Jackie's Blog

After a very nice breakfast, we wandered into the maze of the famous Pike Place Market. This is one of those places where you never know whether you have seem it all as there is so much of it and lots of passages and corridors hidden here there and everywhere. A labyrinth. We spent at least two hours there and could have spent the whole day, especially if you were in the mood for shopping, as there was everything from fresh fruit and vegetables, fish and many other kinds of foods, as well as jewelery, pottery and other craft type stalls. Amazing. We had decided to take the ferry to Bainbridge Island for lunch, and unfortunately just missed one, so ended up with a shorter time there, but the views of Seattle skyline from the ferry were really good. We had to rush a bit back from the ferry, and caught the Monorail once again to the Seattle Center, this time to see 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' in the IMAX theatre. We did however sit for almost an hour while they had t...

We then walked even further uphill to the Queen Anne area of Settle to a well deserved pint of local beer at the Hilltop Ale House and some lunch. It was a very pretty neighborhood, and nice to see a non-touristy spot. After a bus ride back down the hill, we went to the Sci-Fi Museum and geeked out for a while, though I must admit I did not recognise anywhere near as much as Dick, which was not unexpected! They also had a special exhibit which was a tribute to Jim Henson and therefore lots about the Muppets which was fun. The museum is also attached to the Music Experience which had a tower of guitars in the entrance. By this time we were getting tired so we headed back to the hotel on the Monorail and had a swim and a relax before we headed out to dinner. We pushed the boat out and had a wonderful, although long, chef's sampler menu in Chez Shea . A perfect end to a lovely first day.

We stayed in the Hotel Fairmount Olympic- must posher than our usual hotel, but we were celebrating, and it was very nice after the rather narrow bunk beds on the train! In true Wall family tradition we were up early and out for breakfast bright and early. Breakfast was overlooking Puget Sound, at the beginning of a very nice sunny and warm day. Seattle has had overly warm weather for this time of year- so the temperatures were more like we are used to at home. After breakfast we walked all the way along the seafront and up to the Space Needle. The queues were fairly short, so we got to the top in record time. It actually takes 40 seconds in the glass elevators.. Next we walked uphill again to the Kerry Viewpoint for another perspective on the Seattle Skyline..

Climbing out of bed to go to the loo first thing in the morning was an adventure in itself on the train, but then we were able to watch the sun come up over Mount Shasta.. We headed for the dining car for breakfast and then into the observation car to just watch the world go by.. I took lots of photos through the very dirty windows on the moving train just see what they would come out like but some of them were fine. The Cascades, mountains, valleys, lakes and reservoirs...

Yes, I am a few days behind but I have a great excuse. A couple of weeks ago, Dick presented me with a surprise trip to Seattle, WA by train to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary :-) Friday was leaving day! We both went to work as usual and then Dick came down by train to meet me in San Jose. The intention was to go for a walk around and find a new restaurant but we didn't get very far- we ended up in the Brit Pub and had a pint! Dick had English style pub curry and I had fish and chips. Not very adventurous but fine. We did go for a walk after, trying to find where we had walked the first time we came to San Jose, but eventually ended up back at my work to pick up the suitcases and headed to the train station. Lots of people were waiting at the station but only a few had sleeper cabins like us. The train came in about 10 minutes late. We were showed our little box of a room, and told to go straight up to the diner for dinner. As we'd already had dinner, so we settled for d...