Summer Part III: Day 1 in Seattle

Today we headed down to downtown Seattle with Tom's sister and her family (they decided to join us on our trip) to check out the famous Pike's Place Market. We were surprised but downtown Seattle reminded us of New York. There were shops and restaurants and coffee shops (. . . of course) everywhere amongst all the tall buildings.

We found a place to park, and when we went to pay, this homeless man started talking to us and decided he was going to talk us through paying for parking - not that it was difficult to understand, but I think he was trying to get some money out of us. Sorry, but he was picking on the wrong people. He might not have any money, but at least he doesn't have 6 figures of debt. We noticed there were a lot of homeless people in Seattle. After we finished paying, we walked on over to the Market.



Here we are in front of the main entrance. Inside there were vendors everywhere selling flowers, fresh fruits and veggies, artisan cheese, little restaurants, all sorts of crafts, and, of course, fresh fish. It was interesting to just walk up and down to see everything; it was also a great place for people watching. We saw hippies, bums, on-the-street musicians . . . all sorts of interesting people (even a local commented that the crowd at Pike's Place was a bit unusual). It was actually a bit of a shock to go from the South to this very liberal place.

We did get to see the fish vendors throwing around fish,too (it's something that the Market's known for). The girls hated walking by any of the fish vendors. I can't blame them . . . the smell was quite atrocious. It was a really interesting place, but the girls didn't last too long just looking around. After walking for a bit (and I know we didn't even see half of all the vendors), we headed back to find a place to eat.



We found The Cheesecake Factory and decided that we had to eat there. Fortunately it wasn't very busy (because Taylor and Payden can cause some problems), and our waiters were awesome. They even brough a plate of bananas and bread specifically for Payden and Taylor; I was really impressed. The picture is of Tom copying Taylor (she stopped before I could snap the shot and refused to do it again). We all looked over at her to see that she had grabbed the entire loaf of bread and shoved it in her mouth instead of pulling off the pre-cut slice. We got a good chuckle out of that.

After lunch we did some shopping. We decided to go look for a jacket for Tom because he'd only brought a sweater and the 60 degree weather was a bit cold for us. We LOVED the weather, but jackets were definitely necessary. We also had to get swimsuits for Tom and I because we forgot them and had promised the girls that we'd go swimming in the hotel pool.



On our way out of downtown, I snapped this shot of Puget Sound, one of the piers on the waterfront and one of the many, many islands in the Sound. It was really crazy because you go from mountains and evergreens and then boom you're at the waterfront. I guess I'm used to the coastal plains, but there weren't any at all.



Here's one of the many ferries that cross between the mainland and the islands. It's supposed to be one of the best and busiest ferry systems in the world.

After downtown, we headed over to Walmart to do a bit of grocery shopping. We stayed in an extended stay hotel and needed to grab a few things. Taylor fell asleep in the car. When we got to Walmart, we set her in the shopping cart. At first she woke up a bit, but eventually she laid down. Like this . . .



At first we thought she was just laying there, but she actually fell asleep like this!! Every bit of it looks uncomfortable. She is so flexible it amazes me. Apparently Tom has a sister who sleeps folded in half like this as well. Crazy.



I liked this shot because you can see how excited Payden is to be like her big sisters. She just LOVED climbing on the side and holding on. She'll be awfully sad when we get home and she has to go back to sitting in the cart like normal.

Anyways, we left Walmart and headed back to our hotel to have a light dinner and to plan the rest of the week.