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Published: August 14th 2008
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Day 2
Emphasis on the word "walk." But, let's start from the beginning.
We woke up at 4:00 AM, our EST internal clocks still telling us it was time to go to work. We fell back asleep for a couple more hours. We had probably the best sleep either of us has had in a really long time. It might be the pillows or maybe it's because there were no cats to wake us up (but we do miss Simba and Nala!) Either way it was some good sleeping. Anyway... we woke up at 6 PST and actually went for a run. We went for a 4 mile run starting at our hotel, and ending up at the Olympic Sculpture Park. We didn't bring the camera with us while we were running, so here is our best attempt at describing it:
Olympic Sculpture park is a multi-level park dotted with random large sculptures. Every hundred feet or so along the path,
there are 30 foot orange cone sculptures. The park is right near the water's edge, and you start at the top level and weave around to the bottom level that turns into a bike path that goes on for a couple more miles along the water.
That's not a really great description, but if you just google "olympic sculpture park" you can see lots of pictures.
After the run and breakfast we hit up the Space needle. There is a monorail that runs from the Westlake Center, a mall behind our hotel, to the Seattle Center, where the Space Needle, Experience Music Project, and Science Fiction Museum can be found. Unfortunately the monorail didn't start operating for another hour, so we hoofed it to the Needle. This was the beginning of our long walk around the city. We walked about 9 blocks and reached the Needle. The Space Needle was wild. The views were amazing and our first glimpse of Mt. Rainier was jaw-droppping. That mountain is huge. BTW... the picture from the plane yesterday...was not Mt. Rainier. We have no idea what mountain that was but it was large too.
We got a ride back to our
hotel on the monorail for $2.00 each. The monorail was built for the 1960-something World's Fair. I don't know why more cities don't use Monorail systems. The way i see it, if it works for Disney world it can work anywhere else too. Boston could use one or 2 of them. In addition to the Monorail, Seattle also a wonderful public transportation system. After we got back to the Westlake Center we decided to visit Pioneer Square, the oldest part of Seattle, and home to the famous Underground Tour. We were directed by a friendly bike cop to a random staircase that took us down to an underground bus tunnel. There was a bus waiting that was going where we wanted to go, and we just hopped on. It was then that we realized the bus was free! At first we both kind of looked at each other like "are we supposed to pay?" but when other people got on and didn't pay, we realized that the bus tunnel was free. All public transportation in and around the downtown area is free, which is great. The only time you have to pay for transportation is if you are entering the
Bus Tunnel
I think it's staring at me. city or leaving the city. Then you take the City Bus for a whopping $2.25. Once you are inside the city, it is all free!
Pioneer Square was cool but nothing major to report on that, so let's move on cuz Jamie just said this entry is getting too long.. but we did a lot!
From Pioneer Square we walked to the waterfront to check out the ferry situation. Used to the Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket ferry prices, we were again pleasantly surprised that the Washington State Ferries were so cheap: $6.70 round trip per person, and $14.00 if you want to bring your car on. We grabbed a schedule and planned on taking a ferry later on to Bainbridge Island.
We walked along the waterfront until we got to Pier 70- the site of Real World Seattle. Amy, we took a bunch of pictures for you! The waterfront area is pretty cool with lots of shops and restaurants, but it is very touristy.
We hopped on another free bus that runs along the waterfront, and took it back to Pike's Place Market.
At the market, the guys working at the fish market were in full
Bus Terminal
So Clean and so free swing. Jamie got a cool video of them tossing some fish around, and tossing a fake fish into the crowd. We hung out there for a bit, walked back to the hotel to refresh ourselves, and then hit The Kells to meet Jamie's friend's sister, Antonia, who works there.
After the Kell's we walked back to the hotel where we had a free wine tasting, and then we hoofed it back to the ferries and took a ferry to Bainbridge Island. It was a nice 35 minute ferry ride to the island. We found a waterfront path and walked along it and heard some music coming from somewhere. The path led us to a park where a free concert was going on- a few guys doing acapella or doowop or something. Lots of families were there picknicking and people had wine and beer and were just sitting on the grass enjoying the music and the nice evening. We walked some more and found downtown Bainbridge. We then walked to the marina and had dinner at this cool little grill. Our waitress was nice and very tolerant. We found out she got married last year as well- the week before
we did! After dinner we realized that we only had 8 minutes to get back on the ferry, otherwise we'd have to wait 2 more hours for the next one. Jamie was wearing sneakers and had no problem running, but I had flip flops on. So, doing what any girl who's walked through Boston barefoot after wearing high heels all night would do, I pulled my flip flops off and started to run (Sorry mom.) We made it in time- we were the last people to get on. Phew!
After that we just walked back to the hotel and had a nightcap (Jamie promised to buy me a beer for running barefoot.) All in all we had a great, action-packed, walking-packed day. Sorry this post was so long but we did a lot. Hope you enjoy the pictures, we miss you all!
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Kelly
non-member comment
You two have to be EXHAUSTED!
I am tired from all the walking and running that is talked about. Looks like you are enjoying the first leg of your trip. Can't wait to read more. BTW i love the moonlight picture!