Seattle

---

We arrived in Seattle after a mere 4 hour journey up from Portland. We caught a free bus (always a winner) to near our hotel and then headed out to dinner in another microbrewery/pub. Alex had a sampler of all of their 6 beers and the best of a bad lot (in my humble opinion) was the Kilt Lifter - one made with scotch. They also had a whisky bar that sold over 200 different whiskies, we went in there and had a look but didn't stay for a drink!
In Seattle, we went to see the Space Needle, went on the monorail, wandered around town, won a teddy bear on a 25 cent grabber machine on my first attempt - Alex tried a few times and only managed a little girl's purse in bright pink with cutie written on the side! He liked it!!
We went to the Pike Place Public Market and watched them throwing fish, ate something called Knisch (which was very nice) and ate Oreo Bark from a chocolate shop that mostly sold toffee apples covered in chocolate and everything you can imagine!
If you want a Starbucks, go to Seattle, home of Starbucks. There are so many, at least one on every block and in some cases you can see one Starbucks from another Starbucks, just 100m away! Needless to say, we did have a Starbucks there!
On our final day in Seattle, it was an overcast morning and we headed to the cinema and watched the new Batman on it's first day of release. The cinema was really busy even though it was 10am on a work day! All the Americans clapped when it was done - we poured scorn upon them! (Alexs words!) The film was good, but the Joker was pretty sick and horrid. There are newspapers here reporting parents complaining that the film was too horrid for their 11 year old children - it was a PG13, no wonder!
We left shortly after the film to go and catch our 45 hour train (the Empire Builder) to Chicago.

---