So we were a bit tired and a bit disgruntled, but at least our feet were on American soil, we jumped in a cab and wound our way through Seattle to our accommodation. We'd booked through AirBnB and were staying with Lee and Steve about 30 minutes North of Downtown. As they weren't expecting to be there when we arrived they'd left us instructions for how to get there and where our room was, still even if you're anticipating a midnight walk through the woods the reality is always a bit freakier. Our cabbie dropped us off at a dead end, and we headed in what we hoped was the right direction through the woods, after a couple of minutes we could see lights glowing through the windows, and carefully avoiding the sizable vegetable patch made out way to the door. We knocked, rang the triangle - yep, triangle - tapped on one of the windows but even after five minutes there's no response. I push the door slightly so it swings open, and ask 'Hello?' to the empty house. George decides this is the perfect time to voice his opinion, telling me that 'this is just like in Psycho', thanks sweetheart that's just what I need running through my head. As if the dark woods, empty house and open door aren't creepy enough, I now think I'm in a horror movie. Luckily, however, we made it to our room without an axe murderer attacking us.
The next morning we actually met one of our hosts, Steve, before heading out to explore the city. It turned out we'd left the sun behind us in Canada, it was a grey damp day filled with drizzle more than actual rain. Anyway we headed off to Seattle's tallest building, the Space Needle, it's certainly very futuristic looking even though it was built back in 1962 for the World Fair.
I've already been up it and George didnt really fancy it, he had his eye on the food festival, so that's where we went. There was a real mix of food from deep fried anything to traditionally cooked salmon - they lay half a salmon between two grills and smoke it over a fire - George was in full on eating mode sampling a little of most stuff then finishing off with a pizza. Admittedly the pizza was very tasty, personally I went for a Peking duck taco, so good, with Chinese bun dough instead of a taco shell and loads of spring onions in a really delicate plum sauce. Scrummy.
We had to stop being tourists for a moment as I had to go shoe shopping, not just because I wanted to, but because my poor converse's soles were detaching from the rest of the shoe. Admittedly it wasn't exactly a chore, I may have made one or two unnecessary purchases on the way and George's shopping limit was sorely tested but eventually I found a nice pair, in the sale no less. We resumed our touristy ways after a quick pit stop to avoid the rain and headed to Pike Place Market, it's a big indoor market that sells fish, honey, flowers, artwork, vintage newspapers, actual sized celebrity cardboard cut outs, psychic visions and a whole host of other things.
It's great fun, bustling and full of quirky things, plus it hides you from the rain so that's a win.
Outside, despite the weather and plethora of other coffee shops (including Starbucks) around, there is a giant queue for the original Starbucks coffee shop. I don't know whether they grant you magic wishes inside or what but apparently it's worth standing around for 30 minutes. Needless to say we couldn't care less, but we did go into the 'Left Bank Books Collective' bookshop, full of political rhetoric and definitely not mainstream history books.
On our way to dinner we walked past the chewing gum wall, a truly delightful place where for at least tens of years people have been sticking their gum to the sides of buildings, unsurprisingly there's a minty scent in the air.
After a fabulous dinner, at which I was served a glass of wine, yay for looking older! We headed to Union square where we were meeting for a tour of underground Seattle. Back in the 60s a guy found a load of rooms and sidewalks underneath Seattle, these were from the 1800s when after a fire had destroyed most the city the city planners decided to build above the swampy goo that was the streets in those days - a man actually drowned in them once.
So the city planners built the streets one storey high, however the businesses and sidewalks stayed on the original level, so to cross the road one had to climb a ladder up and then back down the other side. The road and shops remained between one and two storeys apart up until 1907, when the shop owners saw sense and moved upstairs.
The tour takes you down into a few of these 'streets' and underground rooms; not many are left, they're either in use as basements or are a safety hazard. The ones they took us through are brightly lit with walkways and conveniently placed historical objects, however the dark windows are pretty creepy.
Still, it was an interesting and informative tour, and before we booked on I never even knew there was an underground city.
The next day we went to Fremont, Seattle's hippie suburb with vegan cafés and truly random works of public art.
We started off with Brunch in a vegetarian restaurant where I ate the weirdest omelette imaginable, Japanese themed with seaweed in it alongside peppers and spring onions which would've been tasty except for the fact it was smothered in gravy. Not good gravy either, weird gravy that was almost the same consistency as gel. Anyway it was sustenance, so we went for a stroll around and saw some of these interesting artworks. First up was the troll under the bridge, as seen in 10 Things I Hate About You, I'm not really sure why but it's crushing a VW bug in its hand.
We also saw a decommissioned rocket, a statue of Lenin, Dinosaurs carved out of hedges and 'commuters' waiting where the old station was. Apparently anyone can dress them up for a couple of days at a time, whether as a promotional thing or just fun.
Next we wandered into a truly vintage store, there were clothes, furniture, old board games, random trinkets, perfume bottles basically anything and everything was thrown in with some vague nod to themes. It was very cool though, we easily spent the better part of an hour there. Next up was a chocolate factory tour! Theo were the first company in the US to import the chocolate bean instead of just chocolate mix, which means their chocolate is super tasty as well as Eco friendly.
They told us all about the growing process, gave us loads of chocolate to try and then showed us the actual chocolate making process.
All very cool apart from when we tried the cocoa nibs - the part of then bean that goes in to make chocolate as we know it - they weren't that nice, almost like a really bitter banana.
Then they took us to the kitchen to show us how they prettify their chocolates and gave us more truffles and caramels, all really delicious.
Unfortunately that was the end of the tour, but they gave us a free bar each! I may have also bought a one or two or a few in the shop. It's just that awesome. That night Lee and Steve gave us loads of veggies from the garden, so we cooked one last meal before embarking on our road trip!
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