beautiful sunny spot.  We had fish and chips and  a clam chowder soup, the food was awesome….and the beer was pretty good too! 

We left here and went walking down by the coast to see the ocean.  On the way we ran into this girl that did henna tattoos so we got a little butterfly tattoo for Elisabeth on her arm...she was very happy about this! 

The coast was beautiful and of course we had to stop at Starbucks, which you find on every block, to have a Frappuccino.  We headed up into the city and walked around the shops visiting the different areas, including an awesome toy store where we spent at least an hour while Elisabeth played with all of the toys. 

We found a really cute park with a manmade waterfall where we sat and chilled for awhile. 

The time came to choose a restaurant for dinner and the choices were abundant but since we were so picky we took FOREVER to choose where we wanted to go.  We wanted to be able to sit outside by the ocean at a seafood restaurant, at a reasonable price.  Well this is not easy to find.  So we finally went to Fisherman’s which is on the ocean but we decided that it would be better to just have a drink here and have dinner somewhere else.  We ended up at the well-known Pike’s Pub & Brewery, which meets none of the criteria we were looking for but is a cool place to have a beer and some good food.  We sampled their 8 beers before deciding on one.  We took two appetizers and split a main course.  We took the artichoke dip, the smoked salmon and split a burger.  The food was really good!!  And the beer was even better!  So this was our one day exploring the city, before heading back into nature.  So we did our laundry, our grocery shopping before heading to Olympic National Park the next day. 

Yes this is a wall covered in bubblegum!!!!