Seattle

Saturday afternoon we flew into Seattle, Washington to catch a cruise ship to Alaska.  We've been wanting to take an Alaskan cruise for quite a while and finally decided to do it.  Because of the total 7 hours of flying time from east coat to west coast, it was a good idea to fly into Seattle the day before so that we wouldn't be rushed. 

We flew Southwest, and had a very short layover at Midway in Chicago.  We forgot to check in online early and didn't get to sit together.  That's one of the few things I dislike about Southwest.....no assigned seating.  Ugh.  We arrived at about 10 p.m. Pacific time and after a forty dollar cab ride to the hotel, we didn't get in bed until about 11:30pm, which is 2:30 a.m. eastern time.....needless to say it was WAY past our bedtime.  But with our bodies still on eastern time, we were wide awake at 5:30 a.m. and the sun was coming up.  We have an awesome view of the bay from our hotel windows.  Mark did an awesome job of finding this great little boutique hotel, El Gaucho.

Hunger started to set in and we decided to take a walk at 6 a.m.  The temp is in the 50s here, a nice break from the 100 degree weather we've been experiencing in Raleigh.  We hit a Starbucks for breakfast, and then I simply HAD  to get my coffee from the ORIGINAL/VERY FIRST EVER Starbucks down in Pike's Place by the water.  I was shocked at how small it was.  They didn't sell anything but coffee (and it's variations), no muffins, etc.  And there was not a single place to sit.  Very different from the Starbucks we're used to nowadays.  

After that, we went down near the water and took some pictures.  Unfortunately, the lighting was terrible and you can't see the snow capped mountains in the background very well.   Then we walked several blocks to see the Space Needle.  Neat to see it in person.  And then we went on a quest to find a Rite Aid that was supposed to be near the hotel to acquire the MANY things that we forgot to pack--both of our razors, hair products, his deodorant, dental floss, shaving gel, and much more.  Yeah.  I did a pretty poor job of packing this time. I will be making a list of items to pack so that this doesn't happen again.

The Original Starbucks.  Or, as Shonda said "The Mothership". LOL