Stop 11: Seattle
We were rewarded for leaving the Miami sunshine by arriving into an equally sunny Seattle, an unexpected treat! After a hilly morning run by Lake Washington, we decided it was too nice a day to trawl around the city ticking off tourist attractions, and instead packed a picnic and headed to the lake again to eat, read and soak up the rays amid the quacking of ducks and clouds of weed from the local younguns gathered nearby. A rare leisurely day.
Having only dedicated 2 days to exploring Seattle, we packed a lot into the next day before we had to move on again. We trawled the Pike Place market, filled with tulips and gourmet food stalls (which naturally we sampled, all in the name of travel experience of course) and the first ever Starbucks, established in 1912. We feasted on market wares in the sunshine overlooking the Sound, before trekking to the Space Needle - having paid to go up to the top of quite a few tall buildings so far on this trip, we were content to give it a miss this time.
After a last meander through the city centre, we headed to the Greyhound station where we were berated for boarding our bus with a mere 4 minutes to spare - that's 4 minutes too keen in our eyes! The excitement of travelling by slightly dingy greyhound having worn off some time ago, we glammed it up a little with dark chocolate-covered-cherries from the Pike Market - possibly the poshest greyhound snack ever? Certainly cost more than the cheap-as-chips tickets.... Next stop - Portland
We would love to say we were attracted to visit by the apparent 'innovation and forward thinking of this city' (whatever that means, Lonely Planet....) combined with ample parkland, but in reality it was the cheapest route to our next destination - San Francisco!