Last pit stop before reality. Seattle, Washington.

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Seattle was very, very cool. Most notable is its skyline, which we saw as we drove in from the south on a clunky old Greyhound, winding around the concrete highways and slowly revealing the unique-looking Space Needle and tall steel-and-glass skyscrapers. Seattle is grunge at its grungiest, it is hip at its hippest, and it is the definition of alternative. Alternative music, alternative fashion, alternative coffee-shops, alternative markets, alternative people. But not in a snobbish or elitist way at all.

The Pike Place Market was full of fresh organic fruit, poodle-sized whole salmons and the Original Starbucks. An array of avant-garde sculptures adorns the harbour side near Seattle Center, looking out onto the lapping waves of the working harbour. Our friend Amy recommended that we go to the Experience Music Project; it was fascinating to learn about the birthplace of grunge and the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. There was also a science fiction museum that had the original ET animatronics and a whole bunch of original star wars paraphernalia which Aaron nerded out over!

I also got to see my first OMA building- the Seattle Public Library. It was very well designed I must say, unlike Frank Gehry’s Experience Music Project which was internally an absolute disaster. I have come to the conclusion that fans of Gehry’s work just like shiny things (ooh too harsh, Tom?).

With Aaron tucked away in the hotel writing out his horror novel (he’s entering a competition that’s asking for a manuscript to be completed by mid-September), I rode on Seattle’s light rail train for the very first time in history with 1.4 million of the city’s locals. It was brand spanking new and quite exciting, and because it was the very first weekend of its operations the fares were free for the entire network. So I went all the way to the end of the line (about an hour away) and all the way back. I thought it would stop at some exciting destinations but unfortunately I was sorely disappointed as the network was designed to service the outer residential boroughs, as I later found out.

So, on we go, to Vancouver and our new lives. With great anticipation for what is yet to come, with great relief to not be living out of a backpack, but with also great nervousness as to whether or not we’ll become another statistic of the homeless variety. Oh dear.

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