Day 5 (Day 1 in Seattle): Yeah, It Was 98 DEGREES in Seattle Today!!

Carrie and I arrived in Seattle about noon and immediately paid 28 dollars to park. Eight dollars were for parking in a gravel lot that we only later found out was only a four hour lot, and then twenty dollars for a 24 hour space. After we checked our bags at the Moore Hotel, we walked to the Virginia Inn, a neat little local bar/restaurant. I had the crab cake and Carrie had a turkey sandwich. Then we took the monorail to Seattle Center and visited the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum. Highlights included the history of guitar exhibit and the Jimi Hendrix area. It was really cool to see letters that Hendrix wrote and drawings that he made. Apparently he was a decent artist as well as an amazing musician. We only briefly walked through the Science Fiction Museum.

After getting a few snapshots of the Space Needle, we walked over to Olympic Sculpture Park, but it was incredibly hot and we didn’t take much time to appreciate the sculptures. We hopped on the waterfront bus and rode it to Pioneer Square, the historic district of Seattle. We took the Underground Tour, which visits three sections of late 19th century Seattle that were rebuilt after the catastrophic fire of 1889. The city was rebuilt quickly but several years later the city decided to build up the parts of the city closest to Puget Sound, which made the previous first floors of all the buildings in this area underground today. You can still see the designs on some of the plaster walls. It was a very interesting hour and a half, and Carrie got some good pictures.

After the tour, we walked down to the Elliott Bay Book Company, which is a Seattle institution. It is such a great bookstore, comparable to Full Circle in Oklahoma City, but only much bigger. We left the bookstore and walked to the International District, but it was after 7:30 and much of the district was closed. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by the library, but it closes at 8, so we made a point to come back the next day. We ate at Belltown Pizza on the recommendation of the hotel desk clerk, and it was really tasty. We were back in our room at around 11:30, very tired but very happy to continue our visit to the Emerald City the next day. Hopefully, it would not be nearly 100 degrees the next day.

Since we're going to be in backwoods Washington the next three days, we won't be able to post anything, but that's not too bad considering it's the weekend, and you all need something to keep you busy when you're bored at work!!


Here are photos from our first day in Seattle.

Day 5

--BDC