Day 6-Seattle

Once again, it's raining in Washington. The day's rotate from sunny to rain, no wonder it's so beautiful here. It's 8:00am and I am cozy in my tent listening to the rain ping off the top of my tent; again dreading packing it up wet. I decide to blog for a bit until I hear Anna unzip her tent and realize I should think about wrapping things up soon. Luckily there wasn't a small pond outside my tent this morning, nor was everything soaked beyond belief; just a bit wet. We packed everything up and decided to eat breakfast elsewhere since it was cold, wet, and rainy. In the car, we decided the view at Diablo Lake would probably be socked in so there was no point. We headed for the exit of the park and ate in the parking lot of where the waterfall from yesterday resides. Cracking the windows, I started up the Jetboil to boil some water for our oatmeal breakfasts. My mixture was vanilla carnation breakfast, peaches 'n cream instant oatmeal, and half a banana; it was delightful. Today we would be heading to Seattle, but first we wanted to stop at that original campground we stopped at yesterday to see if we could throw a couple bucks in to shower. We arrived at the campground and the office was locked; it was raining and we debated just showering, leaving a couple bucks by the office and saying we showered, or vetoing the idea completely. Eventually after standing ominously outside the bathrooms, a car pulled up and greeted us. We expressed our concern about where the caretaker site was and he pointed to a dilapidated unwelcoming camper, we turned to one another; chuckled and mutually decided to leave before going over there and knocking on the door. The guy in the car sensed our concern and said "I'm sure if you go over there and knock on the door he will let you shower for free, or just go shower and not say anything." When he saw we were heading towards the trailer he expressed that we could say we were staying with him for the day down at the rafting campground. We thanked him and approached the trailer. I voted Anna the right to talk since she was the more friendly of the two of us. Anytime we call a campground or place to acquire Information she tells them her name, and that we are on a road trip, and then proceeds to ask our question. I'd be a lot less formal towards the situation and that is why we nominated her the voice of the group. She knocked on the door and an older gentleman with sunglasses, a silver long beard, and ponytail answered the door. He exited the doorway as Anna introduced ourselves and expressed our concern about a shower. Right away he told us to shower and not worry about payment, we thanked him just before he was back in the trailer door closing behind him; nice! We gathered our shower essentials and clothes and entered the shower house. My sun cream had leaked for the second time all over my shampoo and conditioner bottles in the ziplock so I brought the whole thing in the shower to be cleaned off. The showers were the smallest I had ever been in, and I've been in a lot of showers. I felt like I was in the movie Elf when Will Farrell is trying to shower and is way too big. Standing at 5'2, and 120 pounds; I am not sure how an overweight person would have showered. Everyday I turned, I would touch the walls, but it felt great to shower. After getting out and drying everything off I put on my fancy clothes for the city of Seattle. We jumped back in the car and headed for the city. The first sight of the Space Needle had me excited, and every photo I took it grew closer and closer. We found a parking lot just around the corner from it, and we sat for awhile planning out our day. We were both hungry we knew that so we called the Space Needle restaurant to make a reservation. The gentleman answered the phone and asked me for what day, "today?" I replied. "We're all booked." Oh..."what about tomorrow?" "Booked as well." He replied. I thanked him and hung up the phone, guess you needed a bit of an advance to eat up in the Space Needle. Next resort was my trusty 'ol TripAdvisor, there was a pizza place that sounded good so we walked the 12 minutes or so there. Once sitting down, we decided to go online to order our tickets for the Space Needle tour as well as the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit, our tour began at 3:00. All of the unique pizzas on the menu sounded great; I decided to go with a soft egg, prosciutto, pecorino, and arugula pizza. Anna got the buffalo mozzarella, basil, and tomato sauce; and when they arrived they both looked amazing. I took a bite into my pizza and it was divine; Anna said it was the best pizza she had ever had. We wrapped up each two pieces, and walked back towards the car and Space Needle. Arriving a little early, we waited with the bulk of the other people hanging out waiting for the 3:00 tour. Soon after, we were let into the building and in line waiting to get our photo taken and then the glass elevator ride up to the top. We piled into the elevator like sardines, luckily we were practically last in line, putting us in the front of the elevator. It jolted up and I thought the woman next to me was going to have a panic attack. I pulled out my camera and began taking photos out of the glass as we soared higher and higher ignoring her shrieks next to me. The ride was only a minute or so long, and before I knew it we were at the top unloading. We got out and headed straight for the observation deck; to our surprise it wasn't windy or cold out there. We hugged to the glass like sucker fish and rotated around taking photos of the city down below. There were quite a lot of people on the platform, but we moved all at a decent pace to see each new angle. Stopping for a few moments with the high rises in the background to take a few shots and of course some selfies to send friends and family. I picked