Day 4: Seattle

A nice early morning, found us heading off the mountain by 8am. I so love the fact that we are two hours ahead of home. The teenagers feel like they slept in, but we’re getting up by 7! That will be very important later on when we have to break camp and be on the road by 8.

As it is Saturday, we seemed to be the only ones heading down the mountain. Everyone else was headed up! That was fine with us. We drove through many quaint towns, and past roadside stands. We couldn’t resist the one that said “One basket of cherries for $1!” I bought one bunch of Rainier and one bunch of regular cherries (the larger basket, of course, which was NOT $1).

As we headed into Seattle, I was able to hook into the internet and get the first few days uploaded to the web. I am so grateful Steve has that ability on his laptop! The approach into Seattle from the south was beautiful. Once in the city, though, and it was a mass of people. Seems as though Saturdays everyone heads into the heart of the city. We finally found a place to park which would accommodate our car top carrier, and headed into Pike’s Place.

Pike’s Place is where the market is. Plenty of fresh food stands, and, of course, the flying fish market. This was a “must see” on Emily’s list. We watched them should out to each other and throw the fish from one guy to the next. It was fun, and definitely something the tourists come to see. There were more people standing and taking pictures than there were buying fish! If I’d had a place to cook that fish, I’d have bought some!

Anyway, it was lunch time and we were hungry. We found a place called the Athenian located above the market. Apparently Alaskan King Salmon is in season, so their specials focused on that. I had the Smoked Salmon and Washington Cherry salad (which was in the form that tuna salad comes in, but with cherries and hazelnuts), Steve had the Alaskan King Salmon and Emily had halibut. Andy, of course, had steak. The view was fantastic of Puget Sound. We watched the shipping boats coming in, a big cruise ship docked and some crazy dude parasailing.

After lunch we window shopped a bit (Emily found an awesome store with odd musical instruments called Lark in the Morning) we walked down to the waterfront and contemplated going into the Aquarium. We decided we didn’t have enough time to really enjoy it for what it would cost us, so we headed back up the hill to Pike’s Place again. We stopped in the first ever Starbuck’s store, where the kids ordered some smoothie-type drinks, and we also bought some cheese from a specialty cheese shop and pastries from an amazing pastry shop.

After that, we headed back to the car (the hike yesterday still had an effect on our desire to walk around much) and were on our way out of Seattle. We did drive past the space needle, but no one seemed interested in going in. How dull are we??! Perhaps just pathetically tired still.

Anyway, we headed up to Edmonds where we caught the 3:50 ferry to Kingston across Puget Sound. It was pretty cool to get lined up and sent onto a boat, get out of your car and go upstairs, enjoy the boat ride, and then go back down, get in your car and be on your way! We got a great view of Seattle, with Mt. Rainier looming in the distance. Man, that mountain is FREAKISHLY large!



Anyway, we enjoyed the boat ride, as well as the drive along the northern coastline of the Olympic Peninsula. We made it into Port Angeles around 6 and immediately checked into our ‘funky’ motel for the evening, the Flagstone Motel. This motel is something out of Route 66. It is painted this shocking seafoam green color, but I must tell you that the front desk people were so nice, and the room was clean. We also got three queen beds again. Who could ask for anything more?!?

After a recommendation from the locals to eat at Dupuis for dinner, we headed down Route 101 for about 7 miles and had an amazing dinner. Seems that the next town over is called Dungeness, and yes, it is named after the crab. So, Steve ordered the special which was a two pound crab. This beast was brought on a place and contained enough crabmeat for two salads! Steve was in heaven. I went with the crabcakes with a sweet and spicy sauce. Em had the Pamesan crusted Cod and Andy, of course, had the spaghetti. To his credit, though, he did have the oyster stew for an appetizer and enjoyed it.

After dessert (I finally got my pie!), we waddled back to the car and headed for our funky so funky motel for the night. We are starting to need to do laundry, but we can keep going for a few more days still. Our hotel window overlooks the beautiful Olympic Mountains. Tomorrow we head up into them!

Apparently, this is an issue around here...