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Passports ready because we are heading for the border!!!!
This border que wasn’t anything like the South African – Mozambique border, the que was much shorter and there were no hawkers weaving between the cars trying to sell you fake paperwork..
So we were called into the office to get our photos and fingerprints taken, this should have been a quick in and out affair, BUT the guy processing our entry didn’t look to sure of himself and often called another officer to ask for help. The problem came with the British Passport…their system gave them a warning on my passport!! HELLO!!!!???? It gave a warning message as if I had a ‘refused visa’, but I didn’t…so what’s the dealio? About an hour later and digging deeper into their data base they could clear me for entry into the United States of America…yay…
So now it was goodbye to the beautiful scenes that nature had to offer and any hope of seeing a bear..and Hello to big city life- exhaust fumes and pretty lights.
First glance at Space Needle! Yay!!! Feels like I’m in a movie scene.. It was so special at night, the city lights glittering in the dark
and the tall Space Needle (or noodle as we now call it) standing proud in the city sky line, our hotel had fantastic views over the waterfront and we could see the Needle from our bed.
We immediately jumped on the Streetcar (tram) and went to downtown Seattle to look around and to get a feel for the city and then had dinner at Dukes on the waterfront opposite our hotel.
The next day we all went to Pike Market, they had an amazing display of Tulips, my favourite flower! There was no point buying any and trying to lug it around so I had a look and took a few photo’s to remember my Tulips. It also had a few fresh fish stalls with a variety of fresh fish, lobster tails, crab, prawns oh you name it and they had it! They really put on a show when someone buys fish, they all start singing and toss the fish into the air from one side of the stall to the packers on the other side and of course everyone cheers and claps! I loved this market….another highlight was that it had the world’s first Starbucks coffee shop right next
Yellow cab
he wasn't too impressed that I took his pic! oops!to it, it was a ‘pay and walk’ arrangement so we took our pics of the shop front and the funky little jazz band playing in front of it and headed for another Seattle coffee shop. I’m surprised that the coffee isn’t a bit stronger, this IS supposed to be coffee capital of the world, but so far I’m a little disappointed..
After walking around a bit Jenni and Dave went their way and us 4 went up the Space Needle (strong urge to write NOODLE), the view was amazing and I didn’t realise how big Seattle was until I was up there, I would have preferred to see it at night, but the view from the hotel is good enough. We then went to the Aquarium, well… what can I say Cape Town’s Two Oceans Aquarium is way better, but it was fun anyway!
After a little rest at the hotel we went to Citrus Restaurant on the waterfront, had a bite to eat and a drop to drink
We were all fast asleep (4am) when a very annoying high pitched sound suddenly plucked us from our beds; I bashed everything on my bedside table thinking it might
Foggy Conditions
we had snow, rain and now fog as we drove from Kelowna to Seattle be my cell phone, the clock radio or even the light! Jason shouts ‘put it off’, but I quickly realised it was the Hotel’s fire alarm. I grabbed my tekkies and a warm top from my suitcase and handbag – of course shouted at Tamsin to put something warm on and we all evacuated the building..
Coming down the fire escape staircase it was amazing to see just how calmly and orderly people walk down, I felt like running for my life, but one crazy person could just set off chaos, so I composed myself and followed the crowd. I couldn’t help but think of the events that took place on 09/11 and how the poor people had to rush down the Twin Towers, so many didn’t make it down. 7 Flights of stairs later we all assembled outside at the bottom and waited for the firemen to do their thing. I was a little nervous when the announcement came that we could go up to our rooms because people were squeezing themselves into the lifts like a tin of sardines! Adrenaline rush over we got back into bed and slept a couple more hours..
Good Night Seattle!
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