Got back to our hotel, The Alexis,
after taking the hire car back and with our room not ready, had a
very late lunch across the street at Hotel 1000. Got back to
eventually check into a very large room that smelt of cigarette smoke
(in a non-smoking hotel).
After trying the wines in the daily
happy hour, we left the hotel staff to sort out the room and went out
to explore. The waterfront was very reminiscent of Fisherman's Wharf
in San Francisco, although the roar of cars from the elevated highway
was a contrast. We continued along the waterfront to the Olympic
Sculpture Park. The huge red traffic cones were interesting, although
we weren't sure if all the women exercising were part of the exhibit
or not.
Wandered back into the city and stopped
at a bar for desert and a drink. As there were only four of us, we
weren't quite able to finish a single portion of the chocolate
brownie! For one person, this would literally have been “death by
chocolate”.
Retired for the night and awoke to find
everything smelling very strongly of cigarette smoke. After getting
the hotel to move us, we set off for breakfast at Pike Place Market,
a Seattle Institution. It lived up to all the hype as the place to go
for a huge selection of fresh produce and crafts. Despite all the
coffee shops in the city, the first Starbucks (with the original
larger mermaid logo) had people spilling out of the door.
We then walked over to the Seattle
Center and rode up the 520ft to the Space Needle observation platform
for a great view of the city and its surroundings before touring the
EMP and SFP housed in an amazing building. Headed back to the hotel
to find that we had been moved to two suites, one of which was the
honeymoon suite. Although on different floors they were amazingly
interconnected by an enclosed staircase. Our last night in the US was
to be spent in some luxury! Had dinner at the Seattle branch of the
Irish Pub chain Fado, it was odd to think that a week earlier we had
been looking at the same menu in a city on the coast of a different
ocean.
After breakfast in one of the numerous
coffee shops, we discovered the Seattle Underground, the eventual
outcome of building the original city on a mudflat and using sawdust
for landfill. After a quick lunch in our hotel and a couple of last
calls to the UK on our US mobiles, we checked out of the hotel and
headed for the airport.
Despite the taxi driver almost leaving
Josh behind and then just avoiding a collision with another car, we
all safely arrived at Seattle airport for the flight down to LA.
After much discussion at the check-in desk, we blew some United
Frequent Flyer points to fly first class. This meant bigger seats, a
meal and a constantly full glass of wine! We had to fly earlier from
Seattle because our scheduled flight was subject to delay. This meant
we had even longer to wait in LAX, not our favourite airport to start
with!
