Sailing to Seattle

On Monday Rich and I went to Seattle. It was my first time and his first time as a tourist. We had been so busy unpacking that we didn't have time to plan out what we would do when we got there. Rich is more relaxed than I am (to put it mildly) and I was nervous all the way to the ferry (about half an hour) and the beginning of the ride across. Then I decided that I, too, could fly by the seat of my pants. (Didn't the Lorax do that?) Luckily, Seattle is a very easy city to get around. We arrived on the dock at about 10:15 AM and struck out to find Pike's Place. I was imagining a wide street with stalls lining both sides full of produce. I imagined that all the way up two steep hills (Seattle looks a lot like San Francisco in that way!), across several blocks, over to a map where we saw the error of our ways, and back down two steep hills. And, surprise, it looks nothing like what I imagined! In fact, it reminded me of a much bigger and more interesting Thorne's in Northampton.

We spent the rest of the morning wandering through the little shops. There were used book and music stores, jewelry stores and the stores that smell like patchouli and sell hippie clothes and other random things (my favorite). We watched the fish throwers and walked through the produce area where they sold everything from cucumbers to chocolate pasta. The flowers were beautiful too but by the time we got there it was getting crowded and I was ready to find some space and get some lunch. We had delicious New England clam chowder in a restaurant looking out over the water. I had to see what the New England clam chowder would taste like so far outside of New England. The verdict: DELICIOUS!

Once our blood sugar level was raised, we headed off to see if we could walk as far as the space needle. It seemed both close and far at the same time. At the information booth we found a map and realized it was only about nine blocks away. Off we went. We stepped into a few cute stores along the way but I had to stop dawdling because we were aiming to be back for a 3:00 ferry, which didn't leave a lot of time for stopping. Once there, we decided not to go up so we wouldn't be late for our boat (the dogs were waiting at home and, while a babysitter had let them out midday, we didn't want them to go for too long without us).

The area around the needle was fun to see too. There was an American Indian band playing and singing, a small amusement park and some kind of museum. Upon checking yet another "You are Here" map, we realized there was also a monorail. I had not been on one of these since being a little kid at Riverside Park and was excited at the prospect of a ride. It was especially exciting because it took us back the nine blocks we had walked from Pike's Place and, while it was a few streets up, it dropped us off in a shopping center. We bought our tickets and enjoyed our short ride through town.

After visiting a couple of stores in the shopping area (come on, if you are reading this you KNOW that I don't pass up the shopping!), we walked back down to the water front to catch our ferry. We arrived in plenty of time and were able to get seats on the top level and enjoy the sun and the warm afternoon. As we walked to our seats, we passed a man wearing a Cape Cod tshirt. Of course I had to point at him and ask if he was from Massachusetts. It turns out that he was from Windsor, CT, and that he had been helping his friend from Shclbourne Falls drive across the country with her dog to take a nursing job in Alaska. Such a small world. He ended up sitting with us and chatting a little bit about driving across the country on I-90. He had stopped at most of the same stops we had. We enjoyed the trip across and were glad to get our tired feet back to our car. With a quick stop at Central Market (our version of Whole Foods) to buy some Lara Bars, bulk walnuts, and gluten-free granola, we were on our way back home to our puppies.