Day 24: I'm on a boat

Olalla, a rural area across the bay from Seattle, and where we were staying for the next two nights, was only about a two and a half hour drive from Portland, so even though we took our time getting up and getting ready we made it there in the early afternoon. When we arrived, our hosts weren't around, but we met a pretty large group of couchsurfers holding down the fort. We took some time to get acquainted and have some lunch before they headed off on th enext leg of their journey, leaving me, Geries, and Johnny, a couchsurfer from Germany that just arrived in America the previous night. Since we were eager to check out Seattle, we invited Johnny along and made our way into the city.

We plugged a Seattle address into the GPS and went on our merry way assuming that it would take us around the bay. However, soon we found ourselves driving straight toward the water and by the time we realized we were in line to take the ferry it was too late. The ferry ride ended up being worth the price, though, since it was a pretty fun and scenic ride across the Puget Sound. We got a great look at the city from a distance, including the iconic Space Needle.

The ferry dropped us off in West Seattle, and from there it was just a short drive to downtown where we parked and set off toward the waterfront to find a place to eat. We eventually settled on Ivar's Seafood Bar where we got some classic Seattle fish and chips. Through dropping-stained windows we watched as brave souls fed fries to the pier's large and very vocal seagull population. Hungry birds swooped down as if from nowhere and plucked fries right out of the unsuspecting feeders' hands. Once we had our fill of food and entertainment we took a walk up the waterfront to the Olympic Sculpture Garden where we were greeted by an inexplicably naked father-son duo cast in bronze at the center of a fountain. We took a nice walk through the rest of the park and saw some interesting sculptures, including a tree that we almost mistook for the real thing despite its chrome exterior (it was very inconspicuously placed).

Next we walked over to the Space Needle, which is surrounded by the Pacific Science Center. Although we didn't get to go inside the Science Center, they also had a wide array of public sculpture for us to enjoy on our walk to the flying-saucer-like tower. Just outside the Space Needle was an exhibit of sculptures that looked like an explosion of jellyfish was magically turned into glass. The monstrous glass sculptures seemed familiar, and as we later learned they were actually made by the same artist that did the hanging sculptures in the management building at Georgia Tech.

Eventually we stood under the Space Needle looking up its sloped exterior to the flying saucer perched atop that we were just too cheap to go up to. A short elevator ride with about ten minutes on the observation deck cost almost twenty dollars, and even more ridiculous was the thirty-five dollars per person that you had to spend at the restaurant to be let up. We still enjoyed the view from the bottom, though, and afterward we made our way back to the car. This time we made sure to have the GPS avoid the ferry, and we had a toll-free ride back to the house.

Once we arrived, Kevin, one of our hosts, was there to greet us (his wife Sara was asleep) and we spent some time talking and getting to know him while we shared beers in the hot tub. It was a nice relaxing way to end a pretty good day. After we dried off we took our spots in the camper parked just outside the house and got some rest to prepare for our next day in the city.