1. Prologue
2. Day 1 – Airport fun
3. Day 2 – Harbor cruise and I have a Ryoga moment
   1. Harbor cruise
   2. My Ryoga moment
4. Chihuly – Part 2
5. Space Needle
6. Last Day – a day of reflection
7. Epilogue

Prologue

So at little bit of information that is kind of important to know before you read the remainder of these entries. March 28th was a day that I was actually trying to look good for my hubby. For those that don’t know I’m mostly just a very geeky tomboy. I enjoy hanging out with dudes far more than girls because it’s just so much simpler and easier (this is not a insult, rather it’s a compliment). I’ve always been this way. Anywho, like I said I was trying to be pretty. I was wearing a dress and I had some heels on that I hadn’t worn in years. Well I’m a notorious klutz (I inherited it I swear). I tried to turn one way, but my ankle had other ideas. I fell rather hard and messed up my left foot pretty bad. Nothing broken but lots of bruising and swelling. Not my smartest move, but I didn’t think I was going to do this. That being said this Seattle trip has been planned for a long time and at the time my foot was acting ok like it could handle the activity. Well the trip has come and again my foot has a mind of its own and is not a fan of all the activity. Onto the various excursions.

Day 1 – Airport fun

So I always plan ahead that being said I was of course early for my flight so I decided to listen to an audiobook while I waited. So far my foot is ok, and I’m not thinking much of it. We get boarded and take off no issue. About 1/2 way through the flight my foot starts acting like it’s in pain, which is weird cause I’m literally just sitting there listening to an audiobook. Well we land and then my Seattle misadventures (hi Lauren) begin. Now I’m a fan of Delta for the most part, but the lack of knowing where to go to get my luggage wasn’t helpful. The app wouldn’t update to tell me what claim to go to. I try chatting with their help and they also didn’t know. At this point I’ve tried to wait patiently by getting a coffee (it’s Seattle, duh!) Still nothing on the app. So I give up and go to one of the Delta desks and explain the situation to the clerk there. I try not to because I know they’re busy getting prepared for a flight somewhere else (I think it was actually back to my homestate). She was very helpful and off I went to baggage claim 6. So much time has passed that my bag has already made it to luggage recovery. I pop in and give them my claim tag. I got my bag and am now needing to decide how I’m getting to my hotel. My foot is now VERY angry. So I decide to use Lyft to avoid it getting worse. That went very smoothly and he was an awesome dude that didn’t talk to me too much. I’m not a big talker in person unless I know you really well. Kind of an introvert until I get to the typed word (apparently). It’s now about 12:30 pm. Go to check-in and none of my type of room and ready, and won’t be until 2 pm. So I check my bags with the bellhop and go to the hotel restaurant to pass some time by eating. Which is convenient cause I haven’t really eaten much today, a few Cheez-Its (my travel go-to). Lunch was nothing to write home to mom about, but I digress it did it’s job and time passed and 2 pm came and my room was ready. Got my bags and up I go to the 23rd floor. I quickly get my stuff unpacked, and get out of my shoes. Hilton is my hotel of choice and I’ll explain why. The people that are there are very helpful and treat you like you matter. The room I booked I could’ve sworn had a microwave booked with it. I get to the room, no microwave. I do have a small fridge. The Hilton app has a way to message the front desk. Total fan of this as I mentioned before I’m not a talker. They have no problem getting me a microwave, and maybe 2 minutes later there was a knock at my door with a dude there to bring me a microwave, which he graciously plugged in and was on his way. Now I use Instacart A LOT, at home and definitely when I’m in a strange city. Helps me avoid situations I can’t handle when I’m alone. Yes I have some pepper spray with me, but I’d rather not have to use that. I get some groceries delivered, and start to wind down. One of the groceries I had delivered was some pain meds because I was dumb and didn’t check to make sure my bottle actually had some pills in it (when I opened it, it only had 2 pills). The rest of the night is uneventful, but I did take some pictures from my hotel room.

