Did you know that Seattle is nicknamed The Emerald City? No? Me either. Still not sure why, but sure, maybe Seattle is in the Land of Oz.
Today we had the full experience of exploring Seattle after ferrying into the city, of course. First stop was Pike Place Market (holy busy). I’ve been told this is the place to buy flowers and boy was everyone right. Rows and rows and rows of beautiful bouquets very, very cheap. I wish we could have bought some, but Kevin seemed to think the airlines would frown upon us bringing bouquets onto the plane.
Next stop… lunch! I’m quite a planner when it comes to our adventures (something Kevin loves – and hates at times I’m sure), and food is never the exception here. I always try to find one local place to eat at in a new city, and this time I chose a pizzeria… Seriously Pie. A little quirky and out of my comfort zone with the toppings, but we ended up ordering a Sweet Fennel Sausage with roasted peppers and provolone cheese. Fire baked to perfection. We ate every bite.
Now onto one of the things Kevin planned out…a trip on the monorail. This was built for the World’s Fair to give visitors quick access to downtown and the fair grounds (a quick 2 minute ride apart). This was an adventure in itself… we wanted to ride the monorail to the Space Needle, but we had to walk practically the same distance to just get to the monorail as it would have for us to walk to the Space Needle. Oh well… all about the experience.
Of course since the monorail brought us to the Space Needle, that meant we had to get on it. Most people know elevators aren’t my favorite thing in the world, so this ride gave me some serious anxiety. Going up we were pushed in the back, so the ride was ‘okay’. The views were awesome from the top if you could get over the feeling of movement under your feet. Very strange. Going back down, we were the last ones on so we were up close and personal with the window. Thank goodness it only lasted 41 seconds and the doors opened promptly, or I would have been stressing.
Now that we got the three big “must-sees” under our belt, we had some time to just explore. We are both so intrigued by all different cultures, and we try to experience everything we can, so it only made sense that we headed to Chinatown International District next. It was a short walk (okay… maybe 18 blocks or so…), and really wasn’t that exciting except for a couple of cool buildings. We actually headed that way at dinner time, because we wanted Chinese for dinner. We walked by a bunch of restaurants and all of them had very weird/gross pictures of their platters, and so ultimately we decided to pass. Hard Rock Cafe it is!
Last stop is the ferry back to the island. Tomorrow we say farewell to downtown Seattle, and head a bit south for our last day here. A bit bittersweet 🙁 On a good note, we remembered to check into our Southwest flight, so we won’t be boarding last this time!
Seattle skyline from the ferry… very pretty!
At the top of the Space Needle… holding on for dear life =)
Riding the ferry back to the island.
