Surprise Trip to Seattle

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Seattle

"SURPRISE!!", I exclaimed as I walked through the door to great Dan, a childhood friend from Oklahoma. Dan and I grew up together until the mid 80's when his family moved to Pennsylvania. Although they were states away in Chadds Ford, our families would still get together for vacations, weddings, or just to hang out. My parents and his had known each other since their college years and had a lot of history together. At one point, our familys even co-owned a boat in Oklahoma to accommodate weekly outings on Kaw Lake.

2 years had gone by, since I had seen Dan and his wife Miho at their wedding reception. Dan had been in Japan teaching English in Kumamoto and met the perfect girl, and the rest is history. 4 years ago, I had even got a chance to visit them in Japan for 5 days, while Dan impressed me with his Japanese and Miho impressed me with her cooking. Great times were had by all.

So now, with a last minute decision of jumping on a plane and heading up north, I was in the midst of Miho, Dan, and Dana. Now who is Dana you ask. Well to make a long story short, Dana is Dan's cousin who had moved to New Zealand for a few months. While I was in New Zealand, I was scheduled to meet up with her and share embarrassing stories of Dan. However, she moved back to Seattle and alas, we only kept in touch by email and had never met. At some point, we had discovered Dan and Miho were making a Seattle pit stop on their way back from Japan, so that brings us back to the start of my story. SURPRISE!!! And here are the photos over those 4 days of fun and exploration.


Interesting links of sights and locations in and around Seattle

The Space Needle

The EMP (Experience Music Project)

Seattle Art Museum

Gas Works Park

Washington State Parks

Seattle Mariners

Seattle Seahawks

Pikes Place Market

Cow Chip Cookies

Pioneer Square

Museum of Flight

Seattle Public Library

Woodland Park Zoo

Seattle Aquarium


Thanks to Dana for being a great tour guide. I really enjoyed my trip and would definitely go back to see all the other places and sights that Seattle has to offer.

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Photos

Space Needle
Built for the 1962 Worlds Fair, this 602 feet tall needle has had many visitors. This year, it welcomed their 45 Millionth visitor, whom received a free trip to Paris, France.

Ferry to Whidbey Island
On the Ferry to Whidbey Island with Dan, Dana, and Miho. This is now only the 4th Ferry I've ever been on.

Ebey's Landing
We hiked around Ebey's Landing State Park and National Historic Reserve Trails. Although cloudy, it still had some great cloud effects and interesting plants and flowers.

A Thistle
One of the plants we saw on our first hike at Ebey's Landing. One plant had 3-4 bees on each bud.

Mt. Rainier
Off in the distance on the clear days, was this 14,410 foot snow covered monstrosity.

Wharf
Down at the Wharf, had some good fish for lunch, minus the fish tacos.

Sculpture Garden V
The park had very nice landscaping.

Sculpture Garden
This was the Olympic Sculpture Garden that had some amazing pieces.

Sculpture Garden Chair
A very large red sculpture that could even be seen across the sound in West Seattle.

The First Starbucks
Opened in 1971, this was the first ever Starbucks. Now there are over 7500 worldwide in 39 different countries.

Dan & Miho at the Wharf
We had fish at the Wharf, then took a walk around the area.

Fisherman
A fisherman at Golden Gardens Park.

Seattle from Gas Works Park
An amazing view of the city during sunset.

Gas Works
An old gasification plant located on the north end of Lake Union.

Gasworks at Sunset
Great park with old gas machinery. Great views of Downtown Seattle.

Dana & I
This was looking over downtown Seattle, the Space Needle can faintly been seen in the background.

Gas Works Structure
Don't know what this was, but it looked cool.

Gas Works and Moon
During our visit, we ran into some bagpipe practice. Dana told me that the machines still made noise every once in a while, but I didn't think they would sound like that?!? :-)

Pike's Place Market
The Market, which opened August 17, 1907, is the oldest continually-operated public farmer's market in the country.

Flowers in Market
I was amazed at the variety, size, and price of the flower bouquets that were for sale. About 1/5th of the price I normally spend for Mother's Day and twice as big.

Fish Market
The famous flying fish market, where the workers fling fish around when purchased. They also have a few other amusing tricks up their sleeves.

Comments

[Darcy]

You tourist
Looks remarkably similar to the few days I spent Seattle last month. Your pictures are much better than mine tho...hmmm, i may steal them and pass them off as my own. Later cuz