I love Seattle!

On Tuesday, Dad and I arrived in Seattle. It was the final destination on our cross country journey! When we arrived in Seattle we went to a farmers market called Pike Place Market, near the Puget sound. They had all sorts of shops and food stands there. What I really liked about Seattle is that they are very enthusiastic about locally produced food and goods. Many of the items the vendors were selling, such as crafts and soaps/lotions, were produced in Seattle or Washington state. I enjoyed walking around there and brought some stuff back for Mom and Arch! Today's picture is the front of Pike Place Market. For dinner that night we went to a great restaurant called Oddfellows, located in an area of the city called Capital Hill. The bar tender was from Holmdel, NJ, not too far from Toms River. The area was full of a lot of bars, restaurants, and coffee shops. I enjoyed walking around there! My hair felt gross after ten days of travel, so I decided to get a hair cut. It turns out that the lady who was cutting my hair is from McKinney, Texas, really close to where we used to live when we were there years ago. It's been funny how many people we've met who are connected to us in some way.

The next day we decided to take a day trip to Portland. We didn't spend a whole lot of time there, but it was a cool city. We went to an area that had all sorts of shops and restaurants, and I got ice cream at a place called Salt & Straw. There were a ton of people there, so I knew it must be good! They had really odd flavors, such as honey lavendar, and strawberry balsamic. Because I'm not adventerous, I stuck to chocolate ice cream with bits of solid chocolate in it. It was delicious! They made their waffle cones on premise and that might have been even more delicious than the ice cream! Fun in Portland.

We headed back to Seattle and the next day we walked for about 8 hours straight around the entire city! It was tiring but very fun. We went by the Space Needle, and by some parks along the water. We walked by Capital Hill again, and later went to an area called Belltown. We had drinks and some food at a place called Local 360, where all of the food and drinks come from within a 360 mile radius of Seattle. Everything was so fresh and delicious! Later, we found a speakeasy style bar that was hidden behind a building. I had a local beer there called a Pike Naughty Nellie. It was a little intense, but really good.

The next day we were flying home in the evening, but in the morning we went to the place where they make Boeing airplanes. They took us into the area where they make and assemble the airplanes. It was interesting to see how planes are made. In the evening we headed to the airport and took an overnight flight home to Philadelphia!

This trip has been such a fantastic journey! I am so glad that I got to see so many places in our country! It has been most interesting to meet people from each location and hear about their experiences living in the area. While this trip was huge to take on, and at times absolutely exhausting, I would do it again in a second!