Sleepless in Seattle

It's Saturday morning, 9:15 a.m. in Olympia, Washington. We will be off to a late start this morning because we "did" Seattle from 4pm until 12:30am early this morning. Tim and I got to sleep around 2 o'clock this morning. I must say, it was a cool Seattle experience. We rolled in around four and knew we had about 2 hours at the Pike Street Public Market. If you can imagine Soulard Market in St. Louis on major steroids, then you might be able to get a grasp on Pike's Market in Seattle. Let me backtrack a bit...

We headed out of Pendleton, OR around nine and headed to Mt. Rainier, Washington. When we got to the mountain, it was misty, foggy, and cloudy. There was no seeing the mountain up close. All three of the passes up the mountain were closed due to flooded out roads; we were a little disappointed. We went quite a ways south of the mountain in order to get to Seattle, and as has happened all trip long, the weather cleared. We were never able to look back and see the mountain, but we were glad it had stopped raining. Now, back to the market.

I have never seen such beautiful flowers--row after row, stall after stall--and cheap! (See pictures) Of course there was Pike's Fish Market--we watched the guys throw fish for a while then walked back the length of the market. Even though I had no where to put them, I couldn't help but buy a few stems (with cala lilies of course).

I saw (and took a picture of) the original Starbucks but knew coffee would not be a good idea so late in the day.

I can't believe how fortunate we've been when it comes to the crowds (or lack thereof) and the weather. We headed to the Space Needle and found a close (and relatively cheap) parking spot. We walked right in, got our ticket, and jumped on the elevator. I am not afraid of heights, but all of the above events took place in just a few minutes. I thought I would get a chance to survey the scene before going up--nope. We did not even stop in the line--just got on the elevator which shot us straight up. The view was awesome. From the top of the Needle, you can see all of Seattle, and (look out, here comes another mountain story,) Mt. Rainier! The clouds cleared enough for us to view the lone, majestic peak--unbelievable! This was one of Tim's favorite views. He likes the combination of an urban skyline and nature. I must admit; it was striking.

From the Needle, our guide pointed out an historic part of town that sat up on a hill. We were determined to see the city from that hill. After several hits and misses, we found the perfect spot. Again, from that hill, (the intersection of W. Highland and 3rd Ave.) the mountain and the city were gorgeous. As we stood, admiring the view from a public park with dozens of raucous Japanese tourist, a voice came from our right:

"It's beautiful, isn't it? And there's no one here to see it!" A gentleman was standing on his balcony next to the park and noticed we were taking pictures.

We agreed and continued to gawk. "He has the best view in the city," Tim commented.

We walked the length of the overview and ended up sitting on a bench just gazing upon the mountain. Just a few minutes later, that same man was in the park, we guessed looking for a different perspective. He commented again on its beauty then said, "We have the best view; do you want to see?" He invited us out on his balcony. We took him up his offer and indeed, he had the best view in the city. (For you worriers, there were enough people around to be safe.) We chatted with Jeff for a few minutes, marveled at the mountain, which Jeff said only shows itself like it had only a couple of times a month, then headed to dinner. (To be continued...we have to get on the road this morning.)