The Bluest Skies You've Ever Seen

Before I start today’s blog, I must comment on the picture of the bowl of cherries. We are in Washington, you know. So, the other day on our drive between MSH and Mt.R (read earlier blogs to figure out those locations), we stopped for liquid refreshment and there was a produce stand on the opposite corner that had fresh Washington cherries. Our #2 loves fresh cherries, so I bought a couple of baskets just because we would have done it had he been with us. They were Bing and Rainier cherries. Never heard of the Rainier variety, but they were every bit as good as the Bings. Since these cherries hadn’t been refrigerated, I kept some of the pits to see if we can grow a cherry tree just for #2!

Okay. So. Today was downtown Seattle day. At least that was our plan. #3 woke up with a tummy ache and feeling light-headed. He had a bout last year with a condition called labyrinthitis, which our dr. said was a rare virus that affects the labyrinth passages of the middle and inner ear, thus the dizziness and nausea. We were just praying that this was not a recurrence of that episode.

We got dressed and drove downtown to at least walk around a little while and have lunch at a place recommended to me by some of my engineer buddies at work. Random fact: Downtown Seattle is surprisingly hilly. Some of the streets that run east and west are reminiscent of San Francisco, they’re so steep! I wouldn’t want to drive in downtown Seattle in the winter time or with questionable brakes. Or with my mother.

Maggs got us to the parking garage for the Pike Place Market and after driving around the garage for about 15 minutes, Dear was finally able to find a parking space. #3 was hanging in there, so we went up several flights of steps to get to the Market and find Ivar’s – our lunch destination. We had no luck and Maggs kept saying, “You have arrived,” which we knew darn good and well we hadn’t.

So I called one of the engineer buddies responsible for this particular wild goose chase and told him where we were and where the heck was Ivar’s!? He said we should go back down to the street that was at the water level – down the freaking steps that we just climbed!! to Alaska Way that runs parallel to that particular area of Puget Sound – and walk toward the ferries.

Maggs liked those landmarks and we finally found Ivar’s. The lunch crowd had thinned out by this time (because of our boondoggle trying to find the place), so we only had to wait a couple of minutes for a table. #3 was barely with us by this point and was looking kind of green, but he was hungry. So he ordered a bowl of clam chowder while Dear and I had fish and chips. Good food. Not the best we’ve had on the trip, but good.

After lunch, #3 felt a little better so we rode one of the free Metro buses to Pioneer Square to take the tour of Underground Seattle. It was really hot on the bus – no air conditioning – and the heat combined with the motion of the bus didn’t do #3 any good. By the time we got to Pioneer Square and found out that we’d have to wait 90 minutes for the next available tour, #3 gave up and asked if we could just go back to the hotel. We made it to the car in record time and got out of downtown just as rush hour was beginning.

Another random fact: There are 5 floating bridges in the world and 3 of them are in the Seattle area. Two of them are right in the city and the third links Bremerton Island to the Olympic Peninsula. We drove across the 520 floater on our way back to the hotel. One down, two to go.

Back at the Quality Inn and Suites, #3 slept for a couple of hours while Dear watched TV and I caught up with photos, email and blogs. In retrospect, it was a good break for us from the rush hour traffic, because what we saw of said traffic was comparable to the mix master at 4:30 on Friday afternoon.

When #3 woke up about 6:30-ish, he felt better (whew!) and we decided to venture out again – this time to visit the Space Needle. Maggs pretty much knows the way to downtown Seattle by now, so she got us there in good time. The Mariners are in town this week playing the Blue Jays, but we missed most of the game-time traffic.

The Space Needle is relatively easy to find and I called ahead to see if we could get dinner reservations at SkyCity – the revolving restaurant one level below the Observation Deck. The earliest we could get a table was 8:45, so we had a little time to spare. Dear drove around a few blocks deciding whether to park the car ourselves or take advantage of the valet parking at the Space Needle.

He was heading into a $5 lot when a scruffy-looking man approached the car and shouted to us that there was “FREE PARKING ACROSS THE STREET AND WE WOULDN’T HAVE TO PAY ANYONE ANYTHING TO PARK THERE.” Scary little man. Dear politely thanked him and drove around a couple more blocks just to make sure the man didn’t follow our progress. Because of that, Dear decided that valet was the wiser choice for parking.

We puttered around the Space Needle gift shop for a few minutes and then rode the whoosh-evator up to the Observation Deck to walk around and take some pictures till our table was ready. The only revolving restaurant we’ve ever eaten at is the one at Reunion Tower in BigD and that was like 16 years ago – right after we moved to TX. [We have a friend, David B., who (when he was younger) had a life ambition to eat in every revolving restaurant in the United States. I thought of David as we entered the SkyCity revolver.]

Of course, we took pictures on the ObDeck and also in the restaurant. We were lucky enough to be there at sunset, so Dear got some passable shots as we revolved around. The meal was wonderful, but expen$$$$ive. Very. But I figure, how many times will we eat at the SkyCity Restaurant at the Space Needle? And the ride up was included as part of our meal, so we saved money there. Yeah.
That’s what I keep telling myself.

Dear and #3 had the Seafood Trio (salmon, prawns and scallops with red and purple potatoes and asparagus spears) and I had an 8-oz. filet mignon. Did I say wonderful? Yes, it was. But, it was definitely our splurge for the trip. We didn’t have dessert there, but we did stop in the gift shop and got stuff for the rest of the fam. Wish they could have been with us.

We also stopped at Shari’s (comparable to Shoney’s or Marie Callendar’s and conveniently located next door to our hotel) and got some coconut cream and oreo cream pie to take back to the room. Note the photo of the contents of the refrigerator in our room: Diet Coke and PIE. I am my father’s daughter and he would be proud.

“Benchwarmers” was on TV, so we watched it, ate pie and drank Diet Coke to finish off a fun day. We didn’t get to do everything we’d planned, but tomorrow is another day.

ttfn