Brandon and I had been talking about visiting Seattle for a few years now.  We wanted to make the most of our visit to the US and so we decided to go for a few days at the end of our trip.  The Chihuly Glass Exhibition and the Space Needles were our main priorities, but the more I researched, the more fun things I found for us to see and do.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time for hiking in the mountains or seeing waterfalls, but the Emerald City was fun to explore in its own right.  Seattle is passionate about its teams, location, and weather; Number 12 of the Seahawks had to be explained to me, and the souvenir shops were filled with Seahawks, rain jokes, and nautical gear.

We left my parents’ house Monday after lunch and drove back to Green Bay.  The solar eclipse was starting so we were keeping an eye on it.  We returned our rental car with no issues and then went to check our bag in.  It weighted 49#!!  Brandon had added some stuff to it and we acquired a few things, but we also got rid of some too.  I couldn’t believe it;  If it is over 50# they charge you extra so we were close.  We had to adjust it on future flights.  We had some time before security opened so we sat outside in the sun and sort of watched the eclipse, but weren’t that impressed.  Once through security, I worked on my knitting and Brandon listened to lectures.  It was a short flight to Minneapolis where we had over an hour to get something to eat and be off again to Seattle.  I got a Caribou coffee while there since it is a Minnesota staple.

We arrived in Seattle earlier than scheduled. Got our luggage and decided to be adventurous and take the Light rail from SeaTac to downtown. It worked out great and it was way cheaper than a taxi. We then found the Monorail was the best public transportation option to getting us closest to our Airbnb next to the Seattle Center.  Unfortunately it was four floors up and we had to heft our luggage up the stairs. The Monorail, like the Space Needle was built for Seattle’s World’s Fair in 1962 and still retains the old school charm. We walked a few blocks to our Airbnb and settled in for the night.

Tuesday both Brandon and I woke up early; we are still not fully adjusted to US time. The Space Needle opened at 8 so we went there and took an early gaze at the city; 500 some feet up. Very cool views of Seattle; all the water and city buildings as well. We had bought the Seattle CityPass which includes a day and night ticket to the Space Needle, Zoo ticket, Aquarium ticket, Harbor Cruise ticket, and Chihuly Glass Museum ticket. A great deal and perfect for seeing all the sights of Seattle.

Fun facts: The Space Needle is 184 meters tall and the Sydney Tower, also known as the Golden Bucket, is 309 meters tall, making it the tallest building in Sydney.  The Space Needle is the tallest five story building in the world, or so our Harbor Cruise Tour Guide told us.

We then wandered around the neighborhood shops for sunscreen until we found some at a gas station.  We packed up our bags to switch rooms at our Airbnb but the housekeeper wasn’t around yet. We hid our bags in the closet and headed off downtown on the Monorail. We walked through Pikes Markets to Pier 55 and the check in for our Harbor Cruise. We got on the next one that left in 45 mins, so we wandered the piers and found “Seattle’s best” hot dogs and had an early lunch. We also visited the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop. A tourist and oddities shop on the piers; they even have mummies. The Harbor Cruise was fun. A big, three story boat brought us along the coastline of the city with a guide that pointed out landmarks, explained history, and was just generally amusing. Very cool to see the skyline and shipping port, along with the stadiums and even some sea lions. It was sunny and comfortably warm on the boat.

The seagulls of Seattle were huge! Way bigger than I have seen either in Wisconsin or in Australia. Very intimidating.  After our cruise we went to the Seattle Aquarium. It was small and mainly about aquatic life around the Pacific Northwest. They had Sea and River Otters which were adorable and Harbor and Fur Seals that are always fun to watch. They also had two Pacific Octopuses (Octopi??) That were huge and very active. A nice little aquarium and a good chance to get out of the sun for an hour.

We then headed through Pikes Market on the way back to the Monorail. We got to see them throwing fish, some fruit and veggie stands, and lots of little shops selling everything from tourist stuff to soap to rummage sale stuff. The restaurants were plentiful also, all different kinds of food and snacks and drinks; of course, with a Starbucks on every corner. We had more to explore downtown, but had to get back to move our luggage. After we did, we cooled of in the Armory, a food court in Seattle Center with AC and some chocolate shakes.  While we digested our snack, we hung out in the Seattle Center park.  We listened to children screaming in the water fountain and watched the giant seagulls.  We ate a late supper of tacos at the Armory.

Wednesday we woke up early, as usual, and went on an adventure to find day bus passes. Seattle has Orca cards for residents to use public transportation. We were in searching for a gas station or grocery store that sold them. We were not successful and had to buy a pass from the driver instead. Thankfully, it was good for a few hours and we were able to see the Fremont Bridge Troll and the Hiram Chittenden Locks complete with fish ladder, a salmon using it, and some jelly fish, before heading to the Woodland Park Zoo.  There we met up with my former Heritage coworker Jeremy and his wife Julia who were in town for a trip of their own.  The zoo was nice, they had a baby giraffe, cute hippos, penguins, and Black Footed otters that were my favorite.  Jeremy and I spotted a few animals that could have used nail trims, but we let our professional side go and just enjoyed the animals.  😉 We parted ways at the petting farm and we took the bus back downtown.  We explored the rest of Pikes Market, saw and contributed to the Gum Wall (which is more like a Gum Alley), saw the first Starbucks, ordered a snack and drinks from a different Starbucks (due to the crazy line at the first one), visited Pioneer Square, and walked back along the piers to the Armory for supper, then our Airbnb.  Lots of walking and a busy day.

