Day Twenty Nine

It was a miserable day in Denver when we bid farewell to Craig & Kim and headed off to Denver Airport for the next stage of our trip , Seattle & Portland.

 We had an early start , flying out at 8:30am, so had to have checked in by 7:30am and so left Craig & Kim's  at 6:30.  Craig very kindly cooked up some bacon & eggs to fortify us for the morning ahead ( he alas had been up earlier as one of the lads was not well) and after bidding farewell to Kim, Craig took us to the airport. The drive was about 30 - 40 minutes in pretty steady rain, but the traffic was generally good and we arrived on time. Southwest has kerbside check in, where a number of podiums in front of a conveyor belt are setup right next to the drop off point, so all we had to do was wave Craig goodbye , turn 180 degrees and check our bags in!

Going through security at American airports, even domestic, is pretty horrendous, and while Denver was no exception, this time we did not need to take out laptops or remove lightweight jackets , so despite the volume of people we moved through pretty quickly.

It was another full flight ( Southwest almost always fill their flights according to Craig) and this time Deb and I could not sit together , we both had to pick a middle seat a few rows apart.

We often hear of these flight attendants that do humorous announcements and to our delight we had one today ! Imagine if you can an old southern man with that lovely twang ( ya’ll come back now y’hear) and add a dose of humour and you have this guy. Here’s a few of his quotes that had us laughing.

‘If you're travelling with small children today …what were you thinking!”

( for the oxygen mask section) - ‘If you’re traveling with a child , secure your mask first before theirs. If you’re traveling with two children, pick your favourite’

On the taxy out to the takeoff point - ‘ OK this will be a no-whinin’ , no-complainin’, no botherin’ the attendants flight. In fact y’all should just sit back and sleep’ (and then in a very quiet voice) ‘you’re getting very sleepy …verrryyy sleeepy…’ , and then he starts playing lullaby music over the Tannoy :=)

(at the takeoff point) - ‘Ok, give that belt a tug and yer sweetie a hug , this Boeing is going. If yer travelling alone in the middle seat , look to yer left & right, this could be the hookup of a lifetime’

And then just before we landed - “OK make sure yer rubbish is cleared away and yer have all yer electronics. There’s a guy in front of me here not listenin’ , there’s always one , and he’s gonna leave stuff behind coz he wern’t listenin’ Anything left behind will be handled by our lost and found department, and you can go to  this website to get yer items back… www ebay com ‘  (the plane cracked up at this)

 and then as we taxi in - ‘So we’re early and we sincerely apologise for this as yer ride won’t be here yet. If yer connectin’ to another airline…who cares ?’

After collecting our backs , we schlepped the luggage to the light rail connection , a 10-ish minute walk through the car parking building, where we got a ticket into Westlake station ( only $2.75 for each ticket). The light rail takes you from SeaTac airport into the center of town through some very nice suburbs , they are big on lots of trees here and the fall colours are in abundance. The ride only took about 20 minutes, and on exiting the station we oriented ourselves and hoofed the luggage a few block to our hotel , the Bell town inn.

This place is superbly located and allows an easy walk to either the Pike Market or Space Needle. Fortunately our room was ready and we could drop our bags and start exploring.

We first went to the Pike Market , about 10-15 minutes walk away ( and in a steady drizzle) . This is an interesting place and has fish stalls as well as various other craft stalls , and lots of small boutique shops like second hand shops and the like. We had lunch at a French type café and sat & watched the world go by before starting our exploration.

It wasn’t too crowded ( another of the benefits going off season, I bet the place heaves and is jam packed in peak season) and we could have a good look around. I got a T-Shirt that has a Star Wars shop on it, made with Coffee and Bleach , and we also picked up a Seattle picture for the travel wall, and I discovered a couple of 2nd hand bookshops ( surprise!) where I made a couple of ( small and light!) purchases.

One of the features of this market is a stall where all the guys yell out the orders in unison ( eg one guy will yell ‘two pounds of Bass and then all the other will yell the same thing in unison) and then they throw the fish at each other and eventually pack it. Lots of fun to watch but hard to catch on camera!

After spending a few hours here it was starting to get late so we mooched back to the room, dropped some stuff and then headed off to the Space Needle. This was created n 1962 for the World’s fair , and is one of Seattle’s defining landmarks.  The building is pretty impressive up close, and getting in is quite straight forward ( tickets for general admission are $21)

After a quick 43 second elevator ride we were at the top and boy what great views you get. You can go outside as well, and the wind was quite strong and cold ( not at all like ground level) so we managed to get some good snaps of Seattle from there. The place has a small bar and snack area , so we stayed there for a couple of hours and had a couple of wines until it got dark when we were then treated to downtown Seattle at night - absolutely superb.

We eventually tore ourselves away and headed off to find a place for dinner near the hotel, and found a nice spot close by, but although the food was nice alas the Verve was flat , we suspected the bottle had been open for a while - but this almost seems to be a common thing here. As a bartender , surely you’d notice if sparkling wine / champagne wasn’t bubbly? However it was still drinkable so we persevered.