Seattle

 A bit of a lower key day today....first order of business was a bit of business.  We had applied for Global Entry status with US Customs a month or so ago.   This lets you bypass most of the security at airports - and sense we will be traveling quite a bit, we thought it would be worth it.  You have to submit to a background check and provide documents to prove who you are....that all completed, we were given the go-ahead to schedule an appointment for an in-person interview at a US Customs and Border Control location.  Our only closeby options were Charlotte airport or Wilmington.  Neither one of those had appointments available.  Very strange, but we checked the appointments at the Seattle airport and we got that scheduled easily.  So today was the day - a nice walk towards the light rail station thru the downtown busy morning.  

 

We boarded the light rail to take us back to the airport.  Unfortunately, we had boarded the train in the wrong direction!  Silly mistake - easily fixable by a quick hop-off and hop-on the correct direction.....

For some reason, the train was not very busy today.

 

Quite the long trek but we found the Customs office.  Easy peasy interview.....not really sure why we needed to do it but we're all set now.  Hopefully we'll breeze thru security from now on.

 After the interview, it was time for lunch....I had Chinatown on my list of places to visit so we hopped off the train at the entrance.

 

 I was intrigued by the fact that the road signs were in both English and Chinese....just thought it was a bit odd 

 We quickly picked out a restaurant that looked "authentic"....definitely was since we were the only pasty people in the crowded restaurant.

My normal order - Szechuan chicken....it was very good and the hot tea was very nice.   

Unfortunately, the walkabout we had after lunch was not as amazing as I was expecting.  I love a good Chinatown, with outside markets and odd Chinese stuff.....but that really wasn't there.  It was just a few blocks of Chinese shops, obviously very authentic but not very "tour-able" as I didn't want to go inside and just be nosy without buying anything.  So we wandered back to the train with full bellies.  We had a day-long pass so we used it to ride all the way to the small town of Redmond.  We had read about a river trail there but never really found it....back on the train without even a photo.....

The final thing I had on the list was to go to Kerry Park where they say you can have a wonderful view of the Seattle skyline.  It did not disappoint....but it was a very, very steep climb up side streets and stairs.... I snapped several beautiful shots. 

 And then we tried a few "holding something up that is really in the distance" shots.  We quickly decided we weren't very good at it.....caught a city bus back down the hill to our apartment.  Only 13,500 steps today since we had a good bit of train/bus travel.

 

 

 

Seattle

 Buckle up, buttercup....I took a LOT of photos today!  We had breakfast at the apartment then set out on foot to explore.  I had a laundry list of places to see....the streets are lovely here with lots of trees. 

 

As you can see, it was a bit overcast.  The forecast was for partly sunny skies and 67 degrees.....we walked down to the waterfront, very scenic.  The warf itself was closed because we were a bit too early in the morning.

 

Some cool rather large sailboats tied up at the pier.

Just more city walking, very pleasant. 

  

 Good fun! The waterfront is very visitor friendly.   Note the jacket....it was a bit breezy and a little chilly.

 A nice elevated walkway. 

 More street scenes - note the hills....I hadn't thought about how hilly it would be!

  

 We had to stop by the iconic Pike Place Market.

 Not your run-of-the-mill farmer's market.  This one is historical founded in 1907.

 This is where you can witness the "fish throwers"....apparently they toss the fish around just to amuse the customers.  

 Amazing assortment of local fish. 

  

 

 The shops went on for what seemed like miles on more than one level.

 

 

 Couldn't resist a photo of the Big Ass Lobster Tails!  (I looked it up, lobsters aren't native in Seattle and are likely shipped from California or Florida/Bahamas).

 

 Looking out at the waterfront from a little cafe inside the market.

 Amazing fresh veggies.

 Time to switch gears....a short walk to the Seattle Art Museum....some interesting stuff there!  Fun to wander.  This modern "sculpture" was about 10' tall and made of shiny rolled up pieces of basically plastic.  It took someone a long time to make!

 The photo doesn't do this one justice.  This is hundreds of Slinky's attached to a very tall wall.

 There was, of course, lots of paintings too.

  

 This is by Salvador Dali.  Not my cup of tea but on close inspection it's pretty cool.

And of course, lots of huge photos with partially clad women.....we spent the hour that we usually spend in a museum.  By the hour mark, we've usually had enough.

 Out for more walking....several nice colorful paintings on the sides of buildings.

 

We caught a shuttle at one point to take us over to the Seattle Sculpture Garden.  Interesting but not overwhelming. 

 And close by was the Space Needle.  Had to ride to the top, of course.  Was hoping it would be sunny by then, but the weather didn't cooperate.

 Huge sculpture on the Space Needle grounds.

 After a brief wait for the 520' elevator, we were at the top enjoying the view.

We got a couple of local beers and enjoyed them both at the top floor and the next floor down that rotates slowly. 

 

 Looking straight down, notice the spiders and their shadows that are painted on a huge rooftop.

 There were a couple of places where you could take "automatic" selfies controlled by a screen on your cell phone.  We look a little odd but it was good fun.

 This one took the photo on a blank background and the program let you choose the "staged" background...

 

 

 But this one had the actual photo of the real-time cityscape.

 After the Space Needle, we went to the Armory and had a quick lunch.  Then on to the IMAX theater for 2 short movies, one about the James Web Space Telescope and the other about the Chihuly glass.  When we got out of  the theater, the sky was beautifully sunny.

 Next and pretty much final stop for the day was the nearby Chihuly Garden and Glass.   I actually wasn't thinking this was going to be all that interesting but it was part of a combo ticket I had purchased.  I really did enjoy the tour.  I'd never heard of the artist - Dale Chihuly.  But it really was pretty cool and astonishing how many pieces were on display.  I'll include a bunch of photos you can page thru.  

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were ready to call it a day.....17,000 steps.....more adventure tomorrow.