Our Alaska Cruise sailed out of Seattle. Since we had never been to the Pacific Northwest, we decided to fly in a few days before our cruise to do some sightseeing. And we were thrilled that our cousin Jordan, who lives in Portland, could drive over to be our personal tour guide. We picked a great time to visit, too, because Seattle was having some unusually warm, sunny days.
We stayed at the Hyatt Place Hotel, just on the outskirts of downtown. It's a nice hotel within walking distance of the Space Needle. After spending a few nights in town, I now know why Tom Hanks was Sleepless in Seattle. It doesn't get dark until nearly 10:00pm at night and the sun comes up around 5:00am in the morning! But that actually helped us adapt to having nearly round-the-clock sun in Alaska. There were days on our cruise when the sun would rise at 3:45am and not set until 11:00pm at night. It definitely messes with your body clock!
We began our tour of Seattle at the famous Pike Place Market. We loved walking around America's premier Farmer's Market and seeing all it had to offer. All kinds of people set up shop at the market including commercial fishermen, farmers, craftspeople, and street performers.
Before our trip, I had the kids watch the movie Sleepless in Seattle so they'd recognize the market when we visited. So they were very excited to see the famous fish throwers as soon as we walked in the door.
Just around the corner from the Pike Place Fish Co. we found the mini donuts! Mmmm. If you aren't hungry when you arrive at the market, you will be soon! We had fun eating our way around the market, sampling everything from donuts to homemade jerky and of course coffee at the original Starbucks across the street.
Outside the market we found Beecher's Handmade Cheese shop whose Mac-n-Cheese was featured on Oprah's show as one of her favorite things. So we stood around a few minutes watching them make cheese. (But the strong smell soon had us moving along).
In addition to seeing all the fresh fish, fruit and flowers, we enjoyed the street performers. Especially the Beatles impersonators. They were quite good, dressed in their suits with their mop-top haircuts, playing guitar and singing. One of them even played left-handed. But it was the street performer down a ways who really caught our attention. Talk about talent! He could spin a couple of hula hoops while playing both guitar and harmonica AND balancing a second guitar on his nose!
After we had our fill of the market, we decided to let the kids work off some energy running around Gas Works Park. Mom & Dad needed to work off all those food samples, too!
This former gas manufacturing plant, located on Lake Union, has been converted to a fun recreation spot. The old boiler house is now a picnic area and the exhauster-compressor building is a play area for kids.
And the big hill overlooking the lake is the perfect spot for a view of downtown Seattle. It's also a great place to watch seaplanes taking off in the lake. But first, you have to climb to the top!
After a late lunch, it was time to tell Jordan goodbye so he could begin his 3-hr journey back to Portland. Then we decided to walk over to the Space Needle and challenge my fear of heights. I kept my eyes closed during the elevator ride to the top. But once we got up there, the view was too beautiful not to enjoy. Just don't look straight down!
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