Thursday 27th July

We left our cherished San Juan Island and headed for the mainland. Seattle is our destination and there is loads to see. 06:00 alarm clock again! Lovely early morning ferry ride over to Anacortes.

We stopped at Coastal Farm a sort of Homebase meets farm shop meets gun range. We saw some awesome T-shirts designs.

Daddy grappled with the idea of buying a Stetson cowboy hat. Couple of things to note, good ones are expensive. If you don’t have the exact hat size (in Daddy’s case 7.5) on display you are limited for choice. At $139 a summer cowboy hat seems like a luxurious purchase, it ultimately came down to could Daddy see himself wearing it to Tescos. The answer is No, if we lived in Jackson Hole and we were heading to the rodeo every Sunday, Daddy would look perfect, but in Southend on Sea – probably not.

We cracked out one of our last drives (we give the car back tomorrow) and arrived at Red Mill Burgers. Ten years ago we came here after seeing the recommendation from Man vs Food. Ten years later, still great burgers and red mill spicy sauce.

We walked through Nate’s park (Denny Park) and even had time for a serious game of giant chess.

Elliott beat Mummy!

We found Nate’s sign!

We were trying to make it to the world famous Pike Place Fish Market, the whole area was rammed with tourists. We went from being a valuable commodity in Montana to being part of the crowd.

Lots of stalls and small businesses selling their goods and food. The main draw is right at the far end and is a famous fish market where the fish are thrown across the market.

After some Wikipedia research it seems that it started as a bit of a joke then turned into more of a show. Now everyone is standing there waiting with camera phones to see fish thrown around. It was more funny to see bold and brash Americans get to the front of the queue and say “I’m just going to order some fish” and “I don’t even want the fish but my kids want to see it thrown” the guys working there were kind enough to let us know that the fish could be shipped next day via UPS.

Daddy started to think if the fish hit the floor or a group of Japanese tourists, would it be replaced? Do they have stunt fish for the show? Quickly replaced before the customer needs to shell out $89.99

We walked past the notorious Gum Wall! It’s massive and disgusting. The pictures tell the story enough!

Mummy’s face summed things up perfectly.

After a tip off from a tour guide, we saw the smallest shop in Seattle!

We felt the culture shock, after being in pure nature (forests, lakes, rivers etc) to arrive in a big city felt strange. Daddy admitted that he didn’t like the feeling where Mummy didn’t care and wanted to find some crab meat to devour.

We made it to the Mummy’s favourite restaurant “The Crab Pot” 10 years later. We looked inside and Mummy started to make noises that she didn’t want to eat there. It won’t be fun on my own, I’m not spending $100 on snow crabs. After some discussion and gentle nudging from Daddy we sat down and tucked into some seafood.

Daddy was also hedging that if we got back to London, Mummy would bring up the fact we went all the way to Seattle and we didn’t eat at the Crab Pot. Daddy after his success with Orcas in San Juan, wasn’t going to lose it all here. We found a cheaper option that still included some heavy tools for demolition.

It’s always reassuring when hammers are delivered before your main meal.

It’s interesting to have your dinner poured onto the table in front of you. It started Daddy thinking about other meals that could be presented the same way. Would a roast dinner hold up? Chinese? Spaghetti Bolognaise.

The boys got in on the hammer action, Daddy was feeling brave and tried some snow crab meat which was a lot tastier than he thought.

Mummy was in heaven!

Mummy was cracking crab legs, firing small projectiles of shell into our table water and onto the blinds.

The boys resorted to the Chicken Caesar that Daddy ordered. Nate went into his colouring zone and cracked out three pictures while Mummy finished off hollowing out a crabs chest.

Mummy polished off the last poor crustacean and beamed a huge smile.

After a lot of clean-up, we walked down from the Crab Pot onto the Pier and along the boardwalk. Lots of e-scooters and lots of construction, it seems like the piers are getting a big revamp.

After finding Denny Way, we now find Elliott Street!

Everyone is tired and we have another early 06:00am wake up tomorrow. We drop off our beloved car after nearly 4 weeks. We jump on a plane and head to Chicago.