Seattle and Sushi

Again we woke up to a leisurely morning while staying with John and Karen. It seemed that everyone in the house had taken advantage of sleeping in on Sunday since today breakfast was not in full swing until 11:30 a.m. For breakfast John treated us to another amazing meal, this time pancakes, sausage, and eggs (if you like that sorta thing). The meal was great and more than Katie and I could ask for. John and Karen had wanted to show us around Seattle today since they were both available to be our guides. They wanted to give us a better sense of the city, show us around the different neighborhoods, take us to the best viewpoints, not to mention take us to their favorite sushi restaurant in Seattle, so how could we say no? I think that they felt we had gotten the touristy version of the city yesterday, which we admittedly had, and wanted us to leave with a more accurate feel for the city, which we were very thankful for. After our breakfast settled down a bit, we hopped in their car and headed towards the city. Our first destination was West Seattle which offered us a beautiful

view of both Elliot Bay and the city itself. Along the way we passed the industrial port where all of the containers are transfered from ship to truck and then distributed all over the nation. I couldn't help but think of my old job at Sears which this process is directly related to. I snagged a few pictures as best I could from a moving car for nostalgia's sake. We walked along the beach for a bit, enjoying the weather as well as the ocean before we became parched and stopped in to wet our whistles at The Celtic Swell where we watched some of the Seahawks game but mostly kept our eyes on the coast and watched the action outside on both land and sea. As we left the pub we walked across the street to Liberty Park, a small section of the coast devoted to

the soldiers of past wars. In the middle of the park is a miniature Statue of Liberty, undoubtedly how the park got its name. As I approached for a closer look, 2 foreign gentlemen approached me and asked me to take their picture. I was immediately perplexed. "This isn't the REAL Statue of Liberty" passed through my head, and since there wasn't a very good view of the Seattle skyline from this point, I had no idea what else they wanted me to take a picture of. "Anything" was their response when I asked them. Apparently they were just excited to be together. I took a couple of photos of them with the city in the background, though it looked like a tiny Lego fortress on the horizon compared to the two giants in the foreground, but hopefully they were satisfied. I always feel self conscious when asked to take other peoples photos. They instantly go to the review button afterwards and judge right away whether or not you did an adequate job. Most of the time the response is a vague "thank you" and you don't know if they are satisfied or just being polite, waiting until you leave at which time they can find the next person to reach out to. It makes me wish more people would just buy tripods. But thats just me... anyway, the next stop on our list was to a park that offered an amazing view of the city, though the name of the park escapes me, I believe it was located in the Queen Anne Hill neighborhood. On the way, we passed by some of Seattle's most oddly shaped buildings, the infamous Space Needle and the Experience Music Project, which apparently is designed after a guitar that Jimi Hendrix smashed onstage. We made it to the park which offered great

views of not only the city, but also some great perspective

pictures of these two landmarks. We only had a minute to spare at the park, because we noticed that we were all of a sudden strapped for time if we wanted to get all of our sights in for the day. Not only did happy hour at the sushi restaurant end at 6p.m. but we also had to be back in the suburbs by 7p.m. to pick up Johnny from basketball tryouts. After the park we ventured over to the Hiram Chittenden Locks in Ballard to see the fish ladder. When we got to the locks they were just starting to load boats in that were heading out to sea. The first one that entered had Juneau, Alaska as its home town

which we though was pretty cool. We watched them load for a bit then headed across to the fish ladder. It was the perfect time of year to see fish jumping up the ladder but we were not so lucky. A sign as we entered told us that the fish action was "quite low"

today. Still, we got to see lots of salmon through the windows at the fish ladder which was pretty cool. Luckily, our next stop was to eat them at the Redfin Sushi Restaurant! We got in just before happy hour ended, 15 minutes left, which meant basically half off on all of the rolls! I have never had sushi before in my life and Katie has only had it once or twice, so basically we put our trust in John and Karen to steer us in the

right direction and we were not disappointed. Katie played it safe and got a roll of nothing but vegetables for herself while John, Karen, and I split 5 rolls amongst us: a California roll, a Seattle roll, a spicy tuna roll, a tarantula roll and another roll that wasn't on the menu which John asked to be made specially for us. I still have no idea what half of the things I ate were, but I do know that it tasted delicious! My favorites veered between the two more exotic rolls and Katie even ended up trying one of them! It was one of the fancier ones which was covered in avocado but also had some row, tiny fish eggs, sprinkled on it as a garnish. This was Katie's least favorite part, but she was a great sport and tried it anyway, resulting in the predictable conclusion that "it tastes like fish." She was especially grossed out later when after we were already in the car I commented on how every once in a while I would find a piece of row in my teeth and pop it in my mouth. She about threw up right there remembering the popping sensation in her mouth. My first sushi experience was an overwhelming success, and I would like to thank John and Karen for an excellent day in the city and for opening up a new world to me in the form of sushi. Back in the suburbs, we spent another relaxing night watching football and doing more research online for our travels. In the morning we left Seattle and headed south with the intention of reaching Portland early in the evening. We had gotten ahold of some couchsurfers who offered us their place, but for now we were headed to Mt. St. Helen's to make our last stop in the great state of Washington.