It can't rain all the time

So today we got up early (is it really early if we're still on East Coast time?) and had some continental breakfast in the La Quinta lobby. Steve has been longing for their delicious waffles since our trip to NC last year, so it was a great treat.

We headed out to discover Seattle. I didn't see anything that looked like the sets from The Crow, nor did I meet anyone from Nirvana or the Melvins. We did, however,visit the Space Needle (twice) and visit the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. The Space Needle was really cool. It was so rainy, though, that we couldn't see much. My favorite part was looking out over Puget Sound at the barges and the fog. It was just beautiful!

After the photography session reminiscent of our wedding day, we headed out for some lunch. We didn't really have many options and didn't feel like $25 cheeseburgers at the Sky City restaurant at the Space Needle so we ... went to

McDonald's. Yes, good ol' Mickey D's. Sweet Tea and cheap hamburgers, woohoo! We're definitely living! But it was a quick bite to eat and we were on our way again.

Right across the street was the Sci-Fi Hall of Fame and Experience Music Project. Both were pretty cool. We got to see an actual script from "The trouble with Tribbles" from the original series! It was Michelle's aka Uhura's copy. And Captain Kirk's uniform...and an ET replica, a fan-built borg costume, AND Picard's Locutus borg head! No way, right?!?!? So exciting...at least for me. We also got to see old school sci-fi astronaut costumes, lots of books, the death star, and a small wall of original Star Wars action figures. And just when we couldn't take any more excitement, we moved on to the Experience Music Project.

There was quite a bit to see, but we managed to get in the good parts. There was a fantastic section devoted to the Grunge era -

Nirvana, Mudhoney, AIC... some guitars, records, and even an old tape from back in the day when Nirvana made their own tapes and had handwritten the labels and included their phone number in hopes of getting some gigs. There were some HUGE pedals from Mudhoney and the sound board (that might be the name?) used to record all the bands at Sub-Pop records. Seriously, this was close to being a dream come true...I just wish it were a little more...more what? I don't know. Just more I guess. But it was really, really cool. The gift shop was pretty lame. I ended up buying a sticker of my fave Kurt Cobain poster, not the super-cool-totally-awesome Kurt Cobain action figure. I wanted it, but really...at least the sticker fits in my bag.

Speaking of luggage - I am the WORST packer in the history of the universe. Yes, I remembered my towel (see excerpt below on the importance of always having a towel), but did not, I repeat, DID NOT, bring any rainy weather shoes.

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels...

"A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to- hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with."

Ballet flats and flip-flops are definitely NOT Seattle shoes. In fact, all day, I only saw one person with flip flops on besides me. And walking around all morning in the rain made my ballet flats completely soaked in less than a half an hour. After that I walked around with squishy feet mentally berating myself for not packing sneakers OR a jacket. Well, I would've packed a jacket if I had one...

After the rainy day adventure, we headed back to the hotel for some rest. And by rest, I mean a 3 hour nap. I was totally wiped out. Steve, he watched tv and hung around the room while I slept the daylight hours away. But I got up in just enough time to take another trip downtown and have some of the #1 best donuts in America under Lani's recommendation. She saw it on the travel channel so we decided that since Steve LOVES donuts, we better check it out. We drove to Capitol Hill and had some old-fashioned cinnamon sugar donuts at Top Pot. Let me tell you, the Travel Channel was totally right! The donuts were superb! And I even got an extra one for the morning. Yumm-O!

We figured that we should get out and see some more sights and went back to the Seattle Center and took night photos of the places we were at this morning. They turned out much better...almost like a postcard! Then we sat on a bench just enjoying the night and each other's company. It was like a Hallmark moment!

And now I'm back at the hotel in my wonderful jammies, with my wonderful HUSBAND, ready for bed and another exciting day of exploring the West Coast. Tomorrow - we're moving on to Oregon, hopefully stopping by some spectacular views of the ocean and beautiful haystack cliffs!

Thanks for reading!