Goodbye Seattle...

After a busy weekend in Seattle, we packed up and sat in the foyer of our hotel waiting for our taxi to take us to Seatac Airport. (Seattle-Tacoma)

 (DH moved just as I took the photo!)

 We had allowed ourselves plenty of time so were quite early for our flight. That meant time to sit and watch the world go by...and take photos of each other doing that! lol

I was intrigued by this mobile above our heads...

Seattle seems to be synonymous with fish...and that's what this mobile consisted of...dozens and dozens of little coloured fish.

Also in the terminal, I was impressed with the rubbish bins...3 options of where to put your refuse...

Eventually it was time to board our aircraft. From my seat I had a great view of a truck that pumped out the waste tanks of the planes!

And it was from my seat in the plane that later I got to see Mt Rainier for real!

Our destination was Long Beach Airport where DH's cousin would be picking us up. We would then spend a few days with her before leaving for home on the Thursday. 

At that airport, we quickly found my suitcase on the luggage carousel but DH's didn't seem to be anywhere in sight. Then we heard our name over the PA asking us to report to a counter. There DH found his suitcase but it had had a very rough time of it on the conveyor belt used to unload luggage from the plane...oh dear!

Luckily nothing was lost from that compartment. The airline gave us a $30 card for travel with JetBlue which wasn't much use to us as we would not be flying again within the US in the next 12 months! So we gave it to DH's cousin to use.

 So we were back in Huntington Beach once more for a few days. This meant not only spending time with family, sightseeing, shoppings etc, but it also meant more time with those beautiful dogs...
Maddy seemed to be my favourite..

Due to the drought in California, many residents are taking out their lawns and replacing them with rockery type gardens or in some cases, fake lawns.

 This garden has gone for the rockery and lots of beautiful succulents...like this one!

I will eventually write a post about another couple of things we saw and did in these last days of our holiday. And then I'll have a pretty comprehensive record of our trip, as, I know from experience, you often forget things/little details etc even though at the time, they made quite an impression! lol.

Right place, right time??

In a Mothers Day raffle this year, I was lucky enough to win a Spotlight Gift Card for $25. 

(Spotlight is a large chain of stores that sell a large range of craft supplies,yarns, haberdashery, fabrics, party supplies, homewares, manchester items etc) 

I had no real plans of how I was going to spend it until a few weeks ago. I went to my local Spotlight store to get  a Sewline Glue Pen. The store had no glue pens but I noticed some interesting polar fleece. I took a photo with my phone and vowed to come back next day with my gift card to buy some.

And so I did. I also had a good look at the other fabrics in the same pile of rolls. I fell in love with 2 other ones as well. Now the signs said the polar fleece fabrics were 40% off marked price. Each of the 3 fabrics were a different price with the gorgeous 'polar bear' one being the most expensive at $18.99 a metre. The quandary...I didn't need the fabrics, I only wanted them. My $25 card would have to be supplemented if I bought some of each...undeterred, I took all 3 to the cutting counter and asked how much each would be with the discount of 40%. Even though each roll was marked with a different price, somehow the register worked out that ALL were $4 per metre. So....

I bought the end of the roll (just over 2m) of this one...from a distance it really does look like crocheted granny squares! 

2 metres of this one...I've always loved Noah's Ark !

And 2 metres of this lovely, soft and thick fleecy...

And all this came to $25.60...so it only cost me the extra 60 cents!!! 

So some baby blankets' sewing coming up! 

A case of being in the 'right place, at the right time'! 

Pike's Place Markets, Seattle...

I've mentioned these markets in previous posts, so here at last is a post just about them. As we walked along First Ave, we crossed streets, and on our right we caught sight of the market area, which nestles beside the waterfront.

A bit farther along...

After checking out those First Ave shops, we made our way downhill to the markets; in particular we were heading to the Fish Market. DH recounted how he had seen films on Team building and Trust as part of the Professional Development in his job, and that a video of 'fish throwing' at the Pikes Place Fish Company had been used as an example of building trust in a workplace. So we were heading to that part of the market, hoping to see some serious fish throwing. (and fish catching presumably!)

There was such a big crowd standing in front of this shop...all waiting for the staff to throw fish. Cameras poised ready...

Despite DH's best efforts, we weren't really able to get a good photo of the throwing etc...

As luck would have it, there are some Youtube Videos on the net and I've chosen this one so you can see what I'm talking about...
We then just sauntered through the markets...it was very, very crowded in the buildings, which being a   Sunday, is understandable.
The flower markets were so beautiful!

We walked outside beside lots of old buildings...

 Love the name on the next building!