Thursday we had breakfast at a local sandwich shop, then met up with Lindsay and her parents that flew in for their own Seattle vacation.  We visited the Chihuly Garden and Glass Exhibit right at the Seattle Center.  Dave Chihuly is a world famous glass blower and artist who studied at UW Madison and then in Murano Italy.  He has had exhibitions all over the world.  Brandon and I saw a collection of his chandeliers when they were at The Paine in Oshkosh and were taken up by his work.  He had a few different styles of pieces at the Seattle Exhibition including chandeliers, baskets, garden pieces, glass ceilings, and much more.  It was very cool to see.  Brandon and I agreed that when we have a house and enough frivolous funds; we would buy a piece of Chihuly glass.  They did have some in the gift shop for $5,000-$10,000 US.  EEK price but an amazing goal to work toward.  Lindsay and her parents went up the Space Needle while Brandon and I hung out at the Armory and I had a latte.  We then had lunch together at the Armory before heading downtown on the Monorail.  Lindsay and her parents headed to the market, whereas Brandon and I headed underground to the Light Rail and off to the airport.  It was so nice to have a little extra time with Lindsay and explore Seattle a bit with her and her family.  They are there a few more days and enjoying the CityPass too.

At the airport, we had to go to the desk to check in because Delta didn’t let us do it online.  They were upset we didn’t have a return trip ticket from Australia, but did not have access to our Visa status, so all was ok. Our suitcase checked out at 47# since Brandon took some of his stuff out of it.  🙂 We had plenty of time before our flight and found a cool local shop called Fireworks.  They had a bunch of fun and creative housewares items that we couldn’t resist.  We had some sandwiches for supper, then had a 2.5 hour flight to LA.  Our plane was late leaving Seattle so we knew we would be pushed for time in LA.  Being one of our least favorite airports and usually under construction, we were a bit scared if we would make it to our gate in the 20 min we had before it started boarding.  Thankfully, the flight was delayed by 30ish mins and there was a shuttle that took us across the tarmac to our next gate instead of us hoofing it all over like usual at LAX.  I had time to change into my long flight outfit and get my bag set up for the 14 hour flight.  I had thought it was 15 hours, but that is from LAX to Melbourne, which is further west.  When I booked our flights this time, I tried a trick that the Qantas lady told me to do.  I booked Brandon and I in the same row, but the aisle and window seats instead of together.  So far on the trip, it had only worked out 2x on short flights that no one booked the seat between us and we had the whole row to ourselves.  We had hope, when it seemed mostly everyone was boarded on this flight, that we might be lucky and have it actually work again.  Then we saw commotion across the aisle from us and people arguing about seats.  The flight attendants had to get involved and it seemed that only one of the six people in the family spoke or understood English. The dad of the group ended up taking the window by us but he was quiet and not needy about getting up during the flight.  I was able to sleep a bunch and watched a couple movies.  We flew Delta this time and I found their seats easier to sleep in than most.  The food was good and the flight smooth.  We arrived into Sydney a bit early.

There must have been a few other planes arriving when we did because immigration was a bit chaotic.  If you have a US passport you can do immigration automatically though the kiosks.  The first kiosk gives you an ID slip and the second takes your picture to compare it to your passport photo.  I had remembered failing the picture recognition last time so I did what I could to look like my picture; I took my glasses off and put my hair down, but it did not work.  I was sent to the special line of failures to get double checked by a human. There were no further issues and we collected our bag.  Australia is very picky about bringing in food or natural products to the country so we made sure to declare on our form we had snacks.  Declaring lead us to the long line, but we got pre-screened and when she found out granola bars were the only thing we had, she let us though with no issues.  Awesomely, Jax was able to pick us up from the airport and we were home around 9 am.  We unpacked, did laundry, showered, then went for a walk around Cremorne Point.  More of that in the next post.

Overall, I feel our time in the US was really great.  We got to see a bunch of people, do fun things, and enjoy the beautiful summer weather.  I really hope we can fall into a good sleep pattern now that we are back.  I usually try to power through and just adopt to the true local time.  Brandon usually sleeps when he wants and then is wrecked for days.  We shall see how it goes.  I at least am off Monday, he has to go into work.  The cats have welcomed us back with no qualms.  Their sleeping spots on our pillows were outlined with hair.  Jax and Heidi took great care of them while we were away.

Talk to you all again soon!  Enjoy our Seattle pictures.  Feel free to leave a comment. 🙂