though we saw it in nowhere near its full glory. Mt. Rainier is known for its wildflowers, all of which bloom sometime in the spring and summer, none in the fall. Also the striking size and view of the mountain is a popular attraction, but today it was veiled in clouds. We still had a great visit and felt that we got a real taste of the park. We drove to sunrise point, the highest spot 
that you can drive in the park, which offered beautiful views of the surrounding valleys and a nice view of half of the mountain. Then we drove through the park to Paradise where we entertained ourselves at the visitor center for a while and then moved on. We made various stops to enjoy waterfalls as well, another big attraction at the park. We left and headed back toward Seattle where we were going to spend a few days with another one of my mom's boss's sisters and her family; Karen and John. They would be our gracious hosts for the next three nights, but for the time being we had to waste some time for John to get back from work since Karen had a party in BC on Friday and would not be around. We decided, as always, that the best time waster would be food! We were in the mood for pizza, or at least I was, and we stumbled upon this great place, The Rock Wood Fired Pizza. We ate our fill and then headed to a Starbucks to update the blog a little bit and relax
until we could figure out exactly where to go. The ultimate kicker is that as we were leaving dinner we both noticed the sky was completely clear now, not a cloud in sight. We got back to the freeway and sure enough, Mt. Rainier was completely visible after hiding all day. Luckily, we were able to snag a few photos as well as a couple choice views of the mountain while it was out and looking so prominent on the horizon. We got a hold of John and headed to their house about 9 p.m. He is a football coach for his son's team, so Friday night is football night, obviously. We arrived and were immediately welcomed in as family, talking for a bit about our trip and what to do in Seattle, not to mention petting Rosie, the family dog. With our books as a guide and John's suggestions to help us, we had a plan of attack for Seattle the next morning. We went to bed late and woke up late as well, despite eager plans of making an early start. John prepared us a great breakfast of eggs and bagels then we hopped in the van and headed for the city. Our first stop was Pioneer Square, which we luckily enough stumbled upon. There was an outdoor
market there, it being a Saturday, which we walked around for about 20 minutes before deciding we had to check out times for the Underground Tour. This tour came recommended by virtually everyone that mentioned Seattle to us. Apparently, after a great fire that destroyed the city, the city's engineers decided that they should take advantage of the opportunity to regrade the roads as well as the city. This process would take a decade or so. In the meantime, people rebuilt their buildings with 2 levels of store fronts, one which eventually would be underground. Thus, a tour was born. It was about an hour and a half of walking around Pioneer Square, only this time underground. It was a fun tour and neat to learn about the city's history, especially the not so proud parts. After the tour, we made a stop to get another stamp to get the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park. The funny thing about this place was that it was in Seattle. We found out that Seattle is the self-claimed "Gateway to the Gold Rush" in an attempt to "mine the miners" as its called. For this reason they have this Historic Park in their
city center. However, the entire museum is about Alaska and the Yukon, barely even mentioning Seattle at all. It was interesting and slightly comical to experience all of the things and places that we had been over the past month all neatly summarized for us in Seattle. After our history lesson for the day we headed to one of Katie's most anticipated stops in Seattle, Pikes Place Market. This place was packed full of people, locals and tourists alike. The market place is most famously known for a few things. First and foremost would have to be that its the birthplace of Starbucks, and secondly the fish market, where they throw and catch the giant fish as you order them. We walked up on the market and began to browse around. They had everything! We walked around for a good hour just checking out everyones booths and sampling the free food which many
vendors had out and displayed. My favorite thing I found, aside from all of the food, was real life replica's of Link's Ocarina from the Ocarina of Time. Too bad they were a couple hundred bucks or else I would have had one in my pocket. We, of course, made our way to the first Starbucks and waited in line to get a coffee from the original place. Afterwards, having made our rounds at the Market, we began to walk around a bit to try and discover the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, a Seattle landmark, and also a shop that we had no idea of its location. Our search was not in vain however, because during it we discovered a few choice things that we may not have stumbled upon otherwise. First was the Pike Brewing Company and second was the famous Seattle gum wall. We passed the brewery with plans to visit it later in the day and headed in the direction
of the water, hopefully to find the curiosity shop. Directly behind the brewery, we noticed a large group of people huddled together in an alley and taking photos of something. The star of the show turned out to be a wall, completely covered in chewed bubble gum. Katie and I looked around for a bit and watched people
sticking more gum on the wall until we found the most conspicuously located gum ball machine on the planet. It stood in the corner, almost blushing. It reminded me of a child standing with a paintbrush in hand, in front of a freshly destroyed wall with a mischievous smile on its face that seemed to say "it wasn't me." How could we resist? We had to join the fun and make our mark in the history books by adding our saliva to this modern mural of germs. And so we did. After leaving our mark, we unsuccessfully searched for the curiosity shop, ultimately ending back at the Pike Brewery where we had a light lunch of chips and salsa. There was football on everywhere and it was at this point that I noticed that we had seen a ridiculous number of people wearing San Diego Chargers uniforms. Apparently they were the visiting team in tomorrows match, but by all the fans that flooded the city, you would think they were the home team. More and more of them started to enter the bar, apparently part of some bar crawl, at which point Katie and I decided to make our exit. Luckily our waitress had known how to direct us to the curiosity shop, so we were on our way. Now, if you don't know anything about the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, let me tell you that outwardly it looks pretty normal. It is
obviously a big tourist area and also a big tourist trap. Many tours start out of the building and at first glance, the store is largely a glorified souvenir stand, that is until you take a closer look. Strewn throughout the store are a number of oddities that catch your eye and make you look twice, three times, four times, until you are just staring and wondering, "can that be real?" Here are some of the "treasures" the store has to offer, in my opinion the more noteworthy ones. A two-headed bull calf (stuffed), a stillborn fawn (mummified),
2 4 legged chickens (1 stuffed - 1 in a glass jar), a 2 headed pig and 2 headed cat (both in a glass jar), 2 human mummies, and a large collection of real shrunken human heads, one boasting to be the smallest shrunken head in the world. Needless to say, the store was pretty neat. We stayed for a bit, both browsing the items for sale as well as ogling the more outlandish display items. When we had our fill, we left the Market area and got in the van and headed to over to the Center of the Universe!
This of course, is located in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood, infamous for being the art / hippie center of the city. It is also home to the largest statue of Lenin outside of the former USSR as well as a giant troll which lurks under the Aurora Bridge. The troll was the main thing we set out to find in Fremont, though Katie had wanted to see and explore the rest of the neighborhood as well. We found the troll but also found hoards of people climbing all over it and taking pictures with it. Katie and I were lucky enough to sneak in and get our own pictures right before a group of high schoolers hopped out of a limo all dressed for homecoming to take their pictures with this giant. There was a street festival going on at the time of our
visit, the Fremont Octoberfest to be exact, but we opted not to go. It seemed extremely crowded and not worth the 30 bucks to get in and sample 5 beers. Instead we went to Hale's Ales and got some late night dinner. I had heard of Hale's the day before from the morning newspaper where Hale himself chimed in on a current proposal to change some of the beer laws in Washington. Our dinner was very filling and delicious, it had felt like we had been eating all day. After our meal, we left the city, and headed back to John and Karen's where we stayed up late with them chatting with about our travels and many other things, enjoying one another's company.
i picked the troll's nose a few years ago when i was there!
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