Seattle: Day 2

In Seattle, we're staying with two friends from college, Amy and Tim. Amy is a pharmacist and Tim is a post-doc at U. Washington in some type of chemistry that goes directly and hopelessly over my head (it is quite interesting, I promise...). Anyway, Tim and Amy recommended we go to to the "Fish Ladder", which is also attached to the Seattle Botanical Gardens.

Now, you may think (as I did) "a fish ladder? Preposterous! Fish don't have thumbs, which are clearly necessary to climb ladders." However, the Fish Ladder exists alongside two enormous locks that connect the Puget Sound to Lake Washington, making the Columbia River navigable much further upstream than it would otherwise be (I am not that smart, a smiling park ranger in a cowboy had told us this). Washington has at least four kinds of salmon, which as you know because you totally paid attention in seventh grade science, return upstream to their birthplace to spawn. Since salmon and other fish could be harmed by the ever changing levels of water in the locks, not to mention the boat motors and oil/gasoline spillage, the fish ladder was created to provide safe passage up and down the canal.

Cool, huh?

After a stroll around the Botanical Gardens with everything in bloom, we drove back down to Pike Place Market to engorge ourselves on all the delicacies therein.

Russian Pirosky

Colombiana Soda (found usually only in Colombia!)

Mexican Street Food

Beecher's Mac and Cheese

Yum. The ferry to Bainbridge Island was next on our Seattle bucket list. Washington State has an extensive ferry system that allows you to traipse all over British Columbia, the Olympic Peninsula, and all the little islands in between. Bainbridge is the closest and most populous of these islands (size= roughly Manhattan, population= 25,000). The views both back towards the city and to the Cascades were breathtaking. We had a stroll around the cute downtown and hopped back on the boat to the city.

After an AMAZING dinner of Margaritas and Mexican food with Amy and Tim, we sampled the night life in the University District, slept a bit, and headed out early for Portland. Huge shout out to them for housing us and being such amazing tour guides!

Seattle, you're all right. We'll definitely be back.