Prequel: I am sitting in my home office, Gentle Reader, with some Jasmine tea from the Empress Hotel in Victoria, listening to my favorite Pandora station (the Alt-J station) with Cold War Kids currently playing. It’s cooled off slightly today–it’s been as Hot as Hades here in the Midwest!–and all is quiet in my home. DH is in his man cave downstairs; the dogs are sleeping; it’s time to blog.
Seattle, morning: We woke up in Temporary Hotel and ventured out in search of breakfast. We found a lovely little place recommended by the hotel clerk, splashed our way through the rain, and had a delicious brekkie. During this time, Regular Hotel called and said we’d have a room ready that afternoon. I argued that we were told we’d have a room by 10:00. We had tickets to the Aquarium and a Harbor Cruise that day, and I didn’t want to miss them by transporting ourselves and our several bags of luggage all over Seattle. She said she’d see what she could do. We were called later that our room was ready, about 10:30. We headed over from Temporary to Regular, checked in, and found the room blessedly free of other people’s things. After a brief respite, we decided to head out.
Seattle, mid-morning: Took a quick cab to the waterfront, drove through the Pike Place Market (which reminded us a lot of the French Market in New Orleans), and ended up at the Pier where we picked up our tickets. We got into the Aquarium and it was swamped with kids and adults. We wandered around at our own speed, enjoying fish, sea creatures, an octopus–which, loyal readers of This Blog know is my favorite creature next to the dog–sea otters (picture of which is on a previous blog entry), seals, and other fun animals and creatures. We adored it! What a beautiful aquarium, and so well managed. We were able to escape without buying anything adorable in the gift shop–lots of shopping left to do in Alaska, we reasoned–and went in search of lunch.
Seattle, lunch-time: We wandered down the Piers to see where to eat, and we knew we had a big dinner ahead of us at Blueacre Seafood that night. So we grabbed a slice or two of sourdough pizza and sat to watch the ferris wheel and the water. Our Harbor Cruise was originally scheduled for 3ish, but we moved it up as we were finished at the Aquarium earlier than we realized we would be. We stopped at Starbucks, of course–we were in Seattle, after all!–and then rode the Harbor Cruise for about 1.5 hours.
Seattle, afternoon: The cruise was amazing. We got to see the skyline of Seattle, some of the industrial area, and a bald eagle! The first of many we were to see on this trip. Neither of us got seasick, thank goodness, and when we were done, we decided not to buy the photo they snapped of us on our way in, and caught a cab back to Regular Hotel.
Seattle, evening: Ate at Blueacre Seafood and had a scrumptious meal. Their chef is from New Orleans (!) so DH was brave enough to try their gumbo, which he declared excellent. We had a thoroughly enjoyable evening, and decided the only way to cap it all off was an early night in with Game of Thrones on the telly. It was Sunday, after all, and we had a big day ahead of us tomorrow: the cruise embarkation!
The Postmodern Bluestocking 