Seattle

Thurs, Aug 17-- We arrived in Seattle pretty much on time, and Ed was there to greet us with flowers, what a treat! We then made our way around downtown a little, and then headed out of the city towards Renton. Lilly (the dog) was at Ed's house to meet us, and after a grand tour of the mansion we got a good night's sleep.

Fri, Aug 18-- We went into the city around lunch time to Red Robin's on the waterfront for burgers. We were right next to the docks and got to see a couple of ferries come in. What a lovely view of the Olympic mountains across Puget Sound as well. Then we walked through the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop and saw a two headed calf and a frightening mermaid and child (big scary teeth). We proceeded to the Pike Place Public Market, and didn't get to see them tossing the fish, but saw the vast selection of seafood available, and some gigantic lobster tails. Then we took in a pint at Kells, an Irish pub nearby. Finally, we drove over towards the space needle, and went to the Experience Music Project. This is a cool museum, designed by Frank Gehry. We saw exhibits on music posters, Jimi Hendrix (who is from Seattle), Hip-Hop, bands and movements from the Northwest, and stage costumes. We also got to jam in the interactive part of the museum. There are a bunch of areas where you can play guitar, keyboard, drums, etc, or try out mixing boards and pedals as well. There are studio-type rooms where there are a number of instruments to play, and I rocked out on drums whilst Matt played guitar or keys... Not sure how well our beats went together though. There is a monstrous sculpture inside which looks like a tornado of guitars, apparently made up of over 700 instruments! Then we walked around the Space Needle and gift shop, seeing every possible souvenir of Seattle. We got to see glimpses of Mount Rainier on the way home, and all had a nice ice cream to end the day.

Sat, Aug 19--We got up early this morning, as Ed had a surprise planned for us. He wouldn't tell us what it was but hinted yesterday that it might involve heights. We ended up driving to the Museum of Flight at the Boeing Airport, and saw that biplane rides were available! This was what Ed had in mind for us. We got to put on cool bomber jackets, life jackets, hats with goggles and headphones, and fly around West Seattle and Alki. It was very cool. We took off and headed towards downtown and the Space Needle, and could see the Cascades to the east, and the Olympics to the west. We could see trains and the station where we will be heading out of later today. I could see the pier where we ate lunch yesterday. We made some quick turns, without advanced warning, and were looking down into the water. We flew over Puget Sound and around Alki Point where there is a nice light house. A few more quick and angled turns and we were headed back to the airport. Landing was fine, no need to use the life jackets, and what a fun ride! We are now just chilling back in Renton, waiting to head back to get on the train to Chicago. We think we've upgraded to sleeper class for this 2-night journey, so it should be fun and relaxing!

Thanks for all the comments, good to know people are reading the blog!