Obama & Seattle

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Hi everyone
Well Im safely back in Victoria after a brief (48hours) visit to Seattle. We took a very leaving late afternoon on Monday and arrived middle of the evening. We found our hotel and checked in and then went out for a bite to eat. The city was cold and mostly foggy, like much of the Pacific Northwest (that I've seen anyway). We checked out the trade centre (where the WTO riots of 1999 were centered). We went to sleep around midnight and then got up a few hours later to get ready to go out for Obama partying. We arrived early (to the Paramount theatre where there was live tv coverage of DC's events) and the line was only 100m long or so, 30 minutes later the line streched all the way around a large block. We had coffee and muffins in the line and chatted with a couple who lived in Seattle. We eventually got in and the coverage was already running. Anytime anyone showed even the briefest glimpse of Obama the crowd went wild. It was a pretty cool atmosphere. Everyone cheered as Air force one took off for Texas with Bush on board. We then went and had breakfast in a suburb fittingly called Capitol Hill with the couple we met. The meal portions were huge as always. The rest of the day was spent sleeping (Danielle), shopping, eating. In the evening we checked out Pike Place market (home of the world's first Starbucks) and then the Seattle centre which has a giant sky scraper. We didn't go up as it was foggy. This morning we left the hotel before seven and caught the ferry back to Victoria which is colder and about as foggy as Seattle right now.
It was an excellent trip and we both really enjoyed celebrating with the americans as Obama was sworn in. For the next few days we just plan to stick around Victoria as Danielle is working for the rest of the week.

Katherine

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