Day 35: Sunny Seattle

We had another great day here in the Seattle area. We took Mr. Ripley back to Central Bark for another play day. Then we drove the car onto the ferry to Bainbridge Island. The ride is only 30 minutes but the views both directions were beautiful.
We first stopped in the Winslow area of the island and wandered around. The most popular spot this morning was the Blackbird Bakery which had all sorts of lovely pastries but the locals all just order toast. It looked like good toast but I opted for an orange bun. The area seems very upscale and very pleasant--I've never seen a place with so many dogs and children. The weekly farmers' market was going on and we walked around it. The folks around here are so very friendly and helpful.
Yesterday we realized that one of our brake lights had gone out. We happened to drive by a Mercedes dealership and Dwyne thought they might have a bulb that would fit. One of the service guys tried several bulbs but none worked and he suggested we try an auto parts store a few blocks away. When we got to the location he suggested it appeared the business was no longer there but there was a bike shop nearby and Dwyne went in to see if they knew where it was. Indeed the auto parts store was no longer in the area but the guy in the bike shop said there was an auto repair shop just a couple of blocks away and offered to call and see if they might have the bulb. It appeared that they did and so we drove there. The person at the repair shop found a bulb and wouldn't let Dwyne pay for it--he said to just consider it a goodwill gesture. We've had several other examples of people being very helpful and extremely friendly.
Anyway, back to today. Someone had suggested that when we went to Bainbridge Island we drive to the town of Poulsbo which is a Danish town. So to honor our friend Rob who is of Danish heritage, we drove to Poulsbo. We noticed lots of traffic heading into town and then started seeing signs saying "Welcome to Viking Fest." We must have gotten to the main street just seconds before they closed it for the parade because people were lined up along the street. We had the top down on the car so I gave a few parade waves as we drove down the street. Since we didn't want to spend all day at a parade, we drove back to the ferry dock on Bainbridge Island and were the next to last car on the ferry back to Seattle.
Once back in Seattle we parked the car and headed for lunch at Pike Place Chowder. We'd sampled their chowder on our tour the day before and Dwyne had been thinking about it ever since. We had crab rolls and chowder for lunch and greatly enjoyed it.
After lunch we took one of the free downtown busses to Pioneer Square and walked around that area. The neighborhood has some beautiful old buildings and there are lots of art galleries and home decor stores in the area.
Then we went to the transit station where they have light rail trains and busses that travel through a tunnel. We took a bus to another station where we boarded the monorail to go to the Space Needle. The Space Needle was built for the 1962 World's Fair and is considered one of the symbols of Seattle. We went to the top where there were great views of the city and surrounding areas. After decending we walked around the area a little bit before boarding the monorail again. Before going back to the car we went in the original flagship Nordstrom's and the original Sur La Table. We bought some spoons at Sur La Table to use at a dinner we're having 2 days after our return to benefit ARTS Obispo. Thank goodness it's a progressive dinner and we just have to provide one course.
After picking up Mr Ripley (who seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed himself) we went back to the hotel for a little rest before dinner.
We chose to go to a place named Lola for dinner. The cuisine at Lola is focused on Greek food. It's owned by Tom Douglas whose also owns Etta's that we visited on our tour. He is a James Beard award winning chef and seems to be a major icon in the Seattle food world. We had an outstanding dinner. I actually had my first goat and I'm now a fan! The restaurant is within walking distance of our hotel so we may have burned off one or two calories on the walk back.
Tomorrow we head to Portland OR.