Lizzim 18 USA Trips: Sightseeing in Seattle and Adventures in Alaska Day 11

27 Sept

We set the alarm for 0730 today as we had booked a couple of attractions - Argosy harbour cruise and the Seattle Aquarium both included in the Citypass.

We had breakfast downstairs which was fine given that it is free/included.

We then walked down to the waterfront via Pike Place Market which was now a familiar walk. Our harbour cruise was at 1045 and we arrived just as they started boarding, apparently you weren’t allowed to take your own food or drinks onboard – but you could buy them at the bar on the boat (we didn’t!)

The narration was a bit cheesy and stilted but the views were good and it was nice to see our cruise dock again.

In the last photo the bird has a star fish in it’s mouth!

Once the cruise was over we got lunch at the Alaskan Sourdough Bakery in Miners Landing.

I had the grilled cheese special (sandwich and tomato soup) and Rob had the golden nugget sandwich (turkey, provolone, tomato, pesto) plus I had a gold rush cookie (macadamia, chocolate and maybe caramel) while Rob had a blueberry muffin plus sodas.

This was not cheap at around $38 but we had found that food and drinks were more expensive in Seattle (the headline price that is – the exchange rate then made it even worse).

Next up was the Aquarium which is next door, we were a little early for our timed slot but this wasn’t an issue.

We spent about an hour in the aquarium and found that they catch and release a lot of the fish. They also seem to be doing a lot of conservation which is good.

We noticed that there was a lot more focus on recycling etc in Seattle (and Victoria), with many ‘restaurants’ offering compostable packaging, straws etc.

We took a walk back towards Pike Place Market stopping to browse in an antiques store.

We also stopped for ice cream in a store we had found the other day, Rob over ordered and I had to help him with his ice cream mountain.

We walked a bit further past the Seattle Art Museum and then back to the hotel for a rest and some HGTV/Discovery.

We were also intrigued by these tram/buses or ‘electric trolley’s as they were called.

They only seemed to be on a few streets (which included Pike Street) but we didn’t actually use them to go anywhere.

We had dinner booked at the Cheesecake Factory at 1845, we arrived a few mins early but had to wait until our time to be seated as they were short of staff.

We were seated at a tiny booth for 2 people

Apparently the salad, pizza and pasta sections were closed….oddly this included the chicken salad sandwich which was my first choice, I had assumed it fell under sandwiches but apparently would have been made by the salad section.

I instead chose the Cuban while Rob had a cheeseburger. He couldn’t have the one he wanted as it apparently could only be cooked medium rare (it had cheese inside).