Sunday in Seattle

It's a cloudy day in Seattle - but it is not raining so we decided to try the bus to go downtown to the Pike Place Market.  We went once when Bob and Marilyn were here but John didn't see it because he and Bob sat on a bench while we went in.

The nearest bus stop was over a mile away from the house so we looked up the bus stops and found one by a grocery store where we could park.  That's what we did and a bus came within 15 min and we got to ride for the senior fare of .75 each - nomally is is $2.25 on Sundays for adults - what a deal!  Sometimes it pays to be old.

We did a little shopping on the way to the market entrance and I found a great deal on a pair of women's cargo pants at Nordstrom's Rack.

Entrance to Pike Place Market in Downtown Seattle

One Ugly Fish

We strolled the whole length of the market and it was packed with people but fun to look at the beautiful fish and produce.  We bought a little lunch of tempura shrimp and calamari - tasty but kind of high in fat content.  Oh well.  We managed to kill several hours and took the bus back to our car with no problem.  It was sure cheaper than gas and the outrageous parking prices downtown.  We may try it again tomorrow to go to Seattle Center (that's where the space needle is).  There is a Folk Life Festival going on there that sounds interesting.  We'll decide when we see how the weather is tomorrow.

Why Seattle?

We've never been to Oregon or Washington so one day I said to John, who was about to lose some AA frequent flyer miles, why don't we go somewhere we've never been - like Seattle?  He agreed so I started the research.  I searched Seattle on HomeLink and received a positive response from Kay and Dave of Seattle on my first inquiry.  That was a bit of a surprise since it usually takes more than one request to find a suitable exchange.  We went back and forth and it was looking good.  Then I started checking out how to use the frequent flyer miles - that did not go so well.  The times available with the minimum FF miles were ridiculous.  So then I started checking air fares to Seattle - pretty expensive from Leon but then I discovered it was about 1/2 as much from Mexico City.  L\Now it was looking good.  We made the deal with Kay and Dave and began the detailed plans and dates.  Finally we decided on May 18th to June 7th.  We decided it would be best to take the ETN bus into Mexico City on the 17th and spend the night at an airport hotel.  I got a pretty good deal on the Fiesta Inn Aeropuerto so that's what we will do.  Tomorrow is the big day.  We're almost ready - just a little more packing tomorrow morning and we'll be on our way.  Kay and Dave are leaving Wedneday and spending the night in Mexico City and arriving at our house on Thursday.  Clara will house sit for two nights.

As it turns out, our friends Marilyn and Bob from Kansas City accepted our invitation to visit us in Seattle and are taking the train from St. Cloud, MN to Seattle and will spend 6 days with us - it will be great to see them since we don't get to KC much anymore.  We'll also make a side trip to Portland to visit nieces and maybe two of John's sisters.  And, we have San Miguel friends to get together with in Seattle and my Augustana roommate, Jean, who lives there.  Never thought of all that when we first planned the trip.  We're going to have a great time!