This roam has been a long time coming. Last year, when we returned from our West Coast adventure, I tried to think about the next place. Ethel has set a goal of visiting all 50 states before she turns 30. So, I says to myself, “Self, let’s go far away. And what state is the furthest from home? Hawaii!” That wouldn’t do though, as we’ve already checked off our 50th state. What then? Alaska. We’ll go to Alaska. Last July we booked the cruise for us and for my parents to go with us. All that was left was to book a hotel in Seattle, plan excursions , get flights, and wait. Waiting an interminable period of time for July to get here. As the date of departure grew near and I told the girls about some of the things we might could do, they suggested a few items as well. We’d have to do those, for sure. Finally, July 7th got here and we were off.
July 7th in Raleigh dawned. I’m not sure how bright, because for us it dawned at 4:15am so we could get to the airport. Turns out getting there early was a good idea. Our friendly neighborhood TSA agents were not exactly all on the same page with security checks. One line, was all like “Shoes on, leave items in bags” while others were all like, “yea, take it all off and out of the bags”. I suppose I should’ve known that since our line was clear, we where in the latter. Except we didn’t realize it. Until the very large man said I would be patted down. And not just any pat-down-I was to have my “sensitive areas” patted as well. So after the pat-down, in full view of my family, a cigarette, and the breakfast I felt owed by the agent, we were headed to the gate. Our flight left on time and was uneventful. Even when the pilot deployed a drag chute in Salt Lake City to bring us to a stop.
If you are looking for a time warp, fly through Salt Lake. They have pay phones even an in terminal smoking lounge. But no seats. So don’t expect to sit down while you trey to eat. That’s about it for Salt Lake. Have a short layover if possible.
We left Salt Lake a few minutes behind, but the pilots made up for it and we landed only 5 minutes behind our scheduled arrival time in $eattle. The airport was slammed with people. I mean wall to wall, can’t move, people of every cultures, slammed. It took us a good 15 minutes at a decent clip to get to baggage claim. Once there, we waited. Our bags came, Lucy learned an important lesson about placing liquids in a plastic bag, and we called our Ubers for the ride to the hotel. Given our luggage a UberX probably wouldn’t work. We took two, and I rode with my mom and Ethel. Our driver was quite good and the ride was pleasant. We all arrived at the Hampton Inn Downtown at the same time. We all checked in and both rooms were ready! After a quick drop off of bags and a quick refresher, we were out to explore $eattle.
We all walked the few short blocks to $eattle Center to ride the monorail to get back to the Market area. Built for the 1962 World’s Fair, it is about the cheapest way to get from one place to the other. But only one place as there are just the two stops. Also, they only accept cash,so know that. The weather was cloudy and cool with intermittent showers, which honestly, makes for a nice change from the weather at home. Pike Place Market was one of those “must visit” places for us. I think though, that the cruise industry in $eattle has completely overwhelmed everything. Just so. Many. People. The last time I was here, I remember strolling through the market. Not the case today. First off, we had an ear of roasted corn (yum) and some Rainier cherries (also, yum). As I had not eaten all day, we went to Uli’s Famous Sausage. I had read that most all of their sausages were gluten free as were their fries. 2 delicious sausages, a delightful sauerkraut, and fries later (and 18 bucks poorer) we kept moving. We did all the tourist things. We watched them throw the fish, we looked at the stalls, we saw the original Starbucks. Folks were starting to get hungry though, and we started to piece together food. Lucy and the boss had macaroni and cheese at Beecher’s (said by Lucy to be the best she ever had), Ethel had a meatball sub and coke (18 bucks!). We were going to get them all chowder, but the line was prohibitively long. After moseying around the market for a bit longer, my parents and the girls stopped for chocolate and the boss and I went to Pike Brewing Co. I had read online that they carried a wonderful gluten free stout from Ghostfish Brewing Company. Apparently, this entire brewery is gluten free! I was thrilled. The boss had a flight and we met back up with the rest.
After a bit of shopping and a ride back to $eattle Center, we let the girls play on the playground in the rain. Said by Lucy to have been a highlight. We had 7:30 tickets for the Space Needle. But given that at this point we were all starting to falter, we headed up about 7. This was Ethel’s bucket list item and she loved it. Lots of good exhibits while you line up, a short elevator ride, and a very crowded observation deck await. It was still nice though. The sky was gunmetal gray, with a few breaks in the clouds, and windy. The girls loved it. They filmed themselves walking around, took pictures, and seemed to absorb it all. After the visit to the gift shop, we headed to the hotel and all collapsed.
Day 1 got vacation off to a good start. It’s hard changing time zones but I’m glad we came a day early. $eattle is dirtier and more crowded than I remember and way more expensive. I look forward to getting on the ship tomorrow where at least food is paid for!!!
