Day 3

Quackers!!

Woke up to a beautiful morning - and the view was still there!

(click for bigger)

We had all slept well and there was hardly a sign of jetlag. But then, it is always worse going the other way. Hub decided that he was worried about the car not having the proper paperwork; especially for when we went over the border to Canada - so he nipped off back to Alamo at the airport. I took a picture of the car we'd hired, just in case it didn't come back (somehow I had a feeling!).

While he was gone, I settled the bill with Anna, downloaded some photos to the laptop and there was some WC on the TV (can't remember, for the life of me, which game!), which Paul was watching. Mainly though, I sat on the deck and just enjoyed being there. What a lovely place!

T came home with a new car. (There's a surprise!). An Impala, the same as they'd allocated us yesterday, only this time it was a silver one (which is altogether a better colour!). Anyway, all the paperwork was sorted and we had a great big car with a great big boot! So, we went out on our first foray into town! First of all, we drove down to West Seattle, to Alki Beach and a lovely view of the city. We missed Alki Point, and the lighthouse, altogether, but I reckon we saw all the rest of West Seattle!! The part of the beach we parked at had all those great big rocky blocks between us and the actual beach, so we didn't get to stroll or paddle or anything - just ogle the skyline, the ferries and the Olympic Mountains over on the Peninsula.

a bit lost!

We next went into the city - via several parts of the city we didn't want to see - including what appeared to be the Chinatown of South Seattle.

Finally, after several stops for map-checking, we parked up opposite the Space Needle, put several bucks in the machine (they give you no ticket; they just check that there's money in the box for whatever parking space number you've taken!) and walked over to the Seattle Center. It was SO HOT! We went in the shop ("I'm not going up there", muttering Paul, the entire time) and went around the whole centre, it seemed, without being able to find the Duck place. And it was SO HOT! ("I'm not going up there" ... mutter, mutter).

But we spotted a McDonalds and headed down that way, and there was the Duck, just opposite that! So, we had some lunch in the McD and then strolled over to the Nest and bought tickets. We had to wait a loooooooong time, so we shopped for T-shirts and duck blowers and then lined up in the hot sun, beside a bunch of Germans.

Our duck was late, apparently. So we waited some more and then I started to feel the jetlag and it wasn't very comfortable at all! FINALLY, our duck rolled up, the passengers singing along to YMCA. This was going to be fun!! It seemed, to me though at least, that the singing and shouting and joking was reserved mainly for the Duck Nest, to tempt more punters, as our bloke was actually quite quiet! I think he was pretty new. He did attempt a few lousy jokes, but mainly he told us about the places we were seeing - and a very good job he did at that too!

First we wheeled around the Seattle Center - then down to the Waterfront, past the piers and the stadiums and then up past Pike Place Market, through Pioneer Square and up to the Downtown area, with the shops. We briefly touched on Fremont and then splashed into Lake Union! There we 'drove' past Gasworks Park, saw a few sea-planes take off, the houseboat used in 'Sleepless' and a few more rich-peoples' houseboats. There is a difference between the houseboats and the barges and something else - but, despite the indepth lecture, I cannot remember what those differences are. Those houseboats are very expensive though! Back to the Duck Nest, to the strains of YMCA and we returned to our car. A great trip!

steps which lead nowhere

We returned to base. Slowly. We didn't feel like much to eat, so we stopped off at Trader Joe's, Burien, for some provisions. This and that. Mainly a fat tiramisu ice-cream thingie dessert!! We bought salads. It wasn't until we got back to the cottage, that I realised that they were the EXACT SAME salads we'd bought in the Trader Joe's in Scottsdale, two years ago! Creatures of habit, or what!!

When the Sun began its descent over Puget Sound, we decided to go for a drive around Three Tree Point, so that we could see the Sun actually set, like we'd seen on some beautiful webcam pictures, in the past. We didn't start out good as the hub suddenly lost his marbles and drove us on the wrong side of the road! Seconds from certain death! GET ON THE RIGHT!!!! We never did see the sunset properly though, because the good people of this part of (quite rich I would say) Seattle, had been allowed to build their houses all along the shoreline and there was nowhere where we could get through! Rats! We saw an awful lot of that particular area though!

So, back to camp and some TV and wine, before, once more, enjoying a perfectly sound sleep.

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[ Introduction ] [ Day 1 ] [ Day 2 ] [ Day 3 ] [ Day 4 ] [ Day 5 ] [ Day 6 ] [ Day 7 ] [ Day 8 ] [ Day 9 ]
[ Day 10 ] [ Day 11 ] [ Day 12 ] [ Day 13 ] [ Day 14 ] [ Day 15 ] [ Day 16 ] [ Day 17 ]
[ Day 18 ] [ Day 19 ] [ Day 20 ] [ Day 21 ]

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