Playing Tourist

It's not often that I get to play tourist in my own hometown. But, when I do, it's always a lot of fun. Even more so when two friends from California are in town on what was supposed to have been a Mexican cruise. Due to the swine flu, their cruise was rescheduled to make stops in San Francisco, Victoria and Seattle. So, first thing this morning their ship arrived in Seattle. They grabbed a cab and headed to Pike Place Market. I told Steve that he and Ray should find the big brass pig and I would meet them there. They found the pig. They also found the bar on the way. At 10:00 a.m. they felt I needed a cocktail -- apparently this is what you do when you are on vacation.

The market was chock full of scenes like this, all sorts of fresh fruits and vegetables and of course, the infamous flying fish stands. These buckets of tulips reminded me of the bolts of color in a quilt store. And yes, I did drag the guys into the quilt shop. I had to get a fq for the QB birthday/potluck on Monday. After strolling through the market we hiked uphill to catch the monorail over to yet another Seattle landmark.

We took the glass elevator up to the restaurant at the top (just under the observation deck.) There we had a leisurely lunch while the restaurant slowly revolved displaying the panoramic 360 views of Seattle. The only thing missing was Mt. Rainier. Sadly the mountain was "not out" as we say here in the pacific northwest.

But, the lack of mountain view was more than made up for in the wonderful desserts. This was my tiramisu. Ray's chocolate mousse was another beautiful work of art.

Here's a pic of their ship taken from the Space Needle during lunch. Their ship is the big one with the red & blue stacks. And using the binoculars from the observation platform, they made sure I saw the 7 story water slide on the deck.

Just in case you thought playing tourist can be boring, let me assure you, when you are with someone like Steve, it most definitely isn't!

Thank you Steve & Ray for a fun-filled day. I had a GREAT time.