Sleepless in Seattle

We left our hotel in Portland early in the morning and headed back to the train station to catch our Amtrak to Seattle, Washington. Our train, the Coastal Amtrak line was actually unlike any of the other cars we'd ridden in previously, as it only had one level instead of two and had pods of chairs together with a table in between each set. It was a nice little change of pace from our usual set up and it made for a nice space to use the laptop, watch a bit of a movie and also work on our blog. Mom, Dad, and Kelsey tried to catch some extra "Z's" on the ride as you can tell that we've not been able to have really any specific stationary schedule and getting sleep seems to be a secondary priority to touring all these different places.

When we arrived in Seattle (on time too!) about one or two in the afternoon, we went to our hotel and dropped off our bags. Our room wasn't ready yet, so we just grabbed the cameras and other essentials and headed straight for our first tourist attraction. The hotel that Dad picked out for us was actually just a few blocks away from the famous Seattle Space Needle, so it made for a convenient first stop. After getting tickets and heading up to the area with all the elevators, we got our complimentary family photo (as you will see) and headed up the observation deck where you can wander around the Space Needle some 500+ feet off the ground. Apparently it is very rainy in Seattle on a daily basis, however, our day was filled with gorgeous 70 degree weather and sunshine. You could see out over the entire city perfectly, including a view of Mt. Rainer too. The Puget Sound was beautiful as ships came in and out, and we got a few great photos of our family with the Seattle skyline too.

After spending an hour and some up in the needle, we decided to get a bit of lunch so we went to a small sports cafe a few blocks down. The booths had HD TV's in them, so that was rather nifty that you could watch whatever you liked while you dined. We decided to eat light since we anticipated a larger seafood-filled dinner, and after we interviewed our waitress about where all the hotspots were in Seattle, we checked into our hotel and laced up our walking shoes for a tour of Seattle by foot. Now, Kelsey and Dad have been giving me a hard time this entire trip because as many of you may know, I'm a bit OCD and like to have a decent schedule of what goes on and where we're going. However, Kelsey and I are polar opposites in this regard and she claims that she's a master of "spontaneity" and that I'm incapable of acting on a whim and just making decisions at the last minute. Therefore, in a valiant attempt to be spontaneous I decided not to make many plans for Seattle, but instead just explore the city on foot and see where it took us.

This adventure led us to a nice little trot (nothing like the 44-mile uphill battle from San Fran) down to the waterfront on the sound to get a great view of the water from some of the piers and docks. Since it was about 5 or 6pm, it was a great opportunity to just relax and take in a great view too. We strolled over to Seattle's famous Pike Place Market, which is an enormous farmers market filled with novelty shops, flower vendors, specialty items, and the famous fish stands where men throw whole salmon back and forth at each other over their booths. It was definitely filled with tourists, but it was still a cool atmosphere regardless. We also stopped by the original Starbucks coffee shop so Kelsey could snap a photo there and see it. I have to be honest, it looks no different than any other Starbucks coffee shop, kiosk, or stand that I've ever seen (sorry to disappoint) but I guess if that was on our bucket list we could now cross it off just in case.

After that we spend some more time on the piers and headed down to a local fish joint for dinner. We shared halibut, salmon, and cod, among other sides and tried the best seafood that Seattle has to offer. I must say, I'm a big fan of halibut - it was delicious. And following our dinner, we all got ice cream on the boardwalk, I kicked Kelsey's butt in air hockey down at the local arcade, and we trucked back to our hotel in time to do laundry and re-pack our bags for the airport and get some sleep prior to our 4AM wakeup call. Tomorrow we're heading to Las Vegas and spending most of the day there before going to Arizona and seeing the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon. My guess is that the next few days will be filled with way too many quotes from Vegas Vacation, the Hangover, and other miscellaneous Vegas references from popular culture. I'm sure you'll find some of them on facebook or twitter. Anyways - that's all for now, but we're still surviving the Tate Family Adventure, and I hope to get you some quality video footage as soon as possible - so don't touch that dial! (or web browser.)

~Josh