Day Nine: Seattle

I was in college when I first appreciated modern music and when grunge appeared, so

I was very excited to experience SEATTLE!

We got off the ship early (at least it felt early for people on vacation!), around 7:30 am.  

We had to eat before that, and since lots of people were getting off the ship early, the dining room was FILLED with people and they were all ruder than normal.  Normally, people were calm and didn't barge ahead or anything, but this one meal was different.  Everyone was in a hurry (thus, the ONE life adage provided to pastor and author John Ortberg by his mentor: "Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life."  Hurry brings nothing good!)

Greg took pictures before breakfast.

Here is the arena (open roof!)

On the right is the needle!

Here is what I wore:

The shuttle to our hotel came right to pier 91.

It poured rain from the time we got off the ship until about noon.

Beautiful!

When we got to our hotel, we stowed away our luggage and then went to 

Jack In The Box with the help of the hotel shuttle.

I LOVE this picture!

They have some salads and dressings that are gluten-free (thanks!) like this one (with honey mustard vinaigrette):

Then Mark & Cora took a nap and went to the park, while Jillian, my parents, and Greg & I went to find the Market!

On the way, we found this great quote on the tread of the steps in the train terminal (which was also a mall!)

Love this logo for the mass-transit card:

The rain was slowing, and the green of the city was beautiful.

It was about a 30 minute ride in the train from our hotel (near SeaTac airport in Sea Tac) to downtown.

feet, clockwise from bottom: me, Greg, Jillian, Mom, Dad

We walked towards the ocean . . . 

And look!  We found the Public Market! 

TONS of organic stuff (yay!)

And gluten-free stuff (double-yay!) 

They even had a shop that sold gluten-free crepes!

$8.99, though AND I had just eaten a bunch of dried strawberries I bought from a fruit vendor, so no, thanks this time!

Beautiful lavender shop, where I wanted to buy everything.

Beautiful flowers

And buskers!

This round feller had a pretty amazing little mustache that curled up at the ends.

There was another musician street artist who kept a hula-hoop aloft around his hips WHILE he played the guitar and sang!

I learned that the Market was built on land that used to be a cemetery, and they put the names of the people who had been in the graves onto the tiles that line the walkways of the market.

Then we went to TJ Maxx right downtown because I was looking for some travel ready food for the plane ride the next day.

Our train station was under the symphony hall building, where there were amazing and beautiful

Chihuly scuptures by both of the entrances.

I love these! 

The train was pretty full, so we all stood.  A guy noticed that Jillian was pregnant and offered her his seat, but she staunchly declared that she was fine standing.  He decided to write a little song about her and sang it to the amusement of the other people in the car.  Something like, "Pregnant girl on a train . . . "  I laughed a lot.  Jillian was embarrassed.

We were glad we bought tickets, because we actually had a fare enforcement duo come and check!

I believe that's sort of rare.

After we got back, we found Mark and Cora playing in the water feature at the park across the way from our hotel.

 Cora went on the pier with Grandpa

And played in the grass!

Jillian and baby #2:

After calling about 10 pizza places that would deliver to our hotel, I found one that offered gluten-free pizza, and we ordered in our dinner, talked until way too late, and went to bed!  

Tomorrow: back to Arizona . . .