Short Seattle Stopover

Denis has to get a lot of hours of continuing education to maintain his PA license. So he signed up for a conference in Seattle that took place this past weekend. Our employer paid for the conference, hotel, travel and some meal expenses, so I went along for the free vacation. We drove up on Friday in a marathon trip (7 hours) and were there till Monday evening. While he was in his classes, I took the opportunity to explore.

On Saturday, I took the bus from our airport hotel to downtown and walked (in the pouring rain) to Pioneer Square. I went on the Underground Tour which was very interesting and I learned a lot about Seattle's history. It was a lot different than what I was expecting and well worth the $9 (I had a coupon). By the time that was ended, the rain had slowed down to a drizzle. I spied a Pho (Vietnamese) noodle soup restaurant on one of the side streets during the tour, so I stopped there for lunch. Yummy! Lo and behold, the sun came out as I was sipping my last slurp of soup so I set out on foot down the waterfront boulevard and then up the steps to Pike Place Market. Boy that place is huge. It took me a while to figure out that the farmer's market section was up at the top. I found a great tea shop there and bought some flavors to try. I had a latte in the original Starbucks and enjoyed some street music.

Sunday I visited some family friends and went to church with them. In the evening, Denis and I got to visit his second cousin who lives in Puyallup. Monday was my other exploration day. I set out on the bus again, but this time I met a woman at the bus stop whose husband was also at the conference. We joined forces for the day and headed to the International District where we enjoyed Chinese pastries and shopped in the Asian groceries. Then we took the bus along the waterfront and walked up to the Seattle Center where the Space Needle is. Unfortunately, we discovered the lamentable fact that museums are often closed on Mondays. We attempted to go to a museum in China town and also one at Seattle Center. So we had to settle for going back to the waterfront and having a snack of Ivar's clam chowder. We were too late to have time to take the ferry across the bay or we would have done that.

Monday we drove to Portland and stayed with friends before driving home Tuesday. A nice little trip. I was going to write from Seattle, but there was always a line at the computer station.