As I stated in the previous post, we are waiting on our Moyer guest authors (Shannon, Jasmin, & Connie this time) to submit their entries for Mt. Rainier. Once they do, I will update this post. Here are some highlight pictures from Mt. Rainier in the meantime:

After saying goodbye to the Moyer fam, Chris and I set off to explore Seattle which is now my favorite city of all time (so far). Chris made a big deal when we were driving into the city that he already had a parking spot paid for and reserved for us for the whole day for just $10 and we could use the e-bikes to go downtown from there. I didn’t find that news nearly as exciting as he did but went along with it since he thought it was pretty cool that Bank of America rented their spots out. I was skeptical. We parked and he went over to the kiosk as I packed my bag for the day. About 15 minutes later, he comes back to the car looking like a lost puppy and said they didn’t have his reservation and he had to do it again so he ended up paying $20 for the parking spot. I bit my tongue. We started off the day with a tour of the Space Needle which was a very futuristic experience. Thanks to Chris’ family who had been in Seattle the previous weekend on their way in and made this mistake, we learned that you need to order tickets ahead of time or you wouldn’t be able to go up. So, we had our 9:30am tickets ready and got some great views of Seattle on what was, yet another, beautiful day for us. Highly recommended exhibit!

After taking the token picture laying on the revolving glass floor, we rode the elevator down to the bottom which opened up into the gift shop (of course).

We walked around searching in vain for a CHEAP token to take home and then Chris’ eyes lit up when he saw a machine where he could make his own wax mold of the space needle for $5. A boy and his toys.

Exiting the space needle, we hopped on the monorail to head to Pike Place Market which is yet another (crowded) but unique experience everyone should do in their lifetime.

We walked around with the goal of finding something to eat but there were so many choices, so much entertainment, and so many fish flying through the air that we soon forgot we were hungry and settled to enjoy all the people watching opportunities there.

We also found the gum wall which is really cool and really disgusting at the same time.

Finally feeling overwhelmed by the crowds and getting lost a few times in the 5 levels of the market area, we headed over to Mariner’s pier to see the ferris wheel and actually eat some lunch, meeting some more interesting homeless characters along the way.

Another subpar lunch of burnt cheese pizza didn’t quite satisfy our craving but we made do as we had to get going to find our Underground tour. Bill Spiedel’s Underground tour was a very interesting experience as we toured underneath the 32 blocks of Seattle’s streets and learned the history of the city that was built on top of itself.

When we go back, we may take the other Underground Tour right next door to Bill Spiedel’s or a ghost tour of the underground. Decide for yourself if the picture below has a ghost in it or not! Spookyyy.

After the Underground, Chris found himself a poke bowl and I decided that I had to go back to Pike Place to see the original Starbucks which I somehow missed when we were there earlier in the day. Very touristy of me, yes, but I didn’t wait in the line around the block to order something – just took a picture of the original starbucks logo. Basic, I know.

Naturally, since I had to see the original Starbucks, Chris decided that he had to go see the Amazon Spheres. So, we decided to try the e-bikes to get up the big hill to go to the spheres. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough momentum at the start of the hill and we ended up walking the bikes all the way up which was probably 10x harder than if we had just walked ourselves. After making a pit stop for Chris to get cookie dough with a little ice cream from a food truck, we finally reached the spheres about 4 minutes after they had closed. If only those bikes had worked. Still, the outside of them was pretty neat to walk around.

After the spheres, we walked to catch the monorail back to the space needle and then took e-bikes again back to our car that was thankfully, still parked at the Bank of America. We caught a glimpse of the Mariners and Seahawks stadium on our drive out as well as some great views of Mt. Rainier in the distance as 4 fighter jets flew over us on the highway, giving quite a show.

The next morning, we packed up our trailer and then decided to try the KOA homemade breakfast which was surprisingly, pretty good. We even got our fresh fruit from the hundreds of blackberry bushes lining the property on our walk back. We hit the road around 11am, headed for Glacier National Park to meet up with the Liebermans for their family vacation time. It was a long day of driving with a few unhealthy stops for fast food (we may be gaining weight on this trip instead of losing it due to the limited food options driving across the country in the middle of nowhere).

We pulled in to Kalispell to meet the Liebermans at their hotel for dinner around 9pm – another late dinner for us and even later for them as they were still on Eastern time. After catching up over a delicious meal, we said goodnight and Chris and I finished the last hour of the drive to get to Fish Creek Campground in Glacier around midnight.