Seattle: Tuesday

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…