Seattle, part 2

June 21st
Breakfast on the roof deck of the hotel is a great way to start your day. The staff in the Starbucks in the lobby are possibly the friendliest we’ve ever known. The same could be said about Seattle in general from our short experience.

First tourist activity of the day is to visit the O Deck of the Space Needle for some views of the city and the surrounding mountain ranges in the distance. A little hazy to have a really clear view but you could see all of downtown, the harbour and Puget Sound. Beneath the Space Needle is an area called the Seattle Centre, home of the Sci-fi and Science museums. A fun park which had a very 70’s look and feel to it. Possibly not updated since then which maybe the explanation.

We later made our way downtown on the Monorail. A quick three minute journey, cutting through the buildings and above the streets. Wish it went on for longer and through more of the city. Yesterday down at Pikes Place Market we found a groovy looking cafe/store which made it’s own cheese. Never ones to turn down a unique cheese toasty (grilled cheese) this was to be our lunch time destination. Sat on a couple of milk churns, enjoying our toasties within the busy market place. A couple of stores down stands the first ever Starbucks featuring the old logo, store front and interior.

Our afternoon plan was to take one of the harbour cruises. Whilst waiting for the boat we looked round some of the stores on the pier, that was until we entering one of the stores our presence setting off the alarm. Following a polite interrogation we were told we couldn’t look around the cheap store full of nik-naks and other bits of souvenir tat. Once on the boat we received some great views of the city skyline, the public announcer and guide pointed out landmarks and places of interest. It was pretty interesting but a little overpriced for the experience.

For the evening we had read about this place called Bruno’s. we checked it out and thought we should have dinner there. It was a strange, old fashioned, italian, mexican place. full of character which was probably the attraction. We think Bruno himself served us and frankly as weird as the place was we couldn’t complain about the food or the price. 12” pizza and 2 beers for $18. That’s about £9 in real money. It’s a shame we only had two days, loads more places to go and see. I think we’ll be back in Seattle some time in the Future.

Cheers, San Francisico next.