Wednesday, July 5th, 2023

Starting mileage: 6664, Distance travelled: 0, in the camper van

Miles walked: 3

Today we played the ultimate Seattle tourists, visiting both the Space Needle and Pike Place Market. Jesse and Ben have been amazing hosts, taking us to all the sites. We drove into the city, borrowing Jesse’s car so we didn’t have to navigate the urban highways in our giant camper van. Our first stop was the Space Needle, taking the elevator to the top level and walking on the revolving glass-floored lower level. There was even a giant Lego space needle in the gift shop.

We took the monorail from Seattle Center to the one stop it makes, down closer to the waterfront. We got Boba tea from a Taiwanese chain that makes boba fresh from scratch each day. Everyone agreed it was the best boba tea they’d ever had.

We walked down to Pike Place Market, where we were packed in like sardines, browsing the market stalls. A produce vendor offered us a slice of nectarine as we walked by and everyone agreed that it was the best so we sent David in to buy some and he came back with those along with some fresh lychees, a special childhood treat of his. One of the fish vendors was selling enormous cooked shrimp, so Susan grabbed a bunch with some cocktail sauce. We wandered down to the far end of the market to watch the fish mongers at Pike Place Fish Market. Jesse chatted up one of the fish tossers about Ben’s Zelda shirt which led to a series of fish tosses aimed at Hamilton kids. Check out the video.

By this time, everyone was getting hungry so we found a brewery (Old Stove Brewery) on the waterfront and grabbed some lunch. Susan had an IPA flight in the most adorable glasses ever. The food and beer were great. Jesse and David were amazed by the new waterfront development happening where the old elevated highway used to stand, including lots of outdoor public space overlooking Elliott Bay.

On the way back to the car, we stopped by the fountain near the Space Needle and watched kids running in and out of the powerful water jets synchronized to the playing music.

Driving back to Jesse’s, Laura came with Susan and David because she was losing steam. We missed a turn and ended up in an industrial district that sent us on a wild goose chase for the highway. We must have run over a nail or something because once we got back on track, the tire pressure warning came on shortly before we could feel the flat. We pulled off to the top of the exit ramp to find a completely flat front, passenger side tire. Thank goodness for AAA, because they had us back on the road with the donut from the trunk in about 30 minutes flat…no pun intended.

Once we got home and recovered, Jesse chauffeured us around to run errands: Home Depot for bins to accommodate our new trailer-hitch-free storage solution, REI to get David a day pack so he could share the load a bit more on our hiking excursions, and Whole Foods to re-stock our food supply before heading to our next park. One of David’s favorite moments in Seattle was discovering that the highest rated beer in America, Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewing Company in California, was available 15 minutes from Jesse’s house. That was our first stop and we scored 6 bottles. Everyone agreed that it lived up to its reputation when we tried it later that night, including Jesse, who’s not a big beer drinker. We ended the evening with delicious, funky takeout including pork-duck burger and banana cream pie milkshakes.