Day 19

Back to the US of A and Seattle

We left Vancouver in the rain.

We easily found our way out of the city, and onto the US border at Peace Arch. There was a bit of a queue here, but it wasn't too long before we were through the border controls ("why did you go to Canada?" "For a holiday" ...) and making our way, back down I-5, towards Seattle.

I'd wanted to turn off the interstate at Bellingham, and drive along the shore to Mt Vernon, but the rain was such that this would've been a waste of time, as visibility was very poor. So we continued on down the I-5, stopping somewhere (Mt Vernon?) for lunch. We also turned off the road at Everett, thinking we'd find (and visit) the Boeing Tour Center here - but we missed it! The traffic around the Seattle suburbs was very heavy, but once in the city itself, it wasn't too bad - and, only one wrong turning later, we were parking in the garage of the Silver Cloud Inn, at Lake Union. The hotel was very pleasant and our room, on the 5th floor, was a suite, with a sitting room, with huge flatscreen TV on the wall, fridge, microwave etc - and a bedroom, with king bed (and its own smaller TV), separated by sliding doors. We also had a very nice view over the lake and (to the left a bit), the Space Needle. The weather had now cleared up a bit, but we had time to slob around for a while in our room, before going out. Paul had a big strop on, for some reason, so I stropped back! Eventually though, we took the hotel shuttle down to Pike Place Market. We'd thought, at first, to go down to Pioneer Square, but the girl behind the desk had suggested that the Waterfront might be better for us. The shuttle, incidentally, was a great service provided by the hotel - one which we utilised fully!

For once, photos of the room before we trashed it!!

Pike Place Market itself was, of course, by now closed. But we found the 'first ever' (and, amazingly, our first ever!) Starbucks store and hub bought himself a coffee! There was no looking back from now on - he was instantly hooked! From there we started to walk down towards the waterfront, taking a glass lift down, for the last part! We sauntered the shops, buying trinkets here and there. The Old Curiosity Shoppe was interesting, as were several other, smaller shops, like Made in Washington and Simply Seattle. The smell of the air, the sound of the seagulls, the noise of the traffic on the viaduct above - the VIEW over the Sound one way - and the skyscrapers the other - made this a most satisfying, almost sensual place to stroll. We enjoyed fish 'n' chips (battered SALMON!) from Ivar's Fish Bar and sat and ate them overlooking the water. Some bloke (perhaps Ivar himself??!) came to feed the gulls, amid much squwawking - and I later fed the rest of my salmon to them, though had to be careful not to get my fingers pecked off. Then we watched the sunset over the Sound, which was magical.

Back up to the market area, we phoned for the shuttle to pick us up. We didn't have to wait all that long (outside another Simply Seattle), which was a good thing, as we were a little uncomfortable, standing in a strange place, at night. It had been a beautiful evening, though.

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[ Day 18 ] [ Day 19 ] [ Day 20 ] [ Day 21 ]

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