out a worthy older gentleman to ask to use my camera to take a photo of the two of us and he joked saying "the photo of me looks great!" After hanging out for about 20 minutes up there, we decided to wait in line to go back down. Again, having the opportunity to be in front by the glass and being a lot more spacious than the trip up. The elevator let us out in the gift shop naturally, and I got sucked into buying a shot glass of course (I collect them for those who do not know wherever I travel.) Leaving the building, knowing I'll have to come back someday with my mom and we will eat at the sky high restaurant like the time we did in Vegas. Leaving, we needed to add some time onto the meter. We walked back over to the car and added an extra hour before heading back towards the needle. A short walk next door took us into the Chihuly museum and the glass sculptures were awesome. The place was packed of course, but we made our way around the exhibits taking photos and eventually to the outside gardens. We headed back for the car once again but not before almost busting my ass to take a photo within a sculpture. I hopped upon my flip flops and the inside was slick and wet making me catch my balance; luckily I didn't fall in front of the whole city. We got back in the car, and drove to the other side of the city to check out Park Place Market and a French bakery Anna wanted to go to. We drove around for a bit trying to find parking near the market but had no such luck so we found an indoor garage paired with Bed Bath and Beyond that we took use of. The walk down to the market was a steep downhill road walk, but the place was full of life. It reminded me of a bigger market of what Allie and I went to in Kansas City, or similar to Quincy Market in Boston. There were crowds everywhere and vendors overwhelming your eyes. We looked at a few things, wooden spoons, jewelry, fresh cut flower bouquets; and then decided to check out downstairs hoping it would be less crowded. Below was filled with many trinket and small collectable type stores. We only went in one or two before heading back upstairs to check out the bakery. The line was out the door, as it should be for any good bakery. We waited maybe 20-30 minutes with a service dog in training behind us. When we got to the counter, a blonde young guy with bright blue eyes greeted us with a smile. He asked Anna what she would like and ran to grab her chocolate croissant, when he was halfway back; I told him I'd like the raspberry croissant and he ran back to grab it. When he returned he apologized for how frantic they must look, and I agreed I'd be the same way if I worked here. Anna ordered a couple other small pastries and we continued our small talk when a young woman came over and asked us to move past the glass case so others could view it. Uh, we're talking here? Seems she didn't like us talking with her boyfriend. We continued our conversation at the register and I interrupted to ask if he could ring mine up separate; he said no problem, and then said we were all set he just charged us for what was in the little box (basically getting both big croissants for free.) We thanked him and noticed the bakery had closed while we were still inside. Person after person would walk up and try the handle, as we walked towards the door; Anna pushed but nothing happened. I turned the knob that says turn to let us temporarily out, and not let anyone back in. We headed back towards the car and stopped at a small park to take photos of one of the giant totem poles they had throughout the city. I noticed this was like a small homeless park as I looked around at people laying on the grass, couples sleeping on the benches, and the various packs and trash bags. As we stood to take a photo with Anna and the totem; a guy ran up and posed with her for a few shots and then walked away, gotta love the city. We continued back to the car, and decided to head for a Walmart that was a little over an hour away in Port Angeles; but not quite as far as Forks. Into the GPS the address went, and like drones I followed its every command, until I heard "board the ferry." Wait, what?! We have to take a ferry for our route? There's no bridges? Frantically we looked at some maps and seems we would have to go pretty far South to catch a bridge route; we headed back for the ferry ticket window. As I pulled up I had a confused look on my face I'm sure, I explained we were trying to get to Forks and didn't know what to do she exclaimed, "give me some money." Sure, but how long is the ferry ride, how much did it cost? Didn't she see my confusion in it all? She explained the ferry was 30 minutes, it cost $25 a car, and we would want to hurry up since the next one wouldn't be for a half hour, once we get to Port Angeles we want to fuel up, and get food since there wouldn't be anything until Forks. I handed her the money and she gave us a ticket. We were about to board a ferry, with a car. This was surely my first time the only ferry I had been on was the Block Island ferry and that was just me not a car. We drove on and were the last ones, turning off the car the boat began to move. We got out of the car and ate our leftover pizza in awe taking photos in between bites. Deciding to check out the bow, we walked down the flight of stairs and saw the whole bottom deck was filled with cars. It was chilly out and we only stayed up there for a couple photos before returning to the car. We stood and took in the opportunity and sunset; what road trips may bring! We unloaded, and had what seemed like a long one lane road before it finally opened up to two and Walmart was in the distance. We pulled in, found a spot to park, and got the car ready for the night. This time I would be bringing my sleeping bag in the car with me! I ate my raspberry croissant and laid down excited for our day tomorrow.