10.26.2005

Here they are!


magic-stripe-socks
Originally uploaded by kyducks.
These are the socks that I knit from the Magic Stripe yarn. Bug really likes them! It was fun to knit them and watch the stripes pile up one on top of the other as it went along. Maybe I'll get to do another pair before Christmas!

10.20.2005

Seattle: Tuesday

glass spheres
Such a pretty day! The sun was shining and the sky was pretty clear. We left for Rainier Square to get some bus passes, because hoofing it everywhere was getting us tired and cranky, not happy and fun travelers. On the way there, we stopped to admire some beautiful glass in the window displays. After we got our passes, we stopped by the Foster White Gallery to admire some of Dale Chihuly’s work. There were several of his pieces there, including a few of his Macchia and Ikebana series.

We picked up a bus to take us down to the waterfront where we could catch the water taxi over to West Seattle. When we arrived, there was a break between taxis, so we scooted next door to the Starbuck’s for breakfast (caramel apple cider and lemon pound cake, yum!)

When the water taxi arrived, we got on board with what had to be the most annoying tourists Bug and I have ever witnessed. By the time we crossed the bay, I was hoping her husband would just slap her because she was prattling so to the other passengers. She also was carrying this huge trendy gold sequined bangled purse. I knew that was a bad sign. Bug and I decided that if you let the person with the gaudy purse and no sense lead the party, then it’s your own fault if you can’t get anywhere. We just sort of stayed as far away as we could.

The water was choppy when we got off the boat, so we were staggering worse than any drunk when we made our way up the small floating dock to Seacrest park. At the park, we caught one of the free land shuttles that winds it way around Alki Point to take passengers throughout the business district. Thankfully, we got to it before Mr. and Mrs. Shiny Bag did, so we didn’t have to listen to them on our ride around the point.

We got off the land shuttle at the westernmost point so we could walk down to the Alki Point lighthouse. It was about half a mile, so we gawked at the trendy neighborhood on our way. Unfortunately, when we got there, the lighthouse was closed for the season and had been so since the middle of August. Oh well, we at least got to walk up to the fence and see the lower half of it (the top was obscured by a tree).

Our first objective foiled, we walked along Alki Beach to our drop off point and got back on the shuttle to look for our second, a yarn shop called Little Knits. When the bus dropped us off at the street where the shop was located, I was worried. It looked like mostly industrial businesses and warehouses, not where one would find cozy piles of yummy fluffy yarns. We finally tracked down the building (I think), but there was no directory or even suite numbers to help us in our search. Defeated, we hailed the shuttle once more and returned to Seacrest Park.

We stopped in at the small restaurant at the top of the dock and got some ice cream to share on the way back to downtown Seattle. It was so good, the attendant on the water taxi was complaining in a teasing manner about how we hadn’t brought any for him, so we couldn’t get on the boat. We all laughed and the other attendant went to get some popcorn to feed the seagulls while we waited for departure.

Our trip back across seemed all too quick. It was after lunch, and we needed to find something to eat, since the ice cream was small and finished very quickly between the two of us. We hopped on the streetcar that runs along the waterfront and rode it to the end near Chinatown/International District. We stopped in at Uwajimaya, a huge grocery, food court, gift store, and bookstore all rolled into one. In this store was the largest collection of Hello Kitty merchandise I have ever seen. Of course, we had to pick up a cute Chococat bathroom accessories kit for our friend, Zabet. If we had more cash, she would have probably ended up with the towels and the bath rug too! It was all so cute, but we had to draw the line somewhere.

Bug didn’t want to eat in the food court, so we hopped a bus up to Westlake Center and had barbeque there. We wandered around for a little while and looked in all the shops before we had to head over to the Triple Door for our final destination of the evening.

We walked over to the Triple Door and they ushered us in to our seats in the Mainstage auditorium. We were so excited. I had heard raves about the Atomic Bombshells, but it didn’t prepare us for the fun that we had that night. The singing and dancing and costumes were out of this world, but the people watching in the beautiful supper club was great fun too! The couple seated next to us were friends with one of the performers, and we didn’t find out until later, but they had just arrived from New Orleans and were staying in Seattle until they were cleared to go back to check on their homes after hurricane Katrina. It was a fabulous night of entertainment, and we were laughing and smiling all the way back to the hostel.


More to come…

10.13.2005

Comments

News came today that people were missing my comments section. Never fear, they are back! They just went missing when I changed the template for the blog page.

Now, comment to your little heart's content... :)

Seattle: Monday


Public-Market
Originally uploaded by kyducks.
We left the GT and mailed all of our postcards ( if you didn’t get one, blame the USPS, because we sent everyone one!). Then we headed down to the Pike Place Market (PPM) to grab some breakfast and poke around while the Market opened for the day. We wandered in and out of buildings, all the while smelling the morning baking and looking at the fresh produce until we came to a tiny shop called Piroshky, Piroshky.

This place was not big enough to turn around in, much less sit and eat breakfast, but there were some of the best smells coming out of that little bakery. They served an Americanized version of the traditional Russian piroshky, but it was heaven to Bug and me. We quickly selected the Spinach, Egg, and Cheese piroshky, but could have taken much longer because there were so many different kinds in the case. One bite and we were hooked on what would come to be one of our favorite meals of the day. I still have to figure out how they made these things so I can replicate it here at home.

