Canada Day in the USA

Chris and I drove to Seattle on the long weekend and we thought that we were pretty smart to leave early on Saturday morning to avoid any border crossing waits....EXCEPT that England was playing in the World Cup quarter final and so we had to be in Seattle to watch the game (the game turned out to be on at 8am!). My alarm was not very welcome at 3.45am on Saturday morning, we crossed the border at 5.30am and coasted into Seattle 20 minutes before the game was to begin. I ate breakfast and drank coffee, Chris on the other hand enjoyed 3 pints all before 10am - you know in the spirit of the World Cup!
We wandered around the funky Freemont district for a few hours and then headed over to the University district where our art deco hotel was located. Call it whatever you want, anyone who upgrades us to a King suite is in my good books! The problem however, is that it was nicer than our sauna aka apartment and I didn't want to leave. We had a picnic on the University grounds and took arty photos of all the ivy, outdoor sculptures, fountains and heritage buildings. Saying that it's a gorgeous campus just doesn't do it justice. We met my 2nd cousin, Suzanne and her husband Jason for dinner - what better way to beat the heat than by sweating it out over a spicy curry - yummy! We went back to their home and got a tour of the gorgeous house complete with 2 dogs and 2 cats. Before the tour ended, I did manage to walk through their retractable screen door - I felt like I was caught in a giant spider web...needless to say we all had a great laugh! We caught up on the family gossip for a few hours headed back to our palace. In case you don't know my Mom has California Aunts & Uncles & cousins (Suzanne & Jason have migrated North).
Saturday started out with a 42 second trip up to the Space Needle - totally overpriced but well worth the view. Mount Rainier and the Olympic Mountains were on showcase and we had a spectacular view of downtown Seattle, the lakes and the ocean. Next we went to Disneyland, well ok OUR Disneyland aka REI! If you haven't been REI is an outdoor mega-store AND they were having their summer sale. To put it mildly we blew our budget....ahem. Somehow we ended up in this tavern with the gritiest people and decor that I've EVER seen, but I didn't bat an eyelash and ordered 2 pints of microbrew (that's why we went to Seattle in the first place, the beer (OK, I went for the cool city vibes) Chris on the other hand had a certain beverage in mind!)yes, it was at that point that the bartended asked us for ID!!! I just about killed myself laughing as I'm turning 30 on Tuesday - gotta love it!
We visited the locks in the Ballard District in Seattle, I convinced Chris to go up to the exhibit to find out what the locks were all about etc etc. There was an announcement that a film would be shown and so we sat in on that as well. We made a break for the locks when the film ended and we stopped by the parks officer that worked at the exhibit centre. He asked us to complete a survey since we had been the only vistors that had viewed the exhibit. It was hilarious, he asked us all sorts of questions some of them being about the "children & the exhibit" I just looked around us and said "um, not applicable".
We met Jason and Suzanne for lunch and then went to an out of town dog park for a nice romp around in the water (the dogs, not us). We went to a brew pub so that Chris could sample yet more US microbrews and that's where I had an ice cream sandwich (think big) for dinner! Probably not the best choice to make considering that I'm training for a 10km run!?
I had an uneventful drive home (while boozy, oh I mean Chris snoozed), can I just take a moment to tell you all how much I love cruise control? There was an hour wait at the border but we were practically waved right through. Ah, Seattle.
Pictures to follow.