We’re still hiding out at my friend’s house in Yelm, WA while we wait for everybody to go back to work after the Labor Day Weekend so there’s room at the campgrounds again. I’ve found out it’s tough getting a spot at any popular campgrounds during holidays. It seems that the “locals” always reserve the good places, sometimes weeks or even months in advance.  I’m pretty sure we could find a spot at the FamCamp in Ft Lewis (now called Joint Base Lewis-McChord aka JBLM) or maybe even a local Elks Lodge, but it’s been a nice break to hang out here and do day trips in the Silverado.  Over the last several days we have taken trips to Mt Rainier, Northwest Trek, and Seattle.  I’ll bring you up to date on the Seattle trip with this blog post today but will save the others for a later time.

On Thursday, we drove to Seattle with Stilla’s friend Christine acting as our guide.  Christine is a friend of Stilla’s that she knew from Colorado Springs many years ago, they have stayed in touch all this time.  We met up with Christine on the 25th after we left Kelso, WA and stayed outside her house for a night on the street.  She lives about 20 miles from where we are now.  She also took us on a tour up to Mt Rainier, but again, I’ll save that for another post.

It was overcast in the morning but cleared up nicely by the afternoon.  However, since we went up in the morning it was too late for us to have a good view of Mt. Rainier from the top of the Space Needle.  The mountain is a pretty awesome sight, we can see it from the house.

Stilla was a little nervous in the elevator, the windows face outwards.  It goes up 520 ft to the Observation Deck at a speed of 10 mph.

 

 

Here are some pictures of the view from the top:

 

 

 

 

After we got down, we took the tram to Pike Place Market.

We heard that Pike Place Market was a “must see” when visiting Seattle.   According to Wikipedia it one of the oldest public markets in the US.  It overlooks the Elliott Bay waterfront and was built on the edge of a steep hill.  It consists of several lower levels located below the main level, all full of unique shops and restaurants.  The street level has fishmongers, fresh produce and craft stands.  We were told to watch for the fish to be thrown around at the fish stores.  The workers would toss the fish around when someone had placed an order while shouting or sometimes singing a jingle.  We spent the afternoon exploring this unique place, here are some pics:

We found the Pike Place Brewery and decided to sit down for a meal and drinks.  I ordered their beer sampler which consisted of 6 small glasses of their most popular beers along with a pizza.

The brewing system extended through the floor of the upper level.

I just had to take pictures of the cool beer coaster collections displayed in the hallway on the way to the restrooms 🙂

We kept seeing these really neat tour buses which were actually restored and converted WWII amphibious craft.  Maybe we’ll take that tour next time.

Not sure what this was about, but there was one portion of an alleyway that was covered in bubblegum.  Amazing what people can get started, eh?

OK, that’s it for now… will post again soon.  Stilla is making Sauerbraten mit Knodel for supper as a “thank you” to Nate for his hospitality.