More from Seattle

We decided that we liked our trip over to Bainbridge Island so much that we wanted to go to Victoria which is on Vancouver Island. Instead of spending 8 hours (each way!) on the Washington State Ferry that we would spend the extra money and take the Clipper which only takes 2.5 - 3 hours.

Parliament Building Sailboats in the harbor

The Empress Hotel More sailboats in the harbor!

The Empress is a famous landmark. You can have high tea there in the afternoons which we didn't do. We opted for lunch at a tea room instead. Victoria was settled by the British and has a definate English flair. We wandered around quite a bit and did a little shopping - there were a lot of shops. We were actually a bit disapointed in Victoria - had expected something a little more quaint and instead there are condos all over the place and everything was quite expensive to do.

We watched the float planes land in the harbor while waiting for the Clipper back to Seattle.

LAST DAY IN SEATTLE

We have walked so much in the past three days and thought we would take it a little easier today. HA! We did sleep later and had a leisurely breakfast and then decided we would walk over to the big REI store which is very close to the hotel. And then we walked some more ..... back down to Pikes Place Market area and went to the Aquarium which was pretty good but very crowded being the Memorial weekend - tons of kids.

After the aquarium we ate at Iver's again. There are two parts to Iver's - a really nice place inside where we ate the first night and an outdoor walk-up fast food area. We ate outside this time and the big thing is to feed the seagulls and they part much know that you are going to share your french fries with them! They will take them right out of your hand.

The city of Seattle was originally built too low and would "flood" twice every day when the tide came in. After the city burned down in a big fire in the 1880's, the city planners decided to "raise" the level of the city - but the merchants couldn't wait for the seven year plan and went ahead and built they stores back up at the lower level. Eventually the project to raise the city caught up with those buildings and new streets were built above the lower levels and the sidewalks. Those remain below the streets and one of the "things to do" in Seattle is the Underground Tours - which we did. It was interesting.

Seattle is a great place to people watch! There are these bike taxis all over the place.

Our time in Seattle is up. We are on the train to Vancouver early tomorrow morning. We both agree the trip to Bainbridge Island was the best thing we did while here but enjoyed the Space Needle, Pikes Place, seafood, drinking coffee, seeing Puget Sound and more. The Robertsons, Van Aukens and Jane should be here anytime. It will be interesting to hear what they do and what they think.