We intentionally woke up early this morning because we wanted to make the most of our only full day in Seattle.

Breakfast was included in our room rate so after showering we headed down to the atrium and dined in “Palm Court” – aptly named given the number of live palm trees in the restaurant.

We left the hotel around 10.15am and followed the hotel directions to downtown.  The short drive over waterways and through tunnels confirmed our initial feelings about Seattle – it is a beautiful city.

Being a Sunday the parking is free so we drove around the city for a while trying to find a place to park – not so easy on a busy Sunday.  We finally found a place in the south of the city and collected our gear then head off on our walking tour of the city.

We tracked to the waterfront (http://www.seattlewaterfront.org/) and strolled along the piers and in and out of shops along the way.  It was a beautiful day – hot and cloudless.  Being down by the water in Seattle is a treat.  The clean blue waters of Puget Sound (http://www.pugetsound.org/) are boarded by islands and the city itself. To the west the snow capped mountains of Olympic National Park (http://www.nps.gov/olym/) provide a stunning backdrop to the sound.  Beautiful

After walking along the waterfront we decided to get out of the sun so we made our way to the famous Pike’s Place Market (http://www.pikeplacemarket.org/frameset.asp?flash=false).

The market is filled with a variety of shops.  The market is home to the famous fish throwing fish stalls http://www.pikeplacefish.com/), flower shops, food stalls and coffee shops.  Indeed, this is the original home of Starbucks  – a treat to visit the place where it all started.

After negotiating the crowds in Pikes Place we found a lovely little cafe that sold crumpets and scones.  We shared a lovely scone and washed it down with a coffee and Chai Tea (for The Princess).  The shop doesn’t have a website but you can check out a related site at: http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-crumpet-shop-seattle

We left Pikes Place and took a long walking tour through the Seattle city centre before returning to the truck around 2.00pm. The Princess had not been doing a lot of walking in Calgary so she was rather shin sore by the time we arrived back at the car!  I will have to get her back into condition when we arrive back in Hong Kong.

We were determined to see more of the sights of Seattle so we drove to the area where the Seattle Space Needle (http://www.spaceneedle.com/)  is located.  This area is also home to the Seattle Centre (http://www.seattlecenter.com/), the Science Fiction Museum and Experience Music Project (http://www.empsfm.org/).  It is a wonderfully designed public space that has something for everyone and we really enjoyed walking around and taking in the sights and sounds.

We drove past Bill’s Palace (http://www.microsoft.com) before finding a wonderful little coffee shop in the town of Redmond.  The shop was called Soul Food Books (http://www.soulfoodbooks.com) and it served great organic coffee.  The two brothers were great hosts and they treated us to our choice of music while we were enjoying our afternoon brew.

We learnt that the boys had grown up around a photographer father and they had taken to the profession too.  You can check out their work at: http://craiglarsen.wordpress.com

I found a nice Chinese (can’t keep away from it) restaurant in the nearby shopping area and picked up a small serving (NOT) of Chinese food and a bottle of Australian red wine.

I woke the Princess on my return to the hotel and we enjoyed our supper and wine and switched off in front of a Discovery Channel documentary.

With another full day ahead off us tomorrow we decide to get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight.

Sleeping In Seattle.

Roey and The Princess

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