Downtown Seattle

This day’s entry runs the risk of being as long as July 3^rd, but for better reasons.  We will do our best to make it shorter.  Katie volunteered to be our tour guide for the day and do the tourist thing around downtown Seattle.  We started by taking a water taxi across from West Seattle to downtown and headed towards the famous Pike Place Market.  This is the fish-throwing, crowded farmer’s market that everyone that has been to Seattle has probably visited.  It actually was very cool and they really did throw huge fish pretty long distances.  There also were these flower arrangements that cost either $5 or $10 depending on size and were seriously huge.  After seeing all the yummy fruit, the three of us were hungry and went across the street (next to the original Starbuck’s location) to Beecher’s for the “World’s Best Mac and Cheese” (for breakfast).  It really might have been the best we have ever had and was frighteningly addicting even though it was very filling. 

We then caught a free bus to Pioneer Square for Seattle’s Underground Tour.  This actually was very cool.  Tons of history and funny stories from Seattle’s past.  There also was plenty of civil engineering information for Robbie to enjoy like streets over 8 to 35 foot tall retaining walls in front of stores in that area.  It is too hard to explain in the blog, so go check it out or ask Robbie to explain.  During the tour we kept on smelling really good food so we hiked up to Chinatown to a wonderful Chinese restaurant and ate wayyyy too much for lunch.  At least we had a long hike ahead of us to the monorail across town. 

We took the monorail to the area around the space needle and the new Science Fiction Museum/Experience Music Project.  They were both very cool places and the SFM had a whole floor dedicated to Jim Henson and his Muppets.  There were walls made of muppet fur and plenty of cool sketches.  The EMP had a great exhibit on Jimi Hendrix and an amazing hands-on area that taught you how to play various instruments ranging from guitars and keyboards to sampling equipment and DJ turntables.  Robbie would have played there all night if Beth didn’t drag him away. 

That night we had a yummy dinner at a fish and chips place near Alki Beach and then went to an Irish pub for some beers and something called “Irish Root Beer” that was like 75% alcohol but managed to taste like root beer.  Then it was bed time after all of the tourism.  Good night.