07.09.2014 Day 14: A day in Seattle

What a pretty city Seattle is! It doesn't beat Boulder Colorado, but it is gorgeous nestled around the sea with boats and children and lots and lots of dogs. Something we really noticed was American's love affairs with dogs. Just about every hotel caters for you staying with your dog, and everyone seems to have a dog. People take their dogs into shops with them, and on public transport. No one bats an eye.

Not that Ken and I don't like dogs we love them, but in the States they are simply part of the family landscape. But in Seattle, we did notice that the sidewalks were littered with dog poo, people don't always pick up after their pooches. I have no idea if different states have different laws for dogs, but Seattle certainly was awash with puppies.

We decided to splurge and treat ourselves to a super dupah hotel on the edge of the harbour. It was nice, but unlike our more budget hotels, didn't provide free breakfast. Also a room is a room. To be honest it was a room much like many others. All we really paid for was the address.

A Digression:

So if you are travelling the States, after we stayed in Super 8; Holiday Inn; Quality Inn and Marriott, there is a clear winner as far as the best hotels to stay at. Staybridge Suites is the winner. http://www.ihg.com/staybridge/hotels/us/en/reservation These hotels provide lovely rooms, and excellent service. They have free laundry, and gyms. They also have social nights once a week with free drinks and food for guests staying at the hotel. Their rooms are spacious and sometimes quite luxurious. They are extremely (in fact in New Orleans the cheapest of anywhere we stayed. - It was a special though- ) cheap in comparison to what some of the other supposed 'cheap' hotels are. And definitely outclassed every other hotel we stayed in. Sadly they are not throughout the country or we would have booked there every time. Back to Seattle-

But on a lovely warm day, we rode the trolly bus into town to do some shopping and check out the town. We found so many fun shops and as it was our last destination before we set off back to NZ we bought all our last minute things.

But then it was time to look around. We caught the monorail to the Seattle Space Needle. See video http://youtu.be/acDRQ_dowCs . This is Seattle's answer to the Sky Tower in Auckland but it is considerably shorter. The Sky Tower is 328 metres while the Space Needle is 184 metres. That being said, it provides an excellent view from the middle of Seattle to Mount Rainer in the background, and we went up to the top of the tower in time to experience a fabulous sunset on the distant horizon. What really got us buzzing however, was on the ground at the base of the Needle.

We decided to view the Chihuly Glass Exhibition http://www.chihulygardenandglass.com/ and it simply blew our minds. Fabulous and beautiful blown glass seas, plants, gardens , ceilings. I have put a few pictures up, but nothing can prepare you for the beauty of this except being there. If they weren't closing it, we would have stayed longer. Do check out the photos and go to this for our video http://youtu.be/Um018oiL4aw

Returning after dark back in the monorail, we exhaustedly fell into a taxi to the hotel, and slept until morning pack-up to head off to Seattle international airport for our journey back home.

It was a 2 ½ hours to LA airport and a wait of 4 ½ hours for our connecting flight to Melbourne. That flight was 15 hours and 50 minutes. (But much more comfortable in an airbus than the dreadful flight when we were going the other way. I even slept a lot) A wait of 2 hours and a connector to Wellington which was a flight of 3 hrs 40 minutes and after 28 hours we saw as we came in from the south, the beautiful Kaikoura Mountains. We couldn't stop grinning, we were home !!!

Thoughts on the trip.

Ken drove 6047 kilometres I drove about 47. Next trip we are going to one place, and staying put!

We tried to do too much and cos our timing was out at some places we missed spending time where we wanted to. That being said, everyday was amazing, and we don't regret a thing.

Highlights were connecting with Ken's family; dinner with our dear friends in Moberly; electrical storms; stunning architecture; incredible scenery; being blown away on the Rockies; Boulder Colorado; Chihuly Glass Seattle; the heat; our magic drive into the forest in Washington State; the very cool Ford Focus Diamante rental car; the white sands and crystal ocean on the shores of the Florida panhandle; the desert in Wyoming; Bob the Bison; Old Faithful; New Orleans (all of it); and the great people we met and chatted to and the fun we had just being together everyday experiencing the USA our way.