Seattle

We flew to Seattle from Houston on Friday 20th Feb and spent the weekend exploring the city before jumping on an Amtrak train and travelling to Vancouver in Canada.

John has been wanting to visit Seattle for such a long time to check out the Pike Street Fish Market. People come from all over the world to see the world famous crew of fishmongers throwing fish and having fun with customers. The Pike Place Fish is now used as a case study in business schools and universities. They have published books as well as training videos and dvds. They have a commitment to have fun at work - "we want to give each person the experience of having been served and appreciated, whether they buy fish or not. We love them." Wow wouldn't it be great if everyone had that attitude! It really was a fun place and the 'boss' even signed John's book - he was chuffed!

We also went to the top of the Space Needle - quite an accomplishment for John (some of you may be aware of the challenge he faces with heights!) It's great seeing a 360 degree view of the city. John was very brave and actually enjoyed the experience!

Next stop - a tunnel tour through the Seattle Underground. This is a network of underground passageways and basements in downtown Seattle. In the mid 1800s the ground level was actually up to 11 metres lower than today. After the streets were elevated (to overcome flooding probems), these spaces eventually fell into disuse and are now a tourist attraction. It was really interesting walking around under the roads and footpaths - quite a bizarre story really.

We experienced a 35 minute ferry trip across Elliott Bay to Bainbridge Island. The view of the city skyline from the ferry was great. On our arrival we discovered that we were sharing the island with over 5000 cyclists! It was the annual Chilly Hilly event. It was a lovely little island and we walked around the tiny town of Winslow before taking the ferry back to the mainland. We certainly never felt alone as we were continually surrounded by colourful cyclists.

....We also walked and walked and walked and discovered so many amazing scuptures around Seattle and just loved watching an enormous interactive fountain - such fun to see everyone run in and out trying to avoid getting wet.