SJC to SEA-TAC at dawn. Why do we do this to ourselves?

Seattle. We arrived from SJC by 8:30 in the morning, so we settled into our hotel just up from Pike’s Place Market and assessed our condition. The weather was rainy, we had been up since 3AM, and we didn’t have a car.

The LQ was nice enough to let us eat some of their complimentary breakfast while the room was being readied…after all, check in time is 2PM and we were hours away from that. We got a map and struck out for downtown Seattle. 6 blocks, the concierge said. Easy- just walk to the end of the block and head toward the water. Before a block had passed we realized that yes, it was easy, because it was all downhill………

So we looked around, I bought a pair of pants at the local Nordstrom, Judy bought a blouse. Not exactly sightseeing, but still fun. Then we headed out to the street, to return “home”. The tourist map, we discovered, was not really to scale, or even very accurate. Streets that converged on paper, did not do so in reality. But with the help of several police and more than a few streetpeople, we were on our way. Just about then, the blue skies blew away and we were walking in the rain. No umbrella, of course- they were in our suitcases back at the LQ (the last time we made that mistake- Seattle). We ducked under an awning to wait it out, and as we were standing there, 5 or 6 young adults came by. They were 18 to 20 years old, with backpacks and a large jug of what looked like rosé wine carried by one of them. As we watched, the young man dropped the wine, which hit the pavement at the curb and shattered. All of them started to wail, except the guilty one, who promptly dropped to his knees and started sucking the wine (and the glass particles!) out of the gutter. Since Seattle is like SF, it’s very hilly, and the wine was flowing rather swiftly toward the bay. One by one they all got down and slurped as much of the dirty wine as they could from the ground, until the rain had slowed and we started back on our way up the hill. An amazing sight. Scary.

But we did have a good time in Seattle- the weather actually held for the most part and we got around. Rode the trolley out to Lake Union, the bus along the waterfront, had a marginal facial at an Aveda beauty school, and took the Underground City tour. More on THAT…next time!