Seattle 1

Our last evening on the ship we had a very enjoyable meal with Chris and Roselyn, a very friendly couple we had met on one of our excursions. It was a lovely way to spend our last night. Lots of stories and laughing, we were the last people out of the restaurant.  

Leaving the ship in Honolulu went very smoothly. Even though this one was much bigger than the previous one we had travelled on, with so many more people, they are very well organised. We had booked a shuttle when we had originally arrived in Honolulu and it was there ready to take us to the airport. We were about to have our first experience with full blown US security. Belt and shoes off and full body scan.They even took Claire’s shoes away for testing (she does look suspicious).

The flight to Seattle was 5 and a half hours long. Peter had a long conversation with a French woman who had just got off “The World”, the huge cruise ship that people live on. She runs expeditions for cruises and had some interesting stories to tell. It was wonderful to be met by Paul and Zoe at the airport. It was quite late, so we spent some time catching up and making plans for the next day before going to our hotel.

Paul and Zoe had told us about the Northwest Folklife Festival last year, so we were very happy to be in Seattle for it this year. We had a leisurely breakfast with them before heading downtown for our first taste of the festival. It was a lot of fun, with plenty of interesting music, craft, food and novelty stalls. We were tempted to buy the “golf club” hat, but settled for a photo instead.

The festival had an amazing variety of new foods to try out for a couple of Aussies including garlic fries and shishkaberries (choices of chocolate types melted over banana and strawberries on a stick).

The festival runs at the Seattle Centre at the base of the Space Needle. We are going to save our trip up the Needle for a fine day, though based on Seattle’s reputation, that might not happen. We have been lucky with the weather so far, overcast but not too much rain.

Claire had read about a Dale Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibition at Seattle Centre and we managed to see some of it through the fence.

We spent a couple of hours at the festival, then returned to Paul and Zoe’s for a delicious home cooked laksa. Paul surprised Claire by buying tickets to the Chihuly exhibition the next day. We played a lively game of Catan before Paul drove us back to our hotel.