As I write this I am sat on a plane to Los Angeles, unfortunately not to stay for any period of time. Because I am somewhat dim and don’t pay attention I thought that a layover meant we could leave the airport, alas I was wrong so we are preparing for an evening of sitting in LAX before flying on to Toronto for the next part of our trip. So rather than reflect on my silliness I thought I would utilise my time by reflecting on leg two of our trip in the rather beautiful Seattle. I was hoping my faith in cities would be restored after Vancouver and boy was it, Seattle is just lovely.
We arrived on the Greyhound bus around midday and headed straight to our hotel to drop off our suitcase. Now I just need to explain how lovely our hotel was! The lovely reviewers on Trip Advisor did their usual of convincing me I was going to be staying in a rat ridden shack in a gutter somewhere, however we couldn’t have asked for better! The Moore Hotel is in the most perfect location, just a five minute walk from Pike Place Market and 15 minutes to the Space Needle; our room was big and clean and we even had a slight sea view from our bedroom on the 7th floor, I would totally recommend it to anyone going to stay in Seattle!
So after we were pleasantly surprised by our hotel we went out to explore. We wandered down to Lake Union, searched for ages for a doughnut place out of the city centre (which ended up being totally worth it), checked out the Space Needle, back over the Pike Place Market and then along all of the piers. We just wanted to get our bearings and figure out where everything was rather than to just rush everything. We had three full days, plenty of time to complete our check list. We had something to eat and went back to the hotel for a relatively early night.
Day Two we treated ourselves to a lie (on top of the early night yes I know) and went to the bike store to go rent a bike. Danny had come up with a route with lots of stops along the way and of course it’s much more interesting to do that on a bike than a bus! We went to Ballard Locks in the hope of seeing the salmon making their way upstream but none were to be found, instead we watched the boats go through the locks and made our way up to the beach. I love the beach so so much. I think it is because we live pretty far away from one back home and even if we do go it’s usually really crappy English weather, so it’s nice to relax in the sunshine in the sand. We did a little bit of sunbathing and Danny braved the chilly waters for a swim before we hopped back on the bikes. The aim was to stop off at three breweries on the way, however the first one was shut and the third one for some obscene reason wouldn’t accept my UK licence as ID so we had to leave. But brewery number two was delightful and we had some really nice beer there. Before we knew it, it was 5pm and we had to take the bikes back so off we went and then went and grabbed ourselves a patio seat in the scorching sun to eat some Mexican food which was so incredibly delicious! Day two done.
Yesterday was our last full day in Seattle and we had a lot to get through still. We went to the most yummy waffle place for breakfast. I’m such a sweet tooth so I of course I went for one covered in chocolate, caramel, ice cream, whipped cream, hazelnuts and strawberries - God it was good. Danny opted for a savoury waffle topped with prosciutto, spring onions and cream cheese; it did look pretty good, but in my opinion you just cannot beat sweet waffles full of thousands of calories - that’s the way that they are supposed to be! We had planned to go up the Space Needle after breakfast but the hoards of crowds put us right off, so we booked to go in the morning before we left for the airport and instead spent the afternoon being the most awful kind of tourists on the Seattle duck tour. It was so incredibly good, I must write a trip advisor review when I get a chance as we had such great fun. Our tour guide was amazing, and his terrible jokes made everything all the more interesting! I feel that Danny enjoyed using the quackers a little too much, but hey it’s all in the name of tourism.
When we were done with that we walked to Pike Place Market and had a look around. There are so many stalls ranging from cheesecake/chocolate, the most beautiful and cheap flowers I have ever seen and of course fishmongers; to the craziest ornaments, fortune tellers and the first ever Starbucks! We bought ourselves an ice cream and went back to the hotel to change before going out to dinner. I think last night’s dinner was the part of Seattle that Danny was most looking forward to. We went to a place called the Crab Pot which was featured on the TV show Man vs. Food and was stupidly busy! After a short wait we managed to get a table outside with views out to the sea and ordered ourselves one of their specialities - a sea feast. They basically cover the table in baking parchment, give you a bib and a board (with a mallet if you are having crab too) and just pour everything out on the table. We went for the simple one as I’m not a big seafood fan, much to Danny’s disappointment as he really wanted to use a mallet - bad girlfriend points to me on that one! Our sea feast consisted of shrimp, clams, mussels, andouille sausage, potatoes and corn. I tried a bit of everything, it wasn’t really my cup of tea but it was certainly an experience and Danny loved it! We then walked back up to the Space Needle to see it all lit up in the darkness and back down to see the sunset over Elliot Bay. God it is a beautiful place, a really really beautiful place.
Morning came around and we packed up our hotel room and went over to the Space Needle. Of course we had booked to go on the only cloudy day of our time in Seattle and the view wasn’t as great as it could have been but we made the most of it and took a few pictures. There is a camera outside which takes a picture of you with the view of the city behind you and emails it to you for free which is great! I wish more tourist attractions did that as it is so nice to have a photographic memory of visiting somewhere but God can it be expensive, incredibly so! It started to drizzle slightly so we went back to Pike Place Market and got some food - I had the most creamy and delicious pink lemonade cheesecake, wow! I love cheesecake. Love love LOVE it. Back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and just like that our time in Seattle is done and I have really enjoyed it. If I ever win the lottery and have $8million dollars to spend on the most awesome looking floating house in Union Lake then I shall be back - if pigs learn to fly.
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