Places You'll Go: Wrapping Up the Seattle Trip!

Day three of the Seattle trip was when things started getting muddled up together. I remember fairly minute details of the first two days. But on the third and fourth days, we did a lot of little stuff so although I am not losing my memory.... yet.... I may get some things out of order here or tell you that we did something on Friday that we actually did on Saturday or vice versa. Also, I am afraid that I don't really remember meals on these days. So, although I am certain we ate, I won't go into that other than lunch at Pike Place Market. I mean, after all, it was three and a half years ago. So give me a break.

The first thing we did if I remember correctly was return the rental car since we would be spending the rest of our trip in Seattle or within walking distance of a ferry. Then we walked down to Alaskan Way which is the street along the shore where all of the piers are. We found Argosy Tours pretty early in the day and decided that we wanted to do the Locks Cruise. So we went ahead and got our reservations and were told to be back at the pier later in the afternoon. I think it was around 3 p.m. that we were supposed to return. After that we gradually made our way up toward the Pike Place Market stopping at various places along the way. We walked through it kind of quickly and then made our way over the the Space Needle.

We rode the Monorail from just in front of Nordstrom's to the Space Needle. By the way, although I am very strongly against shopping while on vacation (since we have stores here in Dallas... while on vacation, I prefer to do things that I can't do at home) we did shop at the Nordstrom's in Seattle since it is the home of Nordstrom's. For the record, I didn't buy anything and I don't think Jenny did either.

At the Space Needle we bought day/night passes so that we could see the view again at night and went on up. Here are a couple of views from the ground both that morning and after dark when we went back for

night visit. I took several pictures from the top when we went back, but with the movement and the slow shutter speed, they weren't very good. Below is a view of the city with Mt. Rainier barely visible in the background. Below that is a photo of Lake Union from the Space Needle. I liked watching the sea planes taking off and landing from Lake Union. We also saw a bald eagle flying around while we were up there.

Once we were back on the ground we walked around that area for a few minutes before heading back to the

Pike Place Market for lunch. Now I don't want to brag, but we might have gotten one of the best lunch tables you can get in Seattle on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. The food was good enough but the people watching was incredible!

The photo to the left was the view as we walked back to the market area. We found this restaurant across the street from the actual market so that we could see it while we ate. The photo below was taken from our table looking out through the window which was partially opened. The photo Just below that one of all the people was taken from our table also looking into the stalls at the market. This was around 2 pm on Friday and the people were 5 or 6 deep in the market.

After lunch we left that area and headed back to the pier to catch our ride for the Argosy Locks Cruise. I really enjoyed this tour. Just the process of going through the locks was really interesting to me. But in addition to that, it takes you past the house from Sleepless in Seattle. I am a big Deadliest Catch fan and you go past several of the boats from the Deadliest Catch if they happen to be at home. On top of all that, once you go through the locks, it takes you out into the sound so that you get terrific views of the city. So it is a really great way to spend

part of an afternoon. The rest of the photos in today's blog were all taken during the locks cruise.

We spent one more full day in Seattle. On that day we walked along the water and took the ferry over to Bainbridge which was a really cute community. While there we did a wine tasting and had snacks at a pub before coming back to spend the rest of the day along the piers in Seattle.

Although this trip was very tiring, I would say that it

Sleepless in Seattle House

was among my favorite trips I have ever taken. I think that seeing Orcas not in a big gigantic pool at Sea World but swimming in their natural environment is probably what made this trip so great.

I told you a couple of days ago that this trip was when I realized how scatter brained I can be. The other instance that contributed to that realization was when I lost my boarding pass in the airport and a very kind man had to track me down at my boarding gate to give it back to me. Ugh!

Some of the bridges we went under heading to the locks

A couple of minor boats from Deadliest Catch

The Northwestern, Sig's boat from Deadliest Catch

Wizard from Deadliest Catch - what a bucket of rust!

The locks closing behind us

In these two pictures, notice the water level in the first one before they start letting the water out of the locks. In the second it was a little more than half way down. Before it was complete the girl in the long pants was no longer able to reach the dry part of the cement wall. We were on the top of a really big boat and when all the water was let out of the locks, in the picture below and to the left you can see that we were eye level with the sidewalk.

The picture to the right you can see the same locks that were in the big picture above after the water has been let out. Before you couldn't see anything below that little fence part. There were probably 50 or so

Coming out of the locks into the sound

boats inside the locks with us waiting to move out into the sound. Once the gates opened, it was a like a race with all of them jockeying for position to get where they were going.

I hope you have enjoyed this trip to Seattle. Monday I'll see if I can come up with another interesting place to visit or maybe you can just join me as I prepare for the cruise. Have a great weekend!