Seattle, Washington

Seattle is a city that has gone by many names, Emerald City, Gateway to Alaska, and COFFEE TOWN. They are the home to Starbucks, Seattle’s Best Coffee, and Tully’s Coffee. There is at least one or two coffee joins on every street corner. It has been said that Seattleites drink at least 4 lattes everyday. WOW! In addition to the coffee, Seattle sports a very nice waterfront, the infamous space needle (home of a world fair), a monorail system, museums galore, a duck tour, and a unique underground (literally) history.

The next morning we woke up early to find the next hotel we would be staying at in Seattle. We just wanted to store our luggage so we could start exploring Seattle. Looking at a map, the Fairmont Hotel and Springhill Suites were not too far apart. Again, looking at the map, they don’t show you the mountains you will have to conquer between locations. We walked 1 mile UP HILL made a left down a slight slant and found our hotel. During this trip, I busted two wheels on my suitcaseL. Enough talking about the Hills….

We figured we would start our day off by getting some things out of the way. Since the camera was broke during the biking trip, we decided to take a local bus to the closet Best Buy. Not being experienced public transportation bus people, when we saw that Golden Best Buy Ticket in the distance, we rang the little bell which indicated to the driver that we wanted to get off at the next stop. “Ding” the doors opened and we were about ¼ mile from the Best Buy. Not bad right!!! Wrong!!! The bus proceeded to make one more stop before the best buy and one stop just outside the best buy. Needless to say we found out where to catch the bus for the ride home. We get to Best Buy, and they start looking through the computer at my account to find the service plan for the camera. After about forty five minutes of searching, they lose electricity and the fire alarm went off. Everybody had to evacuate the store. Forty minutes later after the fire department arrive and gave the “O.K.” they let everybody back in to the store, to wait on lines again. After we got the new camera, we took the bus back to the cities waterfront and started exploring.

Some of the places visited were the Space Needle, Pike Place Market born in 1907, Seattle's Pike Place Market is the granddaddy of farmers' markets. Today, it's a major tourist attraction with 200 businesses operating year-round, 190 craftspeople and 120 farmer booths - plus street performers and musicians. Flowers by the bucketful, flying fish, fresh pastries and fruit, handmade cheeses, local honey, wine, an assortment of restaurants, import goods, antiques, collectibles and lots of surprises are around every corner. We walked past the Seattle aquarium, along the Seattle waterfront which is a bustling collection of attractions, restaurants and shopping, as well as starting points for ferries and cruise ships. We ate here as well as fed the seagulls at the statue of Ivar Haglund in front of Ivar's Acres of Clams (a restaurant recommended by Rachel Ray), strolled by the fountains on the wooden piers of Waterfront Park.

Two other tours we decided to do were Bill Speidel's Underground Tour and of course the Seattle Duck Tour.

The underground tour was themed around the great Seattle fire. After the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, the city was rebuilt over the top of the ruins. This guided tour took us through the hidden subterranean passages that once were the main roadways and storefronts of old downtown Seattle. These underground passage ways have been places of haunted sightings and the TAPS investigation team has set up camp here.

The Seattle Duck Tour has been one of our favorite Duck Tours thus far. I think we are Duck Tour hoping across the United States! Seattle is a great city with a lot to offer. We both can’t wait to come back to explore some more.