Sleepless in Seattle

Before we jump into our visit to Seattle we promised we would provide a little insight to our journeys to Canada and Port Townsend just beforehand.

On the way to Port Townsend, we stopped at Squiem Bay State Park for a picnic lunch. The view was well worth the $10 admission to the park.

Port Townsend was a cute little harbour town. We started our visit going to Fort Warden State Park which is home to a small college located right along coastal waters. We went to a lighthouse, explored the town, and, the very unique and interesting harbor. The waterway was packed with all kinds of boats. It was truly a working port with huge machinery, house boats, fishing boats, old cars, old trucks. It was weird and cool at the same time.

We avoided a few opportunities to enter Mexico in our earlier travels but we couldn’t pass on the opportunity to take a ferry ride to Victoria, the Capital of British Columbia in Canada. Victoria is on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. We jumped the ferry in Port Angeles for the hour and a half boat ride. Victoria was nothing what we had imagined it to be. We focused on the Vancouver Island part of it not a Capital.

We pictured it as a small remote Island and beach town but no, it was a major city. We had to peel off a layer of clothes in the bathrooms cause we were mistakenly looking at Vancouver Island weather reports instead of Victoria. The difference was thirty degrees. Haha.......Luckily Brad brought a backpack for us to stash the not-needed clothing. We passed on our bikes and the car on the ferry but we sure could have used our car. Oh well…all part of the journey. We walked alot! We did cheat once and took a water taxing. While there we checked out the Parliament Building (they were filming a movie), The Empress Hotel, Fisherman’s Wharf, Bastion Square, and Chinatown. Walk on!.

We weren’t sleepless in Seattle cause we were so busy during our days there, we needed some rest. Our first stop was Pike Place. This place was as cool as it’s billing. The fish was outrageously overpriced but we did catch them throwing a twenty pound salmon to the cashier while there. We bought some cool spreads for future appetizers at an Italian import store and some fresh French bread. We got three or four snacks out of our purchase. And speaking of snacking, we went to a Triple D place for lunch afterwards. Mike’s Chile was celebrating 100 years in business that weekend. We had fun chatting it up with our Server (the granddaughter of the original owner’s) and some of the locals there. It was cool but the Chile was only okay. Good times though!

Kathy appeased Brad and agreed to go to T-Mobile Park ballgame for a Seattle Mariners-Minnesota Twins game. It was cool just exploring the park and not having any buy-in to the results of the game. After, we made our second attempt to get into the Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room and were successful. Starbucks started in Seattle. The very first Starbucks was at Pike's Place. We passed by it the other day and there must have been a hundred plus people in line to get in.

This places was a Starbucks on steroids. They did coffee tastings brewed six different ways. They had a full bar specializing in gourmet alcohol/coffee drinks and served sandwiches and pizzas. It was awesome! We did a coffee tasting with two different brews and split a prosciutto and some fancy cheese sandwich with arugula. Yum!

We're digging Seattle. What an awesome city. Small, but big enough. It has a lot of character, personality, and way less homelessness than Portland and Eugene. And, the weather was better too! Not to dog those two cities cause we really enjoyed them but to let you know how much we LOVED Seattle. We went downtown to the Chiluily Garden and Glass Museum and the Space Needle. You buy one ticket to enter both. The Glass Museum was great but the Space Needle was off the chart. The Space Needle is a Seattle landmark that was built for the 1962 World's Fair. 605 feet in the air to the top floor with 360 degree views. One floor below, the glass floor rotates around while you have a clear shot looking down. We had a refreshing beverage up there and the view was to die for.

That evening we took a drive to Camano Island to visit our friends Toni and Stuart Nicholas. It was awesome to see them again. What wonderful hosts they are and wowie-ka-zowie...what a home Stuart built (by himself) and Toni helped decorate and design. We had so much fun as they showed us their beautiful home. We had so much fun we didn't take pictures. We should have. Maybe Toni and Stuart will share some with you if they read this? We took a beautiful drive to the Secret Cove restaurant in Stuart's F450 and had a delightful dinner, laughing and enjoying our new friends company one more time.

We can't wait to see them again sometime soon. On our last day in Seattle we went to the Waterfront for a lovely dinner at Ivers-Acres of Clams while we tooled around the area checking out the shops and people. It was a nice way to close out our visit.

Thanks for following our journey. Oh yah, Kathy put together a hundred plus videos of our travels. If you have any interest in picking out one or two to watch, here's the link https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL243Vbt20G5EmW0stNgdWUhXeJLVW5LaG

Next stop is a one-night stay and a Lavender Farm on our way to Coeur d'alene Idaho. Peace and Love, Kathy and Brad