Wednesday 11th March

Way too tired to do any writing last night so here I am at the start of our second full day in the States. Yesterday was an awesome day in Seattle, both me and Greg have pretty much fallen in love with the city. We were both awake pretty early considering the day we had yesterday, so we just decided to get up and get down to the market at what is supposed to be the best day time of the day to see it. And it was, we saw some incredible seafood for sale, enormous salmon and massive crabs as well as clams, oysters, octopus and all sorts. We found a place for breakfast called The Athenian which overlooks Elliott Bay, good to work by the old Lonely Planet recommendations sometimes. The view across the water to the Olympic Mountains was just breathtaking, amazing view to have from a city centre. My first proper American meal was Steak and Eggs, perfect! The place felt really friendly and genuine, and we had our first experience of free refills of coffee just when they were needed. Coffee was certainly a dominant feature of the day.
We then went for the most obvious choice and headed for the Space Needle in Seattle Center. Heard a strange noise coming from the top of a news station building on our way and saw our first news chopper taking off. That’s the timely way to get to the breaking stories! There were some fantastic views from the top of the Needle, obviously. More coffee up there and then we headed next door to the Experience Music Project. Just before going in we were delighted to hear Slint playing through outdoor speakers, not the kind of thing that would ever be experienced back home. The Project was great, there was all sorts of Hendrix and grunge memorabilia included hand-written lyrics and diaries from Hendrix, Cobain and Cornell. There was a huge sculpture made from various musical instruments, and booths where you could play different instruments and learn the basics. There were also jamming booths so me and Greg went and had a little play, giving me the chance to make some atrocious sounds on an electric drumkit.
Then it was the Monorail back into our part of town to pick up our rental car. After a huge-bellied Duane failed to sell us any extras, I managed to get the car back to the hotel parking lot with Greg giving me verbal assistance which was much needed. Driving on the right isn’t such a problem as I have done plenty of it before, but driving from the passenger seat is pretty unusual. I’m sure we’ll get used to it fairly quickly though. Round the corner next to an LP recommended place called Top Pot Doughnuts for more coffee and a stupidly huge apple fritter doughnutty thing. Tasted fantastic but so so big! Gotta get used to all the supersizing.
We headed to a bar called Shorty’s next, described as a punk rock place with tons of pinball machines, so I was very happy. Had some good beer on tap in there, trying a few new brews which have mostly been very decent. On to the Pike Pub and Brewery which had some lovely extra stout, then to an Irish pub called The Owl and Thistle for late night fish and chips, which was pretty full-on. Put the Twin Peaks theme on the jukebox to get us in the mood for where we planned to go the next day. Was feeling very tired by this time so after one more in Shorty’s we went back to the hotel and got an earlyish night. Fantastic first day in Seattle!