'Steampunkin Seattle'

Tue 1^st Jan 2013       New Year’s Day Sleep In!  Then we ventured outside to another blue sun-shiney day (remember Seattle is known for it’s rain).  Most stores were shut for the day but Aidan was able to get his hashbrowns at McDonalds where we met a Church youth group team doing a Scavenger hunt who wanted to have their photo taken with a family.  Then we made our way down to the coffee shop district and, of course, we found a Star Bucks open for Neale & Hayley.

Then down to the Pier.  We had been advised to go to the Fisherman’s markets to watch the ‘throwing of the fish’ but it was closed.  (For those of you who know me I was not disappointed to miss this fishy smelling experience.)

We did however find a few Souvenir shops open and the Penny Arcade with some big wins!  We enjoyed the candy booty then had a Fish ‘n chips lunch at the Crab Pot.

Pioneer Square was our next stop.  This is part of the older area of Seattle with some great history behind it.  It had a real Victorian Steampunk feel to it.  There was even a Kilt shop Aidan would have loved to have gone in (shut for New Year's) called Utilikilts.  

We went on the Underground tour and the guide (Tom Jones’ former drummer) was a real storyteller and gave us a great overview of the history of Seattle; especially why there is an underground section and told it with wit and fabulous word craft.

He talked about the need for taxing Seattle once businesses were established and that the Mayor ‘found out’ that most of the most well paying people were women in the ‘seamstress’ industry.  We saw one picture of these seamstresses and one was wearing black instead of white.  Why?  She was a ‘cross-stitcher’.  (Pun intended.)

After a great tour we dragged ourselves back up the different levels of town (it was created this way for ‘gravity fed plumbing’- thanks to Thomas Crapper) we made it to 5^th Avenue to walk along to meet up with the Monorail.  Tea & hotel.

Wed 2^nd Jan   Taxi drive, with a crazy Seahawks fan driver, to the airport for our next flight to L.A.  We flew in to Long Beach (cheaper flight than to L.A) and took a long taxi ride to our hotel on Sunset boulevard, Hollywood. It was like getting off the plane on the Gold Coast.

Pic made of tiny beads

Walk of Fame, magic shops, Costume stores, Vintage clothing stores and Dolby theatre.  But the highlight for us was Ripley's Believe it or not Museum. Some of his collection of unusual items are displayed here and we had a great time viewing all the weird & wonderful memorabilia. 

Once the sun went down I got a bit anxious as there were quite a few dubious characters around this area.  Thankfully Neale was able to flag down a taxi (on his way home to dinner) and drove us back to Dennys near our hotel.  We were tucked up in bed at a reasonable hour ready for our Universal Studios experience tomorrow.