Day 2 – Harbor cruise and I have a Ryoga moment

Harbor cruise

I didn’t get up until 10 am because the harbor cruise wasn’t until 12:30 pm. Granted I still have to walk there but I think I have plenty of time. I’m packed up with a litany of things. My camera, fanny pack has a power bank, pain pills, pepper spray, string cheese, and a bottle of water, as well as additional batteries, and my two lenses. I’m wearing a Harry Potter sweater, and my heavier jacket (I brought two). I start walking down to the piers and discover that it has rained overnight. Yay. On my walk to the pier I decide I want some coffee so I grab some at another Starbucks (no not the original). A little further along my path, it has me going down stairs, wet stairs. Lots of them. The image from the Exorcist of the priest going down the long bevy of stairs enters my head here. So I go reaaaalllly slowly cause like I mentioned earlier I’m a klutz and by no means do I trust my already pissed off left foot. Going down stairs is extra painful. I made it, much to my pounding heart’s delight. I get to Pier 54 and I’ve still got about 1 1/2 hours to kill. Imagine my face, when I realized I couldn’t find a bench ANYWHERE so I could sit and just wait for boarding time. NOWHERE. So in my haste to get off my foot I go to Ivar’s (thanks Brian) and grab some clam chowder and soda. Why Ivar’s? Cause it’s like the only food place I can find that has seating. Lots of other stores there. The Starbuckses I managed to find only have these standing bars to drink your coffee at. Umm why? I still don’t know the answer to that one. Maybe someone can fill me in on what Seattle has against sitting down. Anyhow I managed to pass the time and get boarded on the cruise no issues. Lots of seating and it’s not fully booked so I have a chair I can put my left leg up on. Also it was heated which for me is a bonus. My particular tour took us through the Locks. Which is basically a process of taking a boat from the salt water and into the fresh water (no salt). It was quite neat getting into essentially a water elevator that lifted the boat into the fresh water so we could leave the salt water behind. I took a litany of pictures so please enjoy them. If you’re wondering why I took a picture of rocks, it’s because there’s sea lions on them that are camouflaging really well. Look harder.

My Ryoga moment

So something about the harbor cruise is that it was 2 hours one way, and dropped me off in a completely different location than when I started. In my efforts to use public transport I decide to take a bus to Chihuly Garden & Glass which is supposed to be part 2 of my day. I have an app that tells me to take the 62. Insert Ryoga moment here. (Ryoga – character from Ranma 1/2 – gets horrendously lost very easily). What I don’t notice is that the app is telling me to take the bus going the other way. So I get on the bus and start to wonder why it’s next stops don’t match what’s happening. Took me a bit but I finally figured it out. So at this point I think to myself I’ll just do a round-trip on this bus. Umm nope. It doesn’t work that way here. At the end of their route they go onto federal land and kick you off the bus. So now I’m in absolutely nowhere Seattle. At this point even if I was to get onto the right bus I wouldn’t make it to Chihuly by the time I reserved my time spot for. So I decided it was just better to go back to the hotel. Same app successfully gets me home. Took me a bit to figure out line 1 is actually a part of their rail system that goes underground. I finally figured it out though. Walking to my hotel from the exit on 3rd & Pine was a little scary. Seattle doesn’t lack in houseless mentally ill people that scare me because of how loud they’re being with themselves. Again yay pepper spray. I made it back to the hotel without incident but yes. I’m going to retry going to Chihuly some other day, if they’ll work with me on it. Hell even if they don’t I probably will try anyhow. No real pictures from this part of my adventure. Tomorrow I’m off to the Bavarian town of Leavenworth.

Chihuly – Part 2

So I’m glad I decided to go to Chihuly as it is by far my favorite part of this trip. The use of colors and design are something beyond the looking glass. So without further ado, here you go.

Space Needle

It wouldn’t be a complete trip to Seattle without going to the icon the Space Needle. The elevator up is a little daunting if you’re stuck in the middle with nothing to hold onto. 10 mph for 41 seconds is enough to make my stomach a little queasy, but if you know me, you should know when it comes to rides I’m a big pansy. That being said here’s the pictures (and a video) from the Space Needle.

Here’s the video I promised.

Last Day – a day of reflection

So originally today was supposed to be a busy day, but due to how my foot was feeling I canceled going to the aquarium and zoo. I didn’t want to make it worse than it already was. So I spent a good portion of the day just looking out my hotel window at the downtown scenery. Reflecting back on how this went, sure some things could’ve gone better, like my foot for instance. I plan on revisiting, but next time I will not be alone. I’ve already told the hubby we have to come back. There are things I think he would enjoy as well.

Epilogue

The journey back home to Idaho was painful (literally). Hobbling through the airport took forever. The pain in my foot essentially got so bad that when I did make it back, it took me forever to get to baggage claim. My suitcase was still on the carousel thankfully, but it was like one of the only ones there. I then called the hubby, and he took me to the ER. This is where it gets interesting. They did more x-rays on my foot. And this time they told me that my pinky toe was fractured. They told me that it was a little more fractured than the first time I came in with the kiddo the day after I injured it. Insert confused face here. They never told me that I fractured my toe the first time around. They just gave me some good pain meds, and told me to keep it elevated. The nurse at this point was like “yeah it’s been fractured this entire time.” So essentially I adventured through Seattle on a broken toe. I now have a boot I wear on that foot, and have been referred to orthopedics. They think more might be going on with my foot than the fractured toe (the pinky toe doesn’t even hurt). They wouldn’t do an MRI on my foot because they said it wasn’t emergent. My pain levels disagreed but I didn’t get anywhere with that. I do have an appointment with my GP this coming Friday. I’ll be interested to see if they order an MRI or if they’ll basically just tell me to have the orthopedic doc look it over. This is my last part of the Seattle adventure. There will be separate posts on the foot thing as they come up. I hope you enjoyed my misadventures and pictures. Love ya!