We arrived yesterday afternoon via ferry from Victoria to Seattle and the final three days of Mary Lou and Fran's Big Pacific Northwest adventure continued. We are staying on the 34th floor of the downtown Sheraton and the weather is spectacular.
Yesterday a long-time Internet friend, Ardi, drove from Maple Valley and picked us up at our hotel for dinner and a tour that only a native born and bred Seattle person could offer. I met her through Roz's Autumn Cottage blog many years and this is the second time I've gotten to spend time with her. Here we are in front of the Lockspot Cafe in Ballard, one of Ardi and her husband Phil's favorite places by the Hiram Chittendam Locks.
Afterwards we watched several boats come in and out of the locks which we would have missed if it hadn't been for Ardi. I recommend the locks to anyone visiting Seattle; it's not as touristy as downtown. Seeing the salmon jumping at sunset was magical. We also drove through Capital Hill, the Fremont District (which I hope to return to and spend time some day), Wallingford, and saw Lake Union, crossed two bridges, and Mary Lou, Ardi and I chatted non-stop. Ardi, you are the best!
I'm sure you can guess that this is one of the happy employees at the Pike Place Fish Market. We had so much fun watching the action and then wandering all the surrounding blocks. There were lots of buskers on the streets, a bicycle hockey game, and the city is filled with many very "hip" looking folks as the 20th Annual Hemp Festival is underway. We saw many of the hemp kids at the ferry docks when we came in yesterday. These three guys from Texas horsing around at the locks are possible hemp festival goers.
Ardi took us to see the Fremont Troll sculpture under the Aurora Bridge at night so couldn't get a good photo, but check this out from Google images. It's a massive concrete troll with a hubcap for an eye and he's holding a Volkswagen.
And lucky us; we got to spend an hour in the Central Seattle Public Library today, a 10 story amazing place.
I can't believe it's almost time to come home and back to work but how grateful I am that we have had such a wonderful time.
