Day 9- Seattle, Washington

Today we woke up again to less than desirable weather conditions here in Seattle. The skies were overcast most of the morning and it rained off and on pretty much all day. I really wanted to get some shots of Mt. Rainier but the clouds just would not cooperate… we were able to see the monster volcano when we first got on the road this morning and there were definitely clouds all around it… but, by noon it disappeared totally in the cloud cover. We drove all over downtown trying to get to the Pike Place Market area of Seattle… this seemed to be THE place to be in this city. There were so many people there that you could hardly maneuver the car through the streets. We parked and then walked the entire market. We saw the first Starbucks… of course, the line into the store was 50+ folks deep… they had an interesting duo out front of the store strumming and singing for the crowds…

We also stood and watched the Fish Market stand where the employees stand out front of the seafood and take your order and then the ones behind the counters THROW the orders out to the front… just like on TV!

We had clam chowder and fish and chips at Jack’s Fish and Chips in the middle of the market… On our way back to our car, we even saw two street-worn gentlemen sharing a nice big marijuana joint... it always warms my heart to see folks sharing in these times- even if it is illegal!
Next, we drove over to Redmond, WA where Mike’s maternal family is from… the traffic was again horrendous today because of the college football games as we drove over the "floating" bridge. But, since the leaves are already changing here for the autumn season, all of our driving around was somewhat enjoyable.

We finally made it back to the hotel and enjoyed a nice latte from the Starbucks in our hotel! Yes, with all of the 100+ Starbucks in this town, the lines are just TOO long for us to wait for coffee… and there seems to be a coffee shop on every corner and in every parking lot here. Here is Mike looking like a typical Northwesterner…

We ended the day with supper at Fatburger… some western burger chain that Mike has been yearning for since we arrived in California 9 days ago…