Saturday and Sunday in Seattle

We were lazy yesterday and did no writing.  This will hopefully make up for it.

Saturday morning we headed to the Seattle Center and made our second trip up the Space Needle. It was a nice morning and not crowded.  After this we headed into the Armory, right on the same Expo '62 grounds, for Starbucks and discovered that there was a festival starting in a matter of hours.  It was the Festival Sundiata, black arts fest 2015.  We did some changes in our plans to be able to see some of the performances and that was why we spent lots and lots of time at the nearby International Fountain watching the kids and their parents play in the water.

We managed to hear a pretty good Woman's steel band (based in Seattle) while sitting out on the grass and that was great fun.  

We used the last of our City Pass booklet tickets by visiting the EMP museum.  This was not the high point of our trip but it had very interesting exhibits ranging from the evolution of guitar construction to cartoon animation and a whole section of the museum dedicated to science fiction movies.  There was more too, even a Jimi Hendirx display (Jimi was a Seattle native son). 

Interior of the EMP museum.

Some of the guitars in the sculpture in the center of the lobby area. Notice that some self-playing instruments are front and center.

We had been told that back downtown there was a Starbucks way up near the top of the Columbia Center (Seattle's tallest building), so decided that was worth the effort to go there. 

The building is imposing and we were excited about having coffee at a higher elevation than the Space Needle.  We had no problems getting to the floor where Starbucks was located, but it was closed.  So up we went to the Sky Loft, only to find that they would have charged $9 for seniors and we just decided that was too much of a good thing and headed back down to the street level.

We did get a cold drink near our bus stop so all was not lost.  Then, back to our room where we had a break and then dinner at a small Mexican restaurant near by.

Sunday was Formula 1 and, without a TV, we followed the race using live timing on our iPads.  Then off to Starbucks Reserve Tasting Room; a place we had been passing on the bus each day.  This is a showcase place where Starbucks has coffees you can try that are not sold in the regular stores and you even have a waiter to carry your coffee to the table.  It is elegant, fascinating, extravagant and wonderful.

The front of the store.

Panorama of the upper level.

A roaster

David enjoying a coffee from Vietnam.

Marty's coffee was from Brazil.

Even a reading room!

Here you buy some of the exotic coffees by the ounce.

No dogs allowed, so this one was waiting patiently for his owner.

Next we headed downtown, caught the light rail and headed for the ferry dock, where we took a boat to Bainbridge Island.  This was just to get in another boat ride at a cheap price $4 round trip and eat lunch on the island.

Marty's half sandwich (bacon and avocado) and half salad.  Very, very yummy indeed.

After returning to the mainland, we headed out to the Japanese Garden located in the Washington Park arboretum.  This is a lovely garden, very peaceful with some of the azaleas still in bloom but to have been there three weeks ago would have been quite special.

From the garden we headed to our room for a little feet-up time before going to dinner nearby at a really lovely Thai restaurant.

Now it is getting close to bedtime and in less than 12 hours we will be on our way to the airport and returning to the east coast.  It has been a great trip.  We have crammed a lot into these four days and would certainly come back again.

Some of our observations are as follows and in no particular order:

Seattle is hilly.

There are more folks riding bikes not on bike trails than we have ever seen in any other city in the U.S.

There are more Starbucks here than anywhere else (daaaa).

The tourists are everywhere.

The size of the homeless population surprised us.

People are very friendly.

Bus drivers wish you a good day!

The Duck Boat tour drivers seem to have more fun than anyone else.

Paying for your ride on some forms of public transportation is really on the honor system.

And so this wraps up our blogging until the next trip. Hope you have enjoyed our adventures.