Day 4
another slightly lazy start once again missing breakfast and emerging into the market around midday. Having heard Phil and Charlotte's stories of flying fish in the market we waited around for a while and whilst there was some small scale tossing of trout (already packaged) we never had any salmon soaring over our heads. After consulting our tourist map we decided to head to the streetcar station for a short trip up to Lake Union.

As we started walking towards the more commercial part of the city a series of strange events started to unfold. Firstly a bloke in just his boxers sprinted past us which was pretty odd and then as we turned a street corner we saw a huge crowd gathered by the side of the road with a whole sound system set up along the street. A lot of cheers and noise erupted from the crowd and so, of course, we hung around to see what the deal was. A couple of minutes later the sound system fired up and a load of floats, dancers and lots of camp men in just their boxers (explaining the random runner earlier) started parading down the street. According to the banners along the street we had walked straight into the middle of Seattle Gay Pride Parade! We stood for at least 45 minutes watching all the different floats sail past, some charity based, some politically motivated and some seemed to just be gay men dancing in their boxers! :P

Following this surprise entertainment we made it onto the streetcar- much more modern than the pictures suggested :( - and arrived at Lake Union towards the outskirts of the main city. Whilst there was not a lot to do there was space to chill out and sunbathe in the sun... and freezing cold breeze! There was also plenty of action on the water, various sized ships and boats, kayaks, sea planes and geese to name a few! By late afternoon we were nicely chilled and so headed back to the hostel to sort out our bags for the next days flight. Dinner was free in the hostel (3 times per week!) and consisted of 'beef' wraps and tacos which, as it was free, was edible :). The evening was mainly spent playing a few rounds of cards, reading, sorting out Maika's massive nosebleed in which half her brain fell out of her nostril and venturing 30m from the hostel doors to get some photos in the dark before being accosted by a crazy homeless lady. For the first time in 3 nights we had some normal people in the dorm- an american couple from Maine who were at the very end of their 3 week vacation. There was also another couple below us but they appeared after we went to bed and left the next morning whilst we were out.

We are writing this from the middle of Monday- day 5. This morning we managed to make it up for breakfast- a couple of pieces of toast which we supplemented with some fruit from the market. Whilst at the market 2 fire engines turned up, sirens wailing, for what we assumed must have been a false alarm. Still, it was cool to get some pics of the Seattle Fire Dept in action! After checking out of the hostel at 11am we wandered around the shopping district and had a greek chicken salad for lunch- again surrounded by fat people outside McDonalds! This afternoon we fly to Vegas- according to the weather forecast on the BBC website its 40C there today! yum.

AC and MS xxx

NOTE- We are actually posting this from Flagstaff as we have been without internet for a while. We will continue to update as and when possible so do not despair :)