Spending time in San Francisco's twin

I wanted to make sure we made the most of our days off work. I convinced my dad to buy tickets for the very first plane to fly out of Oakland. The plan was to arrive into Seattle early enough to have coffee at the very first Starbucks ever opened and have some fresh oysters for lunch at Pike Place Market.

Easier said than done.

What I didn't count on was that in order to leave Oakland on the first plane out at 6:30AM, we had to get to the airport by 5. Which meant we had to leave the house by 4:30. Which meant I had to wake up and get ready by 3:30. In. The. Morning. I can barely get up by 8:30AM to get to work by 9:00. It probably didn't help that I wasn't able to sleep until 1:00AM. Dad got even less sleep. He slept at 1:30 and woke up at 3. And he's the one that drove us from Seattle to Vancouver! Yikes...

So we arrive in Seattle on a gray morning. Upon picking up the rental car at the airport, we headed out to Pike Place Market. The plan was to leave Seattle in the afternoon to make sure we got to the wedding rehearsal on time. Hitting what we thought was the original starbucks, we had some coffee/hot chocolate. Unfortunately, we were wrong and the Starbucks we were looking for was IN Pike Place not just near it.

Chris's goal of the day was to eat fresh oysters. Nevermind that it was only 9 AM. Walking through Pike Place, we found a place to have breakfast. Unfortunately, because it was breakfast, they didn't serve fresh oysters. Dad pouted and ordered some watery clam chowder. They did however have oyster omelets, which Chris ordered. I had the crab meat omelette, and Mom had fried oysters or something like that. After breakfast, we walked around a bit, eventually finding the original Starbucks. Too bad Dad gave up coffee for lent and was unable to have coffee there. He settled for a picture by the storefront with Mom.

We then headed over to the Space Needle. The weather was too gloomy to see a decent view from the top, so we settled on just walking around the vicinity. We spent some time in the base of the Space Needle, mainly so some people could make um... deposits. Again, oyster omelet. After awhile, we were on our way along the I-5 to Vancouver.

Seattle reminded me a lot of the Bay Area, of San Francisco. The weather was similar. The hills are steep, but still California Street/ Stockton Street are much steeper. The people going to work dressed similarly to those in the Financial District. Not that Washington is like another country, but I'm surprised that we blended fairly well in Seattle... Well, except for that huge map in our hands.

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