There were entertainers to stop and listen to as we wandered...like this young man...

And this group...

Who happened to be performing outside the first Starbucks store ever opened. There was a huge queue to get into the store, so we decided to give it a miss and just take a couple of photos.

I loved the market stall that was selling chillies (peppers)...they were so beautiful and colourful!

We stopped to look in the window of the cheese factory...

 And DH checked out Tshirts...

And was thrilled to find a shirt featuring the Pike Place Fish Market!

Some shopping on First Ave, Seattle...

Before DH and I had even left Australia, a number of people told us that we must not miss visiting Pike's Place Markets while we were in Seattle. So we set out to walk there on the Sunday morning. I planned our route so we would stroll down First Ave as I knew there were some yarn and patchwork/quilting shops on that street.
I quickly found the first shop on my list, Sew Much Yarn. It was a beautiful shop with so many lovely yarns to admire...

There were so many shelves of yarn!

And lovely samples on display!

And even a lovely view looking out of the back windows of the shop. 

Erica, the assistant who looked after me was able to give me directions to the nearby quilt shop as she said it can be hard to find being down an arcade on First Ave. She told me to look out for a Brewery sign as that was in the same building as the quilt shop.

So what a combination...a Brewery for the husbands to check out while their wives checked out the quilt shop!!

After a little wander around the quilt shop, I went back into the arcade and noticed another shop called Our Fabric Stash. It was filled with not only fabrics but also haberdashery and lots of unfinished projects including quilts that only needed binding. 

I talked to the lady who seemed to be running the business and found out that it was a consignment store. There were lots of items that looked like they were from a sewer's deceased estate...very popular with fashion students apparently and lovers of vintage. (I would have loved to buy some of the unfinished children's quilts that just needed binding as they would have been great to give K4BN, but it was a long way to bring them back home and with those airline baggage allowances...not a great idea perhaps! lol)  

I didn't buy anything from that store but had bought a few little things from the quilt store and the yarn store.

A skein of the softest yarn imaginable...silk and mohair blend.

In the meantime DH checked out the Brewery and bought another T shirt.

 The next photo is the Brewery at street level. There are walkways that people can stand on and look down at the brewery 'workings'.

This is the lower level where all the brewing equipment is, as well as a pub type area for 'checking out' the brews.

That T shirt that DH bought...

Ah yes, DH and the souvenir T shirts...now that's another post!!
After all this craft shopping we still had to explore the famous Pike Place markets. We'd seen glimpses of them as we had crossed side streets as we walked along First Ave. But eventually we headed down the hill to the markets...but that's also another post! :-)

The Space Needle in Seattle...

I found it amazing that this building/structure was opened in 1962...it seems so modern.

DH does not like heights but he hoped that he could overcome this fear and travel up to the top of the Space Needle...and he did. Mind you, when he saw that the lift (elevator) goes on the outside of the building he hesitated a bit...

 The place seemed to be jammed packed with other visitiors when we got up to the top and DH took these photos staying well away from the outside area...

But not for long...we both went outside and enjoyed the view...

I took a photo of DH taking photos to prove to DsD3 that her dad had indeed overcome his fear. 

So here are some of the photos that we took that afternoon...

The spider sculpture in the above collage was on the roof of the building adjacent to the tower...a real spider that size would be a bit of a worry!!!

The downtown area...

 The big ferris wheel...

 I had noticed a building on the side of a hill in the distance; using the zoom, we got a good view. Still don't know that the building is though.

 Great 360 degree views...

But maybe you've noticed the haze in some of the photos? The smoke was from the wildfires/bushfires burning in the east of Washington state while we were there (and afterwards too I believe). We couldn't see very far into the distance as a result and missed seeing Mt Rainier. (which I read later is a volcano!) 

   

Now just before we entered the lift that takes you up to the top of the Space Needle, everyone had to stop for a photo. I wasn't impressed as so many tourist places have these almost obligatory photo shoots and then charge $25 or so for the pics...we usually don't buy these. But here at the Space Needle, if you go to one of the computer terminals and type in the number they give you, then an email address they promise to email this photo to you...gratis!!! And they did...cynical Mrs Next Stage was proven wrong! Lol. And look! There's Mt Rainier to the right of us in the background :-)

 As well we had another photo emailed to us. We stood on a 'spot' outside the observation deck and a photo was automatically taken. 

Love it! We'd had a lovely afternoon and instead of catching the monorail, we walked back towards our hotel, stopping for a coffee on the way. It's a beautiful city to stroll around enjoying the lovely gardens, public art and the range of interesting looking buildings.