Still here in Seattle another day. When I go to a new city (or one where I’ve not been for sometime) I like to go into the city. Well, Bellevue is about 30 minutes outside of downtown Seattle, but I was still sort of interested in going. We had planned on going into town on Wednesday, but that fell through so I was relatively adamant about going last night. We headed out right away, and there were 8 of us, as four of our Science friends joined us, including Vinni’s mommy.

Our plan was to go to the Underground Seattle Tour, then to Starbuck’s and end at the Space Needle. So we were heading from Pioneer Square to the Needle and then home. I agreed to go, but I also said I didn’t want to be out too late. They all assured me we’d be back soon. The public bus was only $2.50 to go downtown. It was one of those accordion buses so I sat in the middle part with a friend who almost got sick from sitting there.

After about 45 minutes we got downtown through Chinatown and headed over the the tour. We paid our $15.00 and had half an hour to grab a beer before our tour. The tour guide was ok. There were a few drunk guys at the beginning of the tour and too many small kids. He was annoyed, but then when we walked out into the square someone had obviously encouraged those two groups to not follow us. The tour was cool, and he talked about how Seattle was once about 10 feet lower before it burned to the ground.

Erica wanted to make sure we got to Starbuck’s so we headed down toward the water to walk along Alaskan Way and past the hotel where the Beatles once stayed. Walking along the water reminded of taking trips with students because I always had a few stragglers, and you could tell the faster walkers were getting annoyed. Even though we knew when Starbuck’s closed, the group still felt like they needed to eat first. We grabbed some fast friend seafood. We all wanted chowder bread bowls, and I let Erica go first. She got her chowder, and when it was my turn, the guy was out of bread! Damnit. I did end up with some salmon, which was wonderful, but I really did want to have the chowder.

From here I had a good idea I could find Starbuck’s since I was here last year, so we headed down the Way and then I saw the stairs. I knew Pike Place Market was up, up, up. The other seven people thought I was crazy, as I hoofed it up the stairs. I passed a thai restaurant where I ate with the Carvers last summer, then I climbed the hill with the group trying to keep up. I wasn’t stopping until I got to the coffee shop. I knew the Market would be closed, but it wasn’t even 9pm so Starbuck’s was open. We got there. It was just like I remembered it, but there were less people. We got our drinks, took our pictures, and bought our souvenirs. Last year they had more kid stuff, so I didn’t buy anything for Claire this time.

We came out of there about 9:30 pm, and by this time my feet were killin’ me. I would’ve loved to just head back, but Erica and the group still wanted to hit the Needle. I knew a few of us didn’t really care to keep going, but we headed up the hill. A few of us decided not to go up the Needle, and I just wanted to get my kid a t-shirt. We hung out in the gift shop while part of group headed up, and after awhile they came hobbling out of the elevator after the drop from 520 feet above Seattle.

By now it was after 10 pm, and I was ready to fall asleep. I’d typically been in bed by 10 recently, and I was miles from my bed! Kate asked the valet how to get to the bus, and Erica asked someone else. They both headed off in different directions. Ugh. I could quickly tell that they were both headstrong (which I’d know about one of them), and we followed on who was then lost. We were going to follow the other, but I dragged them into a gas station to get directions.

My legs burned. We were tired. It was late. My eyes watered. We caught a bus to our other bus. We got off the bus. We walked up a hill, complained, a little crankier. We got lost and then found our stop. Quickly we boarded our bus and I slept all the way to Bellevue. I was in bed by 12:30AM. Yawn.