Life on the Left Coast: First Time in Seattle

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Mike had the day off so, bright and early, we drove into town to see what there was to see in Seattle. True to form, Mike and I didn't have a plan. And true to form, the boys were like, "Where are we going? Where are we going?"

We crossed over the bridge (not sure which one, to be honest). We programmed "Space Needle" into the GPS and followed the prompts.

We drove around the city for a while, just sightseeing and getting our bearings. After driving underneath the monorail a few times, I googled the Seattle monorail on my iPhone to see if it was open to the public, how much it cost, etc. Wow, only $2.25 for adults, less for Merrit, and Ollie was free. Sweet.

We found a parking place and made our way to the Seattle Center monorail station which is right underneath the Space Needle.

In the shadow of the Space Needle, seen through the sunroof.

We'll come back another day to go to the top of the needle.
A sunny, clear day when we can really get a great view.

Our destination!

So we are all jazzed for our monorail ride. Tickets in hand. Ready to get a bird's eye view of the Seattle landmarks and sights. The boys were super excited. The engineer let them sit up front and even let Ollie blow the horn.

Getting ready to lurch forward on the monorail track, a good 20 feet above ground.

"Wow, this is so fun!" says Merrit. "Yay!" says Ollie, pointing at buildings and cars as we go by. Mike and I take it all in, curious and excited about our new city.

Scrrreeecchh, goes the train. We are at our first stop. Everyone gets off. We're sitting there and the driver, eventually, moseys over to us and says, "Did you buy a round trip ticket?"

We're like, "Huh?"

Yep, that was the end of the monorail. One stop. I'm not even kidding. As we walk away in disbelief Mike goes, "They should call it the 'minute-rail.'" Then Merrit chimes in, "Or the 'mini-rail.'" That got big laughs. That train ride was nothing but a big ol' case of anticipointment.

On a bright note, we did grab some hot dogs for lunch, and the boys made souvenir pennies.

This photo is almost too gratuitous, sorry.

The boys are amassing quite a collection of these!

We set off on foot to who knows where. I sort of wanted to make our way to Pike Place Market, pretty much--aside from the Space Needle--the only destination I knew about and had heard of prior to moving to Seattle. Thankfully there were plenty of signs pointing the way and we were only 0.2 miles away.

The floor tiles all had names on them.
Does anyone know why?

Mushrooms, morels, and truffles are apparently a big deal around here. In
a magazine at the hair salon, I read all about a truffle festival that takes
place in Oregon later this spring.

Mike suggested we duck into Lowell's, an old-time
restaurant (three storeys high, inside the market) for a beer.

We watched the ferries come and go, the cargo ships unload, a plane or
two come in for a landing over the Puget Sound. This is truly a working waterfront.

We ambled back through the bitter cold (there's still snow on the ground, though the roads are just slushy), back to our parked car.