Seattle Trip

Beautiful View from Cathy and Will's Back Porch

Lance, Me, Cathy, and Will

All of us with Grace and Claire

Lance and I went to visit our friends, Cathy and Will Wiley, last weekend in Seattle, Washington. We had a WONDERFUL time! Neither of us had been to Seattle before, so this was fun for both of us. It was beautiful there and we had great weather. Lance was convinced he brought it from Georgia, but I don't know about that...... We also got so spend time with their precious little girls Grace and Claire.
We were there from Thursday to Sunday. It was a very short trip, but we were able to PACK in about everything that we possible could. On Thursday Cathy and Will took us around their town to look at some sights around town. We went out to eat that night and they got a baby sitter for the girls. It was nice to be able to visit with them. Of course Lance and I were asking their advice on raising children, since they have been through this venture twice. We got some good advice!

On Friday, we got up early and Lance and I headed to Seattle to tour around. As usual, I was running just a LITTLE late. We had to catch a ferry from a nearby town at 9:00 and it was about a 30 minute ride to downtown Seattle. Well the ferry leaves right on time, so Cathy warned us that we may miss it and have to wait for the next one. We got there just in time and we had to RUN and I mean RUN to the ferrry. Apparently, that is part of the real Seattle experience, so I guess it was a good thing that we were running a little late.

Ferry Ride To Seattle

We went to the famous Pike's Market which was a treat! Their produce and fish looked so good. You had to be careful, they might try to throw a fish on you!!

Then we toured the city and walked for MILES!! The city was very neat and we enjoyed looking around. We went to some shops, yes I actually got Lance to do a little shopping....well looking......we didn't make any purchases. He made it into 3 stores and he thought that was great (he is making progress, but he still has a long ways to go).

We took a short ride across the city to the Space Needle. From here you could see all of Seattle. It was very neat. The view was beautiful. It is best on a clear day, so we timed it just about right with the good weather adn clear skies.

Space Needle (you go all the way to the top for a good view of Seattle)

View from top of Space Needle

After that we went to the acquarium. It was nothing like Atlanta, but we had a good time, and there were some neat things to see. At this point, being 15 weeks pregnant, I had about had it. My feet were so swollen, my ankles were about to be rolling over my shoes. We went back to the ferry, but as we sat there waiting, I really wanted to get a tour of the underground city, which was an hour and a half walking tour. I knew we would not be back anytime soon, so Lance and I switched plans and went back into the city for this one last tour. We are so glad that we did this. This was one of our favorite things we did in the city. The tour told us all about the history of Seattle. When Seattle was first developed, it was very poorly planned out. The city had many problems with their plumbing etc. Then there was a fire in the city that burned the whole city down. when the store owners came to rebuild they built on the same level they were at before. The government came in and built up the land so they would not have as many problems with the sewage etc. So there were basically two different cities on two levels. The towns people would go down ladders to get to the shops and stores that the store owners had built back. This "underground city" is still there for tours, but it is not in use today. You were able to walk on the real streets of the underground city, which was pretty neat. Lance should have probably typed this because he got more of the details about all of this history. I am sure I got some of this incorrect, but I atleast got the basics down.

On Saturday, we all went to Olympic National Park together. This was a beautiful drive. We walked all around the national park, went to see a waterfall, and went to see Crescent Lake. This was a long day, but the scenery was beautiful. I have to say that Claire and Grace were such troopers. They were excellent in the car, barely made a peep all day and it was a LONG day. After seeing the way they behaved in the car with the DVD players, that is one of the first things on my baby list! I just pray our children behave this well!! :)

Claire, Will, Cathy, Me, and Grace







This lake was the clearest lake we have EVER seen!! It looked like clear blue ocean water.

Lookout from the top of the mountain ridge.

Lance's goal the entire trip was to see Mount Ranier. It has to be a pretty clear day in order to see Mount Ranier, but we saw it every day we were there. We had a WONDERFUL time in Seattle! A big thank you goes to Cathy and Will for letting us stay with them. We hope to visit the Wiley's again at their next station.