Homeless in Seattle

When we planned our trip out, we wanted to spend a few days in Seattle.  In part because we wanted to visit and explore a new part of the country, and in part to have a few days off from traveling before getting on a plane for 14 hours.  We are so glad we did, and wish that we'd had more time there.

Our first impression was not the best.  We arrived around 6:30 pm on New Years Eve, got our rental car and headed for our hotel. We check in, and have 3 kids who are STARVING, so we set out to find a restaurant nearby, once we realize there is NO SPACE left in the parking garage. We find a pizza place in the GPS less than a mile away, but the roads were so confusing and narrow it took us like 10 minutes to get there.  If you've ever been in Seattle, around Lake Union, you'll know what I'm talking about when I say "city planners is a fabulous concept".  It's an intricate network of one way streets, interspersed with two way streets so narrow they SHOULD be one way.  Every intersection turn is a hair raising adventure of turn and stare into headlights terrified you missed a one way sign.  And with recent changes to traffic patterns, the Garmin wasn't as smart as it usually is.  When our GPS says we have arrived, we look around the intersection wildly, as the light turns back to red, and don't see the restaurant.  So we said screw it and decide to order pizza from the hotel room.  So New Years Eve was spent with Dominos and Coke, with the 5 of us.  Later that night, we realized we did have a pretty good view of the fireworks from our balcony, though.

The next day we walked across the street to a great little cafe called Joey's, on the lake, to have lunch with a gold star mom and another Marine Alex served in Afghanistan with.  It was enjoyable catching up, and the food was great.  Thanks Monica, Jessica, and Vishnu.

We had been told by some friends that went to school here, that we had to take the kids to see "the troll" under the Freemont St bridge.  If you didn't know it, trolls STILL live under bridges, even in this day and age.  The girls had fun climbing all over it, and Avi helped with a little hygiene as well. (And yes, that is an actual VW beetle in his hand, for scale).

After there, a quick cell phone google search for "Seattle sunset views" led us to Kerry Park, a mile or so north.  Alex got a few great pictures of the city skyline, complete with a view of Mt Rainier (which we are told is fortunate that time of year).

Having exhausted our daylight, and warming ability of our "Japan jackets" we headed in for some hot chocolate, and a hot tub.

We spent our last full day exploring as much as we could.  First stop was Top Pot Doughnuts which we have seen on Travel Channel and Food Network, and had to try it.  Any of you who know Alicia, will know that donuts are on a near orgasmic list for her.  So this was a no brainer.  A quick street car ride, and 2 blocks, we arrived, and had breakfast.

We added another 6 or 7 blocks, and tried to go to the top of the Space Needle, but one of our kids suddenly got "sick" on our walk over. We can neither confirm nor deny that it was too many donuts, or nerves about the height, but it persisted,  so we missed the EMP Museum and the Space Needle. But we did get some neat pictures of the Seattle Center area, and architecture. 
 


We took the monorail to where we could catch the bus back to our hotel, and ended up at a mall, where we had lunch and caught the bus back to the hotel.  About 10 minutes later, we realized she seemed fine, and we didn't want to waste the day.  After a Pepto-Bismol tablet, and a promise that we weren't going back to the Space Needle, we decided to go try Pike Place Market.

After a nap, it was off to Pike Place Market. There were so many little stores and vendors, that I'm sure we missed a bunch. We ate some delicious Mac and Cheese at Beecher's Handmade Cheese. Bought some scrumptious pears, oranges and pomegranates from a produce stand, and finished our night off with some Starbucks.

We got another great sunset view from the waterfront along Pike Place, before heading back in for the night.

 All in all, it was a great trip, and we were really glad we got the chance to explore a new city.  It also gave us a chance to decompress, and express a few lessons on crowds, and travel, and behavior for the girls, before going to another country.  We'd love to go back again sometime, and this time maybe leave the kids (with Grandma or something... not leave them in Seattle). 

And those of you who find yourself here on a PCS, I highly advise it, since it will let you get some sleep before the 12 hr nightmare of check in, USO, boarding, etc......(but that's a whole other story)





P.S.  All you Fifty Shades of Grey fans.  In case you were wondering what Escala looks like, we passed along the first floor of it, and took this shot of the tower itself.  A two bedroom unit can be yours for only $619,000 (Christian Grey and red room not included)!