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Friday, July 20th, 2007

Friday, July 20, 2007 Ron and I got up at 6:45; Sarah at 7:30 and Zach at 8:00. We are planning on going to the Space Needle today. We can see it out our 4th floor window. (Well, the top part of it.) At 8:06 it is cloudy outside. The Space Needle opens at 9:00, so maybe it will clear up before then. I am not taking the Road Trip book today, since we will be walking. The book is a little big and I am using a clothespin to keep the pages I have already written in out of the way. (Note to self: Put paperclips in my purse. I thought I had one, but when I looked I could not find one. Ron could not believe that I was even looking for one, but I usually keep a couple in my purse. Sarah suggested a binder clip would work better, which it would, but I don’t have one of those either. Maybe next trip.) We ate breakfast at the hotel. We had waffles (yummmmmm), scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes, toast and pastries with OJ and milk to drink. It was all very good. Ron said even the eggs were good. We left the hotel at 8:50 and drove to the waterfront. We decided to do the Space Needle later in the day. We were hoping it would clear up. It was cloudy, raining and 70 degrees. We all wore shorts and our jackets. We saw a sign that said Seattle has 21 Panda Express. Superior only has 1. 20 more to go. We also saw a cruise ship docked at the waterfront. We found a parking lot at 9:20 and parked. It cost $10 for 4 hours. We walked around Pioneer Square. There are a lot of old buildings and it is very nice. We went to the National Park gold rush. It is the only park inside a building. We all enjoyed it very much. We spent about 1 ½ hours there. We also had our first bathroom break of the day and our 25th of the trip at 10:55 while in the park. It told all about the gold rush to the Yukon. We then walked down the waterfront and went in the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop. They have shrunken heads. Yuck!! Sarah bought a Ferry Boat charm there. We went to Simply Seattle and Sarah bought a t-shirt and gifts for Kaitlyn and Joy. We then walked back to the Suburban and decided to eat our Tillamook cheese for lunch. We had Ritz crackers to go with it. We left at 12:41 and were going to go to the Lock and Dam for a 1:00 tour. At 12:52 we decided we were not going to make it so we decided to go to a toy store that Sarah had found on the internet. On the way to the toy store we decided to go to the Fisherman’s Terminal instead. OK, so we planned to go there anyway and it was on the way to the Dam and toy store. We got to the Fisherman’s Terminal at 1:00. We had our 26th bathroom break. We all thought the Fisherman’s Terminal was very cool, but it was not what we expected. There were not a lot of fish markets, but there were lots of boats docked. We bought some Smoked Salmon Chowder Mix (just add milk or half-and-half). We hope it will be good. We left at 1:34. Oh, the parking was FREE! We then went to the toy store, Archie McPhee. There was free parking there also. It was a very cool toy store. Everyone liked it a lot. Ron tried on a chicken head mask and a lady shopping there laughed at him. We did too, of course. Ron bought some candy cigarettes. We did not think they made them anymore, but they do. Or either the Archie McPhee toy store bought the whole supply when they quit making them and the candy cigarettes are very old. We left there and went to the Hiram M. Chittenden Lock and Dam. We arrived at the Dam parking lot at 2:21 and paid the Dam parking fee of $4.50. We then walked to the Dam visitor center and watched a Dam movie. After the movie, we used the Dam restrooms for our 27th bathroom break. We then waited in the Dam Visitor Center for the 3:00 Dam Tour. It was Dam interesting. We watched boats enter the locks, the water raise them up, and then the Dam gates open and they go free. We also watched Dam Salmon swim upstream. There is an observation area so that you can watch them swimming upstream. You can also stand over the ladders and watch them. This amuses us a lot. Sometimes when one would jump the ladder, he would not make it. Awww. This was as much fun as watching the tar bubbling out of the tar pits at La Brea in California. We left the Dam parking lot at 4:39. It has stopped raining, but is still cloudy. There is some sunshine though and we have decided to do the Space Needle. We stopped at a Shell Station at 4:48 to get gas and ice. The gas was $2.95. It has been 428.7 miles since our last fill up and 1,823.2 miles since we left home. We bought 2 bags of ice. We left at 4:59 and followed Naggie Maggie’s directions back to the hotel. We got to the hotel parking garage at 5:16. Oh, we had decided to park at the hotel and walk to the Space Needle. (Remember I told you we could see it out our hotel window). We bought our tickets and rode the elevator to the top. There were not many people, so we did not have to wait long for an elevator. After we got there, it started raining and was very windy up there. We walked around the inside and looked out the windows. We had our 28 ½ bathroom break while we were there (only Sarah and Zach went). They got to pee on the Space Needle and we all SawAttle. Sarah also bought a charm of the Space Needle. She likes to buy charms of the places we’ve been. She also bought one in Portland, Oregon. I think. I need to ask her. We left there and walked back to our hotel room. Ron and I put our jeans on, but the kids wore shorts. We all wore jackets. It had stopped raining. We left the hotel at 7:15 to go to the waterfront to eat supper. We parked in the same lot as the night before and paid $10. We parked at 7:32. We also ate at the same place. We looked at others, but they all offered almost the same menu, only at higher prices. Sarah had clam strips and chips, Zach had prawns and chips, Ron and I had halibut and chips. For all those who don’t know, chips are fried potatoes. In this restaurant that meant the whole potato. They had really big fries. Oh sorry, chips. Ron and I also shared a cup of clam chowder. Everything was really very good. We left the waterfront at 8:15 and returned to our hotel. We all really liked Seattle and maybe one day we can see it again.