Day 99

Seattle, Washington

Aug 13, 2013, 4:09 PM

This morning started with a call from one of Steve's oldest friends. He's in the Seattle area visiting another high school buddy and they wanted to meet up. Now that's a nice way to start the day. So Steve and I made plans to meet Bill, Bob and Laurie later in the afternoon and we started out for Seattle and points south. On our way to Mount Vernon we'd passed a Cabela's and Steve wanted to stop there to check it out. So we did. I wasn't overly impressed. Just a Bass Pro Shop by another name. Then we headed to Pike Place Market. Well this is where the real fun started. Seattle is another one of those big cities, and I am married to Mr. Ihavenopatients. Yes, that's right, Mr. I-have-no-patients! He becomes a raving maniac if the streets haven't been cleared of all traffic in anticipation of his arrival. Oh the JOY!! We tried to find parking and of course we are doing that amid not being familiar with the area, and the traffic being horrible, and a few thousand other tourists that are no more familiar with the area then we are, oh it just isn't a pretty story. We did finally find parking about a mile and a half away, just kidding, it was only a mile and a quarter. So we walked around a little, got lunch, walked through the market. I bought my first souvenir. Yeah, can you believe that? All this time and I haven't gotten one souvenir. Spanky has gotten pins from zoos and different exciting places, but I haven't broken down and gotten anything. So anyway after that we headed to the Space Needle. I had a coupon for $1 off each ticket, Steve and I joked in line that we wouldn't be able to use it for some reason, it's only good on the second Tuesday of each week, only good for use on days with a Z in them, only good if you have a midget lesbian in your party, there is ALWAYS a reason why the coupon you have in your possession is not valid, and this time was no exception!!!! I realize it was only a buck. But for God sake when you are charging the hundreds of people that go up in that Space Needle everyday $22 and up, take the freaking coupon, it is not going to bankrupt your company. Moving right along, we went up in the Space Needle. That was pretty cool. It is amazing how well you can see up there. Thank God there was an elevator too, I would not have wanted to walk up 520' worth of steps. 

Now at the top of the Space Needle there was a woman with bright pink hair doing a wedding, NICE! There were so many people, but you could look out all over the observation deck. It was cool. There was this one family with three kids and I'll tell you what that mother deserves so much credit. The kids were so well behaved. If they started to stray from her side, she called them and snapped her fingers and that kid came right back. And each one of them had the most angelic smiles on their faces. They were so cute. 

So now Mr. Ihavenopatients, is dealing with rush hour traffic to get to his buddy's and I'm doing my best not to pay attention. We are almost there and it has only taken twice as long as the original GPS time estimate. Yeah!!!!

Aug 13, 2013, 10:15 PM

What a wonderful evening with good friends!!!!! Bob and Lori have a wonderful home right outside Seattle. They treated us to a fabulous dinner, Bob grilled a beautiful salmon and had steamed veggies. It was a feast. Bill was there with his 55 Chevy, Spanky just had to get in for a spin. The time went by so fast. We sat and talked about everything from TV shows to our trip to things the guys did when they were kids and people they knew. The guys were talking about how much they were lovin life since retirement. It was just great. All too soon it was 10:00 PM, and we have about a 90 minute drive home.