PASSWORD: washington
Day 11: Monday, June 11, 2015
Seattle Seattle Seattle. I didn't have many expectations about the rainy city going into this stop, other then I would be living Grey's Anatomy and Coyote Ugly in real life.
We were lucky to have Sam's uncle Greg whom just moved to Bainbridge Island offer up his crash pad for us. They had literally just moved to Seattle and were living out of a hotel themselves, so we were basically squatters in a completely empty house.
Resting up the evening we arrived, after a great seafood dinner with the Sheltens, we hopped on the late morning ferry to get dropped at the pier bordering Seattle's downtown. Figuring everything was close we opted for the walking route. This was great until we decided to hike to Gas Works Park in Fremont, Seattle that afternoon. We'll just say our step count was higher than a good number of our national park hikes.
We were super surprised with how much construction was under way, literally all through the city. Many of the piers were closed due to the sea wall being completely replaced. We stopped at Pier 57, the historical first pier built in 1897 and houses the famous Seattle great ferris wheel.
After a quick look around the pier we trucked up to the Pike Place Market. Even on a weekday this whole area of town was PACKED! We strolled.... or tried to stroll through the super crowded market and check out all of the stalls. My uncle Andy challenged us through the contribution page to catch a fish at the famous Pike Place fish market. Going off very little, we were in the dark on how to catch said fish. After some investigation, we were pointed in the right direction to the 'fish guys.' Once there it was obvious this was the right place. There was a huge crowd of onlookers just waiting for someone to order a fresh fish for the men to toss back and forth to each other prior to wrapping her up.
After some small talk, and possibly a little flirting between Sam and I, I gained approval to hop behind the counter and preparing for the fish toss of a lifetime. I've skydived, repelled, whitewater rafted over a 20 foot waterfall, but let me tell you, my hands were SHAKING. I thought I would drop it purely from my trembling extremities while everyone crowding around was looking on hopeful for my success. How would people react if I dropped it? Would I hear a pin drop in the distance? Luckily, I didn't have to bare the embarrassment and the little guy just flopped right into my hands. Success. Challenge 1: Completed.
Taking in the sights we stopped by the Gas Works park and the Fremont Troll. Gas Works park contains remnants of the sole remaining coal gasification plant in the US. After our very long walk to get there we took a much needed rest prior to setting up in a local bar to watch game 6 of the Stanley Cup.
As well all know, the Lightning didn't pull out the win and keep the series going. We sat and watched the entire game and the other patrons of the bar came to know we were rooting for Tampa Bay. What we also came to realize was that we were the ONLY 2 lightning fans in the room. I'm not sure why everyone in Seattle is a Blackhawks fan.
Lesson Learned: Make sure when you watch a sporting game that you aren't watching at the opposing team's home bar.
Stopping by the Fremont troll under the bridge and a couple more pitstops on the way back to the bridge, we couldn't forget about the gum wall. The wall has been scrapped twice since 1993, but always had a comeback.
Closing out our tour of Seattle, we hopped on our ferry back to Bainbridge island. We both enjoyed Seattle but wished there wasn't so much construction at the time of our visit. Next stop is Canada and a nice little border crossing ; )
Canada here we come!
Kt
