ukstitch
<font color=deeppink>I'm not sure I'm quite your a
- Joined
- May 5, 2008
Day 2 was allocated as a hybrid recovery / exploring day, before the training course started properly on day 3.
Struggling with the jet-lag, I woke very early (about 4am), so I made a couple of phone calls home via Skype, then went back to bed for a couple of hours extra sleep.
I finally got up at about 8ish or so, then slowly got ready before heading into Seattle. The taxi ride ended just outside of the space needle - a rather tall landmark built back in the 60s for the world's fair.
(image courtesy of Wikipedia under GNU public licensing)
I decided to leave the needle until later so I could travel up and view the city at night. Instead, I headed for the city's monorail (also built for the world's fair).
The monorail goes straight into a reasonable sized shopping mall in the downtown area of the city, so I spent the remainder of the morning and most of the afternoon exploring the shops and generally not buying very much. Most of the things in the shops seemed to be cheaper than the equivalent in the UK, although the chocolate seemed to be far more expensive so I left that on the shelf... I did pick up a couple of pairs of Ugg boots for mum though, as these were almost the same price in $ in the US as they are in £ in the UK (making them almost half the cost in total). As many of the shops were scattered across a couple of different streets and avenues, it also meant that I got the chance to have a good look at the buildings of the city (and of course, take plenty of pictures).
Eventually, I left the shops and walked down towards Pike Place market at about 5ish. The market was closing by that point, but I took the opportunity to walk up and down the market for a bit, then I just sat and gazed out on the bay for a while, which was quite relaxing.
After gazing out to the Seattle bay for a while, I headed back to the shopping mall and took the monorail back to the needle.
I took the lift up to the top of the needle ($16), which is 520 feet in the air, providing amazing views of the entire city and beyond.
It was still fairly light when I reached the top of the needle, so I was able to take a few day time pictures before the darkness set in and the city lit up like a Christmas tree. Please excuse the blurriness of some of these - my camera does not take fantastic night photos unless I can hold the camera very still or accept lots of artefacts. I've gone for the ones without artefacts here, so they're a little blurry
I eventually headed back down to the ground again and returned to the hotel after another long day. After making a rather poor attempt at trying to stay up and move to a more normal sleeping pattern, I crashed out fast asleep at about 10:30 or so, ready to start the training course the next day.
Struggling with the jet-lag, I woke very early (about 4am), so I made a couple of phone calls home via Skype, then went back to bed for a couple of hours extra sleep.
I finally got up at about 8ish or so, then slowly got ready before heading into Seattle. The taxi ride ended just outside of the space needle - a rather tall landmark built back in the 60s for the world's fair.
(image courtesy of Wikipedia under GNU public licensing)
I decided to leave the needle until later so I could travel up and view the city at night. Instead, I headed for the city's monorail (also built for the world's fair).
The monorail goes straight into a reasonable sized shopping mall in the downtown area of the city, so I spent the remainder of the morning and most of the afternoon exploring the shops and generally not buying very much. Most of the things in the shops seemed to be cheaper than the equivalent in the UK, although the chocolate seemed to be far more expensive so I left that on the shelf... I did pick up a couple of pairs of Ugg boots for mum though, as these were almost the same price in $ in the US as they are in £ in the UK (making them almost half the cost in total). As many of the shops were scattered across a couple of different streets and avenues, it also meant that I got the chance to have a good look at the buildings of the city (and of course, take plenty of pictures).
Eventually, I left the shops and walked down towards Pike Place market at about 5ish. The market was closing by that point, but I took the opportunity to walk up and down the market for a bit, then I just sat and gazed out on the bay for a while, which was quite relaxing.
After gazing out to the Seattle bay for a while, I headed back to the shopping mall and took the monorail back to the needle.
I took the lift up to the top of the needle ($16), which is 520 feet in the air, providing amazing views of the entire city and beyond.
It was still fairly light when I reached the top of the needle, so I was able to take a few day time pictures before the darkness set in and the city lit up like a Christmas tree. Please excuse the blurriness of some of these - my camera does not take fantastic night photos unless I can hold the camera very still or accept lots of artefacts. I've gone for the ones without artefacts here, so they're a little blurry
I eventually headed back down to the ground again and returned to the hotel after another long day. After making a rather poor attempt at trying to stay up and move to a more normal sleeping pattern, I crashed out fast asleep at about 10:30 or so, ready to start the training course the next day.
