Our Day in Seattle City Centre

This morning we had plans to head into the city, to meet up with Amber, who is Helen's second cousin.

Our drive in was difficult, with heavy rain and poor visibility on the freeway. To make matters worse, we couldn't rely on the GPS as we had directions to a parking building (Pacific Centre) which we were following off a piece of paper. Problems aside, we made it there intact without taking a wrong turn.

Already on this trip, more than one person has commented to us that "Seattle has a Starbucks on every corner". To test this theory, knowing we were walking around aimlessly, I decided I would count every Starbucks we walk past, even if we pass the same one twice.

We stepped out onto Pine Street just after 9am. The city was still mostly closed. It was raining, and there were many homeless people around.

We made a beeline for the Starbucks at Pike Place Markets (with a brief stop at the Columbia clothing store on the way). This is the original Starbucks store and as such requires queuing to order a drink. We noticed it has a different Starbucks logo, in brown with a different picture.

The rain didn't stop and to cheer us up, a busker arrived. There were many pieces of paper stuck to the wall, indicating which buskers had "booked" which time slots that day. A busker hadn't turned up for 10am, so he took their place.

Amber, and her man Gilbert, turned up maybe 15 minutes after us. After they bought their coffee too, we took a leisurely walk through the Pike Place Markets. No purchases were made but it is a very lively and colourful place.

Once we emerged from the other end, I guided us down Post Alley, a small underground tunnel. Here we visited the Gum Wall, where over the years people have stuck their chewing gum to the wall. This sounds disgusting and really it is, but intriguing to see. Some parts are just plastered in gum, and some people have been quite creative with what they've done.

Next, we took a set walk across to the Monorail. This was built in 1962 and was the first in the USA. It would have been so futuristic back then, and in a sense still is as they're not common. However the style of it is a bit dated, and the seating inside reminded me of a 60's diner. The ride from downtown to the Space Needle is only a few minutes long. It was much bumpier than I expected too. Still is was a novelty to ride my first Monorail and I enjoyed every second.

At the Space Needle, we walked around the general area, by now the rain had eased. We didn't visit inside any of the attractions (including the Space Needle) but rather just had a nice walk.

After returning to downtown on the Monorail, Amber took us to a nice place for lunch, which did the most amazing garlic fries. After eating these, we weren't concerned about vampires visiting us from Forks.

Amber and Gilbert had parked in the same building as us, so we wandered there together and said our long goodbyes. Then we were on our merry way.

In case you were wondering - we only walked past 9 Starbucks (of which maybe 2 or 3 were the same counted twice). That's not so bad.

By now it was mid afternoon. We bummed around for the remainder of the day driving around. I visited a BMW motorbike shop, they had a great range of bikes and accessories. I was most impressed and spent ages in here. We also visited WalMart to buy more socks, and had Mexican for dinner. I loved the Chile Relleno which isn't generally available in New Zealand.