Day 9: Last Day in the car!!! Washington, and flying fish!

Hello!

Today I was excited because it is officially our LAST DAY OF DRIVING!! It has been really fun so far...but now matter how fun the trip, its never a bad thing to end 10 days of living out of a Honda Civic. We packed up and got ready to go sight seeing a little more in Portland, but when we headed out it was super cold and raining/sleeting. I was being a wuss, so we decided to do a brief drive-through tour of a couple of the places Taylor wanted to see. We went down to the courthouse and the main square and decided to park and walk around since it had almost stopped raining.

We took a look around the area, but it was pretty dead and still really cold, so we figured it would be just as well if we called it quits and just headed to Seattle for the rest of the day. Today was our first and only day taking the highway, so we got on and drove north for the last time. About halfway there it started raining pretty hard (ugh, the northwest!!) so we got off the road and drove through a little town that was still covered in snow (still not old to me yet).

After the brief detour, we made it to the Seattle area. We hunted out the rental car place and had to say goodbye to our trusty little car. Oddly, we got a phone call a few days ago from the rental agency begging us not to take the car out of California. Apparently the agent was not supposed to rent Hybrid vehicles to people leaving the state, and wanted us to switch the car out in San Fran. We were already a good 10 hours away, so we politely refused. When we turned it in today they were a little shocked to see it, and they said all they can do is put it on a truck and ship it back to CA since they are not legally allowed to rent hybrids in WA. Weird. But it was a great car and we put 1657.6 miles on it for the trip!!

With the car gone, we hopped a shuttle to the airport, then got on a bus to downtown Seattle (creepy!). We made it to our hostel, which is RIGHT above the market at Pike's Place. We can practically see them throwing fish from our window! We walked over to the market and wandered through it for a good 2 hours. There is so much to see! We sampled cheeses, roasted nuts, smoked salmon, donuts, fresh fruits, pickles, jams, syrups, honey, and breads with dipping oil. There are vendors with flowers, and crafts and souvenirs. And of course there are fish!!

We had to stand and watch the boisterous men heckling and throwing fish. They are pretty good at it! And as they throw they yell, chant, and poke fun at the tourists. But they were all really friendly, and it was entertaining to see how fast they can have a fish cleaned, filleted and packed for shipping.

For dinner we picked a place in the market (it was featured in Sleepless in Seattle) and had steamed mussels, seafood bisque and fresh halibut as we watched the storms roll in over Puget Sound. Since it is ugly, rainy and cold, we are going to rest up and get ready for a full day of Seattle sightseeing tomorrow. I want to see the Space Needle and the rest of the city!

~Kristyn