Northwest Day 8: Seattle

Monday, July 28, 2014

Odometer: 1322

Today was the second of our planned no-driving days. Following Celeste’s night on the couch, she arose and turned her ankle getting up. Nevertheless, we started off with a short walk to the Space Needle, which was a great introduction to Seattle. From there we went to the adjacent EMP (Experience Music Project) Museum, which describes popular music history, with (of course) an emphasis on Seattle’s significant role. From there we took the Monorail downtown for lunch.

Instruments on display at the EMP Museum

We walked south from Downtown to the Pioneer Square district, and toured the Klondike Gold Rush Visitor Center, operated by the National Park Service. Returning to downtown, we had coffee at the original Starbucks before returning on the Monorail and back to the hotel.

Today is Celeste’s birthday, so we made reservations at a nice restaurant in Pike’s Place market for dinner. The dinner was quite good, but not remarkably so (for example, I was expecting a more flavorful sauce on my pork chop). Not seeing a dessert on the menu that inspired us, we walked along the waterfront back to our hotel, getting ice cream along the way.

It was a good day, and we saw a lot, but our feet and Celeste’s ankle are tired. And it’s time to do laundry.

Mileage today: 0 miles

This article is part of a series about our recent driving vacation to the Pacific Northwest. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.