Chandeleah

The next morning we lugged our gear into another cab and made it to our wonderful hotel room at the Kimpton Monaco. The sight of a huge king sized bed and room to repack (and throw out some more gear!) nearly had us in tears with excitement.

We wandered out of our hotel and came across these cool trees that had their trunks painted blue. I loved how it brightened up the trees that had lost their leaves in winter. We turned the corner and hit the famous Pike Place Public Market – the oldest farmers market in the states. It was Saturday and the crowds were out in force, but it was fun wandering through the stalls of fresh flowers and seafood and handmade goods.

 

See the full gallery on Posterous

We headed down to the waterfront and walked until we found the Washington State Ferries, where we caught a ferry over to Bainbridge Island. The sun was shining (we had heard it’s normally rainy in Seattle!) and it was a lovely trip, looking back at the city and skyline. I couldn’t stop thinking about the Grey’s Anatomy episode where there was a ferry crash (filmed on these exact ferries) haha!

We walked the small town centre on Bainbridge Island, and found all these awesome stone sculptures. We found a cheap little Thai restaurant right on the water’s edg to enjoy lunch and a well-deserved beer before heading back to the big city. Not surprisingly we ended up napping away the later afternoon in our huge hotel bed (it seriously felt like sleeping on clouds!).

 

See the full gallery on Posterous

Sunday we were up early to catch a bus out to the Museum of Flight. Wow – what an awesome museum! It was full of planes – every single type you could think of. There was a big spacecraft exhibit, and a room which was all about the history of flight. Another red shed followed the history and development of Boeing, and finally there was the WW1 wing and the WW2 wing. After 5 hours (FOR REAL, FIVE HOURS) we both started getting museum/plane fatigue, so we finished up with a quick play on a Concorde and Air Force One!

 

See the full gallery on Posterous

To end a great day, we headed back down to the waterfront where we enjoyed a drink in the sun. I requested seafood for dinner so we treated ourselves to a night out at The Crab Pot. It was hilarious – we got bibs and ate our mix of potatoes, clams, crab, shrimps, chorizo and corn right off the table!

 

See the full gallery on Posterous

Our final day, the sun was out shining again so it was off to the number one Seattle tourist attraction – The Space Needle! We wandered around the viewing area picking out the areas we had been to and generally admiring the view. What a stunner of a day to be up there!

See the full gallery on Posterous

After the Space Needle we walked to Lake Union and wandered around looking at the yachts. We caught the streetcar back to the hotel for dinner and a night in.

On our last day in Seattle we decided to just walk around downtown, do a spot of shopping, and check out the original first ever Starbucks. We have a love/hate relationship with Starbucks (hate it because it’s terrible coffee compared to our beloved Wellington café’s, but love it because it seems to be the best alternative (blurgh) to some of the shite that North American’s call coffee!). Anyway, we headed down to Pike Place to find the 1977 original and enjoy a coffee. Note the original logo too – a bare-breasted siren that was modeled after a 15th century Norse woodcut.

Being a Tuesday, Pike Place market wasn’t very crowded so we actually got to wander around it and see a few “attractions” of the market. There was Rachel the bronze pig that has stood there since 1986, and acts as a “piggy bank” collector for charity.

We also got to visit the gum wall – an amazingly disgusting alley way filled with chewed gum. While it was kind of fascinating, we made sure not to get too close!

We bought some fresh fish & chips from the markets and sat in a nearby park and watched the view and the locals walk past.

See the full gallery on Posterous

We had one final stop at the Seattle Public Library, built in 2004, which was right across the road from our hotel. The library “has a unique, striking appearance, consisting of several discrete “floating platforms” seemingly wrapped in a large steel net around glass skin”. It certainly was pretty funky on the inside too!

After enjoying the afternoon, it was back to the hotel room to completely repack up & prepare for our final leg of the journey – on to London (via Frankfurt)!