16th
Seattle, Day 1
Laying in bed in our Hotel room after our first day in the Emerald City. My eyes are tired and I’m ready to call it a day, but I’m making myself journal every night.
We rolled into the station at 12:30 this afternoon, and took a cab to our hotel. After checking in and hauling our gear into room 329 at the Best Western Executive Hotel, we all took showers, which were much needed after two long days and over 1800 miles on the Amtrak.
Once we were all cleaned up, we hit the streets. The forecast had predicted 50 degrees and rainy (big surprise for Seattle, huh?), but it was sunny and warm, and windy. We wandered around until we ended up at the Pike Place market. The market is indoor-outdoor hybrid, for lack of better words. There are a roof, and some walls, but it also lacks some walls.
The market is full of..everything. People. Smells. Crab meat. Paintings. Carvings. Artists. Musicians. We saw a Chinese man playing some sort of string instrument, and mom was sucked into a long conversation with a slightly eccentric—but very friendly—man selling wood-prints. We then stopped and bought a few beautiful paintings from an old Chinese man wearing a trucker hat. Bent over his work, the old man wrote each of our names in Chinese calligraphy before giving them to us. The painting I purchased is of a few Koi, swimming in blue water.
By this time, we could see some dark clouds coming in off the bay, and we decided to head back in th direction of the hotel, while looking for some place to have dinner. We staggered back through the wind, nearly being blown into the streets. The rain, however, held back.
We ended up stopping at a Thai place we had scoped out earlier. The interior walls were painted with beautiful orange and gold scenes of drags running across plains, and the food was delicious. I ordered rice noodles stirfried in Srirachra chili sauce with veggies. Hot, but wonderful.
By the time we were done eating, the sun had come out again, but it was getting towards evening. We wandered back to our hotel, and settled in for the night.
The only downside is that my camera seems to have finally bitten the dust. Looks like I may be shopping for a new one while we’re out here.
