Seattle and Olympic

Sea, Seattle and Seafood

On July 12th, we picked up my parents at Seattle airport, our road companions for the next two weeks. Trying to help them to conquer their jetlag, we went straight to Pike Place Market. We strolled through the busy market window shopping for seafood, fruit, vegetables and flowers. We had lunch in Cafe Campagne, a French restaurant (really nice after all American food for more than 2 months) and drank coffee at Starbucks (of course, Seattle is after all the birthplace of Starbucks!). For dinner we - of course - went for seafood at Etta's, again at Pike Place Market.

The next day, we woke up early to visit Olympic National Park, a 3 hour drive from Seattle. This is the most versatile park we visited so far (Note: when publishing this post, we just visited Yellowstone and I need to reconsider this statement but more about that later!). We had a picnic lunch in the chilly mountains, surrounded (literally) by deer, chipmunks and grey jays.

 We had coffee at Lake Crescent, a clear blue lake in the mountains.

 And in the late afternoon, we went hiking on the West coast beaches. Deserted hidden beaches... For a minute, we felt back in Hawaii!

Our last day in Seattle, we did what all good tourists do in Seattle: take the monorail to the Space Needle and see the sights from high above. We have to say after our visit to the CN Tower in Toronto (500 meter high!), the Space Needle (116 meters) was not very impressive but we did like the views of the Seattle skyline against the mountain tops - especially Mount Rainier towering high above the others.

 After lunch in Tilicum Place Cafe (delicious mediterrenean sandwiches), we walked through Seattle's Art Museum sculpture garden to the waterfront, to Pike Place Market, to the downtown shopping area, to our hotel. (By now, you may have noticed that we tend to walk a lot on holidays...)

We ended with an incredibly delicious dinner at Ray's Boathouse, watching the sun set over Shilshole Bay. Life is good!