Honeymoon: Day 6

Thursday, July 2, 2009

For those of you who have commented about the number of pictures taken and then posted on this blog...just think...this is only day 6! Three more days to go. Aren't you so lucky?!? But really, we have a lot of pictures because we both enjoyed playing with the new camera.


This day began with a morning jaunt down to Pikes Public Market; fish-throwing, flowers, and all. We ate breakfast down at the market where we found some tasty cinnamon rolls. We walked around a bit and enjoyed the market. It's a shame we don't live there because the flowers were amazing and so cheap! Jacob was ready to buy me some sweet peas but I told him that it would be silly. I did take a lovely picture of them though.








After thoroughly exploring the market we went back to the hotel to figure out the schedule for the rest of the day. Jacob's mom had talked about the Seattle underground tour and we wanted to see about doing that. So we figured out a little more about the bus system and decided to walk down to the tour. It was a nice walk down there but I was certainly glad we had figured out which buses stopped near the hotel because it would have been a LONG walk up the hills back to the hotel.


The tour was really fun and rather interesting. Seattle was built poorly and then reconstructed after a fire and was built as they were trying to level off the tide flats. So, there are buildings that were originally 5 stories high but only appear to be 4 stories high because the initial bottom level is now underground. I'm not sure I can explain it adequately and the only picture I have is of one of the skylights that are actually on the sidewalk. Go on the tour if you are in Seattle. It's pretty good.



So, after the tour we stopped for lunch on the way to the train station. We needed to find out if we could check baggage early as we were riding the train to Portland the next day but returning the rental car that night. We ate at a really good sandwich shop.


We then made our way to the train station to ask our questions and were pleased to learn we could check bags early and our plans were solid. We made use of public transportation and caught the bus back to our hotel. Nice thing about Seattle is that all the public transportation is free in the downtown area for the majority of the day. This was a good thing because we initially caught the bus heading the wrong direction and had to get off and correct our course. We were outside the free ride zone at that point but only had to walk a couple blocks to be back in the free zone. Good times. Plus we got to see a portion of the Chinatown section of Seattle.

I was really tired by this point (what's new?). We re-packed our luggage to arrange for dropping off all the big stuff at the train station and keep the essentials for the next morning. Jacob went to get the car from the parking garage and I stayed and slept for about 15 minutes. We then loaded the car and headed for the train station, dropped off luggage, and made our way to the airport to return the rental car.

We had planned to ride the bus from the airport back to our hotel. It was going to cost us something like 3 bucks to ride but we didn't have anything smaller than a 5 dollar bill. The bus driver let us ride for free instead of overpaying. Nice! It was a pretty short bus ride back to the hotel and the weirdest thing...they drive underground on tracks that look like they should be used for a subway. Great thing was the end point for the route was right across the street from our hotel.

Me and the monorail

When we got to the hotel room we took a little break before deciding to ride the monorail to the Space Needle. The Space Needle may have been my favorite part of the whole day just because of Jacob's reaction to it. He is not that keen on heights so this was a big stretch for him. He was a good sport even though he looked a little nervous as he watched the elevators on the outside of the needle moving to the top.

Jacob waiting to enter the elevator. Can't you just see the apprehension on his face?

When we got into the elevator he wouldn't look out the window to the scenery as we were ascending. It was pretty funny. Then, when we were in the observation deck he would barely move away from the very center of the building.

Holding tightly to the wall

He eased a little into it and was able to make his way to the outer edge of the interior building where the tables were located. It was then that he realized there was an outside rim to view the city from.

He was really hesitant about embarking out there at all. Eventually he mustered enough courage to stand at the inner edge of the outside rim and snap a picture. He returned inside pretty quickly.

I, on the other hand, enjoyed the view and didn't have any problems with the height. I'm usually good as long as I feel safely connected to the floor of a building or strapped into something pretty tightly.

We did have a good time taking pictures both inside and outside of the Space Needle. And it was fun being up there and seeing the city from that vantage point. I'm glad we went and I'm glad Jacob put on his brave face and made it to the top. I think he was so proud of himself he even called his mom.

We decided since it was our last night in Seattle and really alone that we should go out for a nice dinner. However, neither of us were up for too much more exploring and wanted a guarantee that we would be satisfied with our food choices. You should know that I usually have rules about only eating places I couldn't eat if I were home. And I did stick to those rules, but not totally. We decided to eat at the Cheesecake Factory because it was close to the hotel and we knew we would find something we liked. I wasn't that hungry from lunch still so we split an entree. It was HUGE. I felt like I ate a whole dinner myself.

Feeling fat and happy, we headed back to the hotel and were still too full to finish off the cheesecake we had purchased the night before.

And that concludes our crazy day in Seattle.