Sleeping Harbor

Parking is a nightmare in this town! Last night I paid for parking at the meter that faced the parking lot and was located next to the entrance. We go to leave this morning for our last day here and this prick is outside next to our truck saying we didn't pay and he called the cops because we don't have plates. We argue that we did pay and show him the receipt (taped properly in our window) and he insists that we paid for street parking. The meter we were supposed to pay at is at the back of the lot facing the street (because that makes so much sense!). We really didn't want to get towed and figured it would just be a $20 issue so that we could carry on with our day but of course not, the jerk made Cliff pay an extra $37 dollars! If we hadn't been in a hurry we should of called the cops and let them decide the fair course of action.

We started out at the space needle. I figured since we'd already seen it, it would be the shortest stop. It was raining but we did get to see some of the workers on the top and that was a pretty interesting sight. From there we scooted over to the Science Fiction Museum and Music Appreciation. We skipped most everything there (time limit people!) except the Avatar and Battlestar Galatica exhibits. The Avatar picture viewer/computer was really neat!

We had to drive back to the waterfront for lunch and coffee before our harbor tour. Right after we got our coffee my cup got knocked off the table and all over the ground. I went and told the lady (same one who sold it to us!) that I needed something to clean up my mess from my brand new coffee. She went and got a mopped and cleaned it up without a word... or even offering another drink, paid for or not. That kind of put me in a funk. First the parking lot jerk took $40 and here I have another $5 wasted on the floor. I was very grateful for the harbor tour because the first time I stepped outside onto the dock of the boat while we were cruising around the harbor my foul mood melted away.

With his fisherman beanie and grizzly beard he fit right in

It was a very interesting cruise, I'd recommend it for sure. I really liked the information. My favorite part was one of the dock hotels main attraction and selling point used to be that you could 'fish from your bedroom window!'. People would actually stay there and fish from their windows. Of course, a hotel room is a terrible place to try to clean a fish, and most people just hid their catches somewhere in the room. Needless to say most the hotel had to be redone and they stopped advertising that.

The baby finally fell asleep (first nap all week!) towards the end of the tour on Cliff's shoulder. All we had left to do after that was Pike Place Fish Market so we chose to walk the blocks up to it. It was a big Denios. Quite the let down for me, but we did get to see them throw fish and we ate the nearby donuts while we watched. 10 minutes later we were running through the rain trying to get back to our car.

 I'm not a fan of paying for parking up front. I don't want to have to rush back if I'm 10 minutes late and I hate to pay for time we don't need -which is what we did by 2 hours so as we drove out of the parking lot we handed our ticket to a couple of ladies who were just pulling in. Good deed for the day-check.

Our last stop was the Museum of Flight just outside of the craziness of downtown. We planned for a little over an hour to spend there but we learned it was not even close to enough time! There was so much interesting information to be absorbed! I was expecting it to be a hanger full of different planes and a sign with the names of each. It was so much more than that. The only parts we got to explore before they closed and we got kicked out was the WWI and WWII exhibits. They had stories about some of the people from different sides of the war. They had the plains of course, but then they went further and told stories about the pilots, the mechanics, and other figures that have been lost in the obscurity of history. We'll be going back next year and we will be spending an entire day there! It was phenomenal!

Getting back into downtown was (just like driving anywhere in that town) and nightmare! We were in traffic for 2 hours and we were only 15 minutes away! We were so frustrated we couldn't figure out where to eat since we didn't know the town. iPhone did one good deed this trip: it pointed out that Washington had just 2 of our favorite restaurants, Buca di Beppo! I even brought one of our coupons from home just in case! Traffic was nasty all through town and parking wasn't going to be possible so I ran out of the car and into Buca at a stop light, then Cliff when and hung out in an alley way until I was done. I'd like to say there was prompt service (or at least a greeting) when I got there but there wasn't. Apparently when you come into a place at 6 o'clock on a Tuesday night you're not important.

While I waited for the order I took a picture of their 'motivational wall' in the kitchen.

We went back to the hotel and pigged out! Dinner was delicious!  We followed that with quick showers and another early bedtime.
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Evelyn sleeps in a bed with rails surrounding it at home. We didn't have that here so we put her in bed with Alex, stuffed a rolled up sheet next to her, and tucked her in tight. Shortly after Cliff and I feel asleep we hear a very loud thud come from the kids' room. I woke up in a panic because I didn't hear Evelyn cry after that but Cliff got into the room first. He then came out laughing and told me to grab my camera.

She rolled OVER her bed roll, somehow jumped over the gap and landed on the bedside table lodging her arms in the space between the two. Through all of this she and Alex both kept snoring.

More Seattle Pictures here