Day 10 (Seattle)

We awoke to the sounds of the city this morning in a cozy pull out couch at my cousin Cindy's house. Richard is her brother and they live not far from each other. Errol is Cindy's husband. He was up and out of the house early today and we didn't get much time to see him. Cindy decided since this was her last few days at her current job, she would beg off work and have fun with us in the city!

Our first stop...

Well, the parking garage was the first stop... Then City Center! That's where we saw the famed Space Needle!! But.... we decided to first go downtown and then on our way back we would stop at the Space Needle. We were hoping by that time too that the fog would have burned off a little so we would have a little bit of a view today. 

So we were off into the monorail and headed to downtown Seattle. Specifically... Pike's Place Public Market. 

Such an interesting place! They had a fish market just inside where they threw the ordered item across the store in order to wrap it up for you! I wish I had been able to get a picture of this, but they started throwing and my camera was not set up. :(   Never mind the inside vendors, the street performers were also very interesting!  They were amazingly talented!!

I couldn't quiet figure out what this gentleman was playing but whatever it was he was very adept at playing it! I actually threw in a couple dollars for him being that he allowed me to take his picture and whatnot.

This band, The Tallboys, was having some fun here! They were in front of the very first Starbucks coffee shop. This is where Starbucks first started and their store is still here. 

After visiting the market we started up the hill at the end of the street and decided that we were going to head back to the monorail so we could see the Space Needle. But our stomachs won out for the moment. Half way up the street we realized we were hungry and decided to stop in at Kells Irish Pub. Not only was the food there amazing (a big thanks to Cindy for suggesting this place!), but the beer was even better. We all had the Limerick sandwich which was ham on Irish soda bread. I ordered the unhealthy chips to go with it, but Cindy and Kevin ordered the more healthy option of salad. 

With our belly's full, we headed back up the street toward the monorail. We hopped on and headed straight for the Space Needle.

While standing in line at the Space Needle waiting to get tickets, we noticed some really amazing glass art next door. Turns out this was the Chihuly museum. We made a last minute decision to get tickets for this place along with our Space Needle tickets. It turned out to be a great decision!!

The Space Needle had some incredible views!! I wish the fog had cleared up a little more because we wanted to be able to see Mt Ranier. Although we were disappointed because we didn't get to see the Mountain, we did get see so much more of the city..

It was amazing being up that high and being able to see so much!! We did the 360 degree tour around and had wanted to go upstairs to have a small snack in the dinning room while experiencing the moving room. But alas, we did not have enough time to do that. We had to be back to pick up Errol and meet his friend on the other side of town for drinks. 

So we finished up at the Space Needle, picked up some souvenirs and headed over to the glass museum.

This was the "Glass Forest" display. It was the very first display and it was stunning!! Here are a few more pieces that we came across. 

We thoroughly enjoyed walking around the museum and viewing the fascinating pieces in there. I was completely mesmerized by what this man has done. The detail in each piece was perfect. I could walk through here again and look at the same pieces and still see something different each time. However, time was not on our side today. We had places to go and people to meet and have some drinks with.

Cindy and Errol brought us to this nice little pub. The Beveridge Place Pub. It had a very real urban feel to it. They had so many different beers to choose from. Errol decided on a tray of 9 different beers to taste. They were all called IPA's (Indian Pale Ale's). I decided after tasting a few that I was not a Pale Ale kinda gal. In any case, Cindy and Errol introduced us to Brian who was about to embark on a trip to Panama volunteering to help sick people. He was leaving in the morning and this was a little good bye gathering. He was a super nice guy! Very interesting too. He plans to bring many supplies to help people medically. But tonight it was about the beer...

Here, Brian explains to Errol and Cindy why he likes the pale ale beers. I'm not a beer connoisseur and it was quite apparent at this gathering!! But the pizza, regular beer, and company was just what we needed before starting back on the road in the morning. 

We finally made it home sometime before midnight and went straight for bed. We had a long day of driving in the morning and were praying that we had no trouble as we crossed the Canadian border.