Today was my last day in Seattle, and I decided to go for a very relaxing sort of day since I have to get up super-early tomorrow (and also my legs are still extremely sore). Started out the day by heading back to Pike Place Market to get some jambon beurre at Le Panier, which smells incredibly good the moment you walk in since they have a wide assortment of pastries and coffees and cakes as well. Walked around downtown a bit and then took the monorail to Seattle Center to check out the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum. The EMP is really cool if you like music. There's a special section on Jimi Hendrix and a whole exhibit on the history of the guitar. Then there was an exhibit where there were private booths and soundrooms where you could sing, play guitar, bass, drums and mix it up yourself and even burn a CD if you wanted. The science fiction museum was mostly a display for sci-fi paraphernalia and is cool only if you find the 3D model of the Death Star or the animatronic T-Rex used in Jurassic Park cool... which I find slightly interesting. =)
Then the sun came out and it was partly cloudy skies! I had forgotten how nice it feels to have the blue skies out. My suntan lotion been in my luggage untouched since I got here. I headed up to Kerry Hill Park, which is a steep trek up to get the postcard view of the Seattle skyline. The city is really cute and downtown is mostly clean and the buildings have interesting architecture, but today would be the first day I would say the city is really pretty. The other days have been so gray that I hardly even noticed the water whenever I walked down to the waterfront, but today it was actually blue. So after getting the nice panorama I walked back down to Pike Place for an early dinner and got some famous clam chowder at Pike Place Chowder, and then I bought a mung bean cake from Mee Sum Pastries and some Washington-grown Rainier cherries at the Corner Market to save for later. I asked the guy to give me half a pound and after he had measured it and I was getting out my wallet he scooped another small handful in there for no extra charge. I love this place! There's so many restaurants from casual to upscale if you spent a week in Seattle I think you wouldn't be able to try all the food in the market.
I headed back to the fish market for the last time and was talking to the worker and SO tempted to buy some dungeness crabs to send back home. They were about as big as my laptop but the overnight shipping they do is a flat rate and would have cost more than the actual cost of the crabs. I almost wish I had done the Seattle part of my trip last so I could just bring those home in their airplane-approved boxes but oh well. Another time!
Now back in my hotel room and admiring the last of this great view. It was still twilight at 9 which was great. Tomorrow I am taking a very early train to Vancouver where I have no idea what I'll be doing yet. Lots more of the same walking and eating a lot. It's a 4-hour ride so I'll be researching the guidebook! Although it is kind of nice to have time to "relax" and not worry about jamming in every activity I can think of (which I'll do once I get to Whistler in a couple of days). But otherwise Seattle was definitely a nice place to chill in. Walking around town at night was not as laidback as I had hoped since there are some pretty shady people on the streets here, but still more relaxing than before vacation is all I'll say.
