Finding America

While we woke yet again to a cloudy day it was thankfully not raining and it didn’t put, therefore, a damper on our plans for the day.

Once in the city and after a quick sandwich pick up from Starbucks we were ready for our Argosy. We ate our sandwiched while we waited for the gangplank to open to the boat. We were almost assaulted by a hungry duck but Kamrin’s insistant – Shooo shooo seamed to do the trick.

We boarded our double level boat and headed up stairs to the open deck. From there we could see the ploats (plane+floats=ploat) coming in for landings at this international landing strip in the middle of Lake Union. Pretty cool.

The cruise took about 90 minutes and the young lady narrating the tour did a great job of pointing out all sorts of cool things. Just after pulling out of the dock we passed a community of floating houses. On the other side of Lake Union we also saw the most famous floating house of all – the house used in Sleepless in Seattle.

There was a small spit of land just under Hwy 5 that was owned by a fellow who was so fed up with the United States that he actually seceded from the US and was now officially his own country, complete with his own postage and utilities.

We passed by the University of Washington, with it’s stadium on the water and the canal walls painted by the crew team that hosts their regattas on the water we were motoring through. Lake Washington was huge and many a celebrity had gorgeous homes on the water. Most notable was the palatial home of Bill Gates. It was a totally massive complex and come complete with a full time security force. There are even underwater surveillance buoys that detect people approaching the property from the water and alert the security personnel.

In addition she mentioned that the house was so technologically advanced that it followed guests around the house and setting the environment to pre-configured personal settings. Lights would dim to your exact level, your music mix would follow you through the house and if you spent enough time in one room the temperature would regulate to your liking. Amazing.

The tour was a blast and we enjoyed getting to see Seattle from this perspective. After the tour we took to the Fox and headed up the hillside on the northern end of down town to check out community Queen Anne’s. The place felt a lot like Winter Park, FL, a short strip of retail stores and restaurants downtown surrounded by nice homes and schools. The weather was clearing up and everyone seemed to be enjoying the little community.

We continued on to the University District and took a walk along University Ave, the main drag for the university students. The Ave had a ton of unique shops and restaurants and was heavily influenced by it’s the Asian residents as well as the college students. Every second restaurant was some time of Asian and Pan/Asian cuisine. So we decided to have a snack at Chipotle. LOL – we were just not feeling Chinese food.

The district was cool but we didn’t have long on the parking meter so we got back on Why 5 and headed home to get cleaned up for dinner. A short drive from Kent to the South we came to Auburn, WA where my friend Sam’s sister and brother-in-law live. They were kind enough to host us for a very pleasant dinner. Their son Gavin was super cute and totally mobile with his little red rider truck he was pushing around.

Melisa and Aaron were great hosts and it was nice to talk to folks who’s breadth of conversation was wider than discussing the latest T.V. shows. It was cool just relaxing by the fire and sharing in conversation.

We eventually headed home agreeing to meet up with Sam in the morning to really “Do” Seattle local style.