Day 10: The Space Needle, Experience Music Project and more food :)

Well guys,

Today was our last full day of vacation, so we were a little sad. We woke up and got our free breakfast at the hostel (I really like hostels that do that) and headed off to stroll through Pike's Place Market again. We had so much fun yesterday that we decided to walk through the market again before we headed out for the real sight-seeing.

We sampled all the foods again, and even got to see them really chucking some fish around today. They are pretty comical about it, and they even trick the tourists that are watching. If someone demands that they throw a fish (which they usually do only once somebody orders one to be packed up and bought) one of the men behind the counter will pull out a huge fish and say "Your turn to catch!" and throw it into the crowd. We quickly learned that they really just throw a giant stuffed animal fish - but its pretty funny watching the women scurry out of the way to avoid getting "fish" on them!

After the market we found the first, original Starbucks. Even though it wasn't that impressive I did have to take a picture. The logo for the original store it a little more scandalous than their now PC symbol!

We took our time since it was actually a really nice day (for Seattle) and walked to the Space Needle. I couldn't resist going to the top of it, so we bought our tickets and rode the elevator up the 520 feet! It only takes 41 seconds in their high-speed elevators, and the view of the city is neat. There is of course a very expensive revolving restaurant at the top as well, but I don't think we could afford it on our grad student budget.

Right next to the Space Needle is a cool museum devoted to music and its history (The Experience Music Project) so we spent some time wandering through the exhibits. There were even little sound proof rooms with instruments in them where you could learn to play the guitar, the drums or the keyboard. It was fun to pretend to be rockstars for a little while....but we aren't going to be getting record deals anytime soon.

We rode the Seattle Monorail back to our hostel and relaxed for a little while. For dinner we found a little Thai place and had a great meal and for dessert, we went to the Pike Place Pub and Brewery and had a "beer float." I was a bit skeptical, but it was Belgian gelatto floating in a raspberry Belgian beer, and it was yummy!

We have all morning tomorrow to explore, too, so we will be going to the Maritime Museum.

~Kristyn