After relishing our new treat. We wandered around some more, took a lot of photos, bought more postcards. We ended up down by the Pike Place Fish Market where we watched the guys selling fish and entertaining the crowd. That was a really cool experience, and I’ll always know what a monkfish looks like now. We sat down nearby with a gorgeous view of Elliott Bay and some fresh squeezed orange juice from the Sound View café. It was a great morning!

We headed down the Hillclimb, a cascade of steps that takes you down to the waterfront from PPM. On the way down we stopped in at Procopio, a cute little gelateria where we shared really good chocolate hazelnut gelato (italian ice cream) and enjoyed a game of backgammon on their complimentary boards. We loved this little place and wished we could stay longer, but there was so much more to do!

We finished descending the Hillclimb and explored the waterfront of Elliott Bay. There were so many shops down here, I didn’t think we’d get through them at all. About 1pm, we finally made it to the ferry terminal, and we rode the ferry Wenatchee over to Bainbridge Island.

We hiked up to the main street from the ferry terminal and visited lots of the little shops along the main street, Winslow Way. We finally found a restaurant that didn’t close down at 2, and we went in to get some lunch. Casa Rojas was a cozy little Mexican place, but the prices were a little steep. We can definitely tell you that the mango margaritas were excellent, and the portion sizes were huge.

After our late lunch, we waddled over to Churchmouse Yarns and Teas. It was such a cute little yarn store! I was really lucky that I had some restraint, or we would have had to rent a kid to help us carry it all back. J Not really, but I did get some cute yarn to make some holiday gifts. We stopped around the corner at the Blackbird Bakery on our way back to the ferry. They had some gorgeous astronaut cookies in the case, so I got one for Bug and I to share.

When we got back to the ferry terminal, we sat and waited for the next ferry. I sat and stroked my lovely new purchases, while Bug and I talked about our game plan for the evening. The ferry arrived, and people started unloading. We were amazed! We had never seen so many people unload off a ferry before. The pace at which the people were disembarking was relentless for almost 25 minutes! I would not have been shocked if the thing had deflated after letting all those people off. J

We rode back across the Puget Sound on the ferry and admired the beautiful views of Mt. Rainier and the skyline of Seattle. Then we faced the arduous journey back up the hilly streets to get back to the GT. We ended up coming back up the hill right beside the Seattle Art Museum. We slowly made it back to the GT, and were we ever glad to see it come into view. We were absolutely beat from all the walking and ready to get our showers and get ready for bed.

More to come!

10.06.2005

Seattle


At-the-Top
Originally uploaded by kyducks.
Wow! It's hard summarize just what a great time we had in Seattle, but I'll try... :)

Sunday
We left the train station at 5:45am. I was really impressed with my first train ride. I can see why people prefer it to driving or even flying when they don't have to go long distances. For interstate travel, It's perfect!
The only problem I had was that the restrooms were a bit small, but other than that, it was great!

We arrived at the King Street Station in Seattle at 12:45pm and headed up to catch a bus to get us a bit closer to our Hostel. I really didn't think that a mile and half walk hauling our luggage was a great idea. Fortunately for us, there were many street teams in the area dispensing helpful information about the bus system. One wonderful gentleman steered us to the right bus that would take us within a block of Green Tortoise.

We checked in at the Green Tortoise, and were taken to our room. they hadn't finished making the bed yet, but we were able to drop our luggage there and head out to explore the city. It was a basic room with a sink and a fan, and Dad would be excited about the bed construction. It was mostly 2X4's, 2X6's and plywood. :)

We decided to head over and ride the monorail to Seattle Center, where the Space Needle is located. While waiting in line, we bumped into a fellow Kentuckian and his wife. Jim Johnson, we found out, not only were from Bowling Green, but knew my Uncle Bill very well when he worked with Big Brothers, Big Sisters there. Small world!

We left them after we got off the monorail at Seattle Center, and started exploring. It was the last day of the Seattle Festa Italiana, and we saw lots of great activities. Our favorite was the Bolla Grape Stomp. We got to see three teams of four or five kids each stomp grapes in a barrel until they were so messy they had to spray them off with a hose afterward. It was great! Their little knees and elbows were flying as they stomped the juice out of those grapes.

After exploring the Festa, we walked all over the Seattle Center Campus. We saw the sculpture gardens, the peace garden, Fun Forest amusement park, the Experience Music Project, and we saved the gift shop at the Space Needle for last. After we left there, we got tickets and rode the elevator 520' up to the observation deck of the Space Needle.

It was amazing! We got up there just a little before sunset and killed some time by writing postcards. It seemed like everyone else had that idea, too. Sunset is a very popular time for visitors. We walked around and took some pictures, and then we found a seat at a little table for the actual sunset. That's when Melissa elbowed me and asked what I thought about this couple standing outside the window on the observation deck. I looked around and this girl was bouncing up and down and hugging and kissing her boyfriend. That when we realized we had just witnessed the aftermath of an engagement. It was so cool. I wanted to write "Congratulations" on a sheet of paper and press it up against the window, but Bug wouldn't let me. They probably wouldn't have noticed anyway...they were in their own little world that night.

We finally left the Space Needle after a couple of hours, and took the monorail back to Westlake Center. We had some time to kill before bed and hadn't found dinner yet, so we started walking toward Pike Place Market. We wandered around down there, but there was very little open at that time of day. We headed back up toward the Green Tortoise and stopped at a Subway to have dinner. Then we headed back and got ready to spend our first night in the hostel.

More to come soon!