Seattle..

After a week in Yellowstone I was ready for some warmer weather and a little civilization. I don't know what it is about me but I love the big city and I love the wilderness but only in moderate doses. When I have been in one for a while I start to yearn for the other. I guess I need to find a place that offers both options in close proximity to each other. Anyway the drive to Seattle was uneventful. I am at the point that I actually like the driving parts of this trip as much as some of the stops. It has given me time to think and analyze alot of things. I would say it has been very therapudic. I rolled in to town Monday around lunch went straight downtown for some food and to get my gameplan together. I landed at the waterfront and found some parking on the street....parking was a real bitch all over town and expensive too. I guess that is what happens when you try to squeeze a major city between the Cascades and the Puget Sound. Lunch consisted of Fish & Chips from some resturant on the pier, an outside table, and a segull for company. After cruising around for a couple of hours I decided it was time to find my accomodations for the next couple of days........I decided to splurge on a real RV park with showers, laundry, and a hot tub (man did that feel good after freezing in Wyoming).

Tuesday I was on my touristy agenda....Space Needle (check), monorail (check), public market (check), well you get the idea. The Space Needle was impressive but $16 for an elevator ride from one gift shop to another I was feeling a little ripped off...........the view was nice but really $16. Next in line was the monorail which runs $2 a mile luckily it only runs for a mile or I would have gone broke in a hurry....finally something that was free the public market. If you are not familiar this is the one where they throw the fish around.....my luck was holding they did not throw any fish while I was around and I waited around for over an hour. Conspiracy I say....but I digress. Fresh flowers, fresh fish, art, fruits, veggies all could be had this day at the public market. It was suprisingly busy for a tuesday. I did find an artist that I like alot. Daniel Fleming calls himself a "File Stylist". He takes photographs and manipulates them in a computer to create these intresting images called "Noriginals". One cool thing... I had taken a shot of the Experience Music Project with the Space Needle in the background and he had a very similar image on display. Anyway you can check out his work at http://Fodoughgrafiks.ifp3.com if you are interested. Next I headed to the Fremont area in search of the this goodluck charm scuplture made out of an old VW bug. Legend has it that if you kick the tires you will have good luck. Well I needed it. Guess what? I could not find the damn thing and after an hour of searching I called it quits and headed for the barn. (that was the first time the guidebook let me down). I am sure I missed many things of intrest but I am on a tight budget,which is only getting tighter with gas prices going up, so I hit the highlights.

All in all I liked the vibe in Seattle. Would love to visit again with a little more time and money to explore. Funny enough I did not rain at all the 3 days I was in town. Off to Mt. St. Helens...Later Brett