Entry 8 - 28 August 2000
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	Day 1 of sightseeing in Seattle
Chris	After sleeping in, we took advantage of a continental breakfast that was provided with our room at no extra cost. At the very least it was a quick and easy source of tea and coffee. We shared the meal area with a number of people from a touring performance group of "Grease". Some looked tired, which might have been from partying, lack of sleep or the long time they've been touring. Perhaps all three.
	We went to downtown Seattle, to the Pioneer district and did the Underground Tour. I had heard of the tour from some friends in Canberra and I wanted to see it. The tour was very interesting, with the knowledgable guides quite amusing at times. (Lots of sewerage jokes.) We were taken to several underground locations in the tour which lasted about 90 minutes overall. We did try to take photos, but we're unsure if any will work given the low light conditions.
	By the time the tour finished, we were wanting some lunch. We had already decided to split up the sightseeing over the two or so days we were going to be in Seattle. So, we drove to Bellevue to do some shopping and get lunch. Vanessa had a chicken gyros from Byblos Deli, while I had a shredded beef burrito (above average taste) from Casa D's Taqueria. Our shopping was mostly for roleplaying related items, but the stores we visited were disappointing in their lack of range.
	We did visit a Wizards of the Coast (WotC) store in one mall. For those who don't know, WotC bought TSR, the makers of the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game (D&D). The store contained some D&D items, including the new 3rd edition material, plus games from other companies. It was much like any other gaming store. We bought a miniature and some unusual shaped dice. Our only other real purchase was at a nearby music store where we bought two jazz CDs for Vanessa's Dad and some compilation CDs to use in the car.
	It was back to sightseeing as we drove through some heavy traffic to the Space Needle in the downtown area of the city. I suffered the first injury of the trip when the car door gouged out part of my palm. We had parked the car on a slope and I had tried to catch the door so it wouldn't slam into Vanessa's leg. After some quick first aid, I applied pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding and we continued onward. The Space Needle was built for the 1962 World Expo and is over 60 stories tall. The observation deck is at 52 stories. Both of us do not like heights - especially exposed heights. The lift ride starts from the building at the base, but goes up the outside of the structure. As we were amongst the first on to the lift, we quickly went to the back and let others have the window vantage points. The view from the top was magnificient as the day was very clear. One of the staff on duty commented that the visibility was only like this for about 30 to 60 days per year. Vanessa looked at a set of mountains in the distance, thinking one might be Mt Rainier, until I pointed to a huge mountain in the other direction. Mt Rainier is over 90 miles away from Seattle, but the view this day was glorious. The other mountains we could see were part of the Olympic Mountains to the west. Surprisingly, while we were up there, neither of us were troubled by the height.
	After buying some tourist stuff at the Space Needle shop, we caught the monorail to the Westlake shopping centre at 5th Avenue. I was wanting a coffee by this time, so I bought a cafe mocha from Seattle's Best Coffee and enjoyed it immensely. Before catching the monorail back, we did some more tourist shopping in the Westlake mall. On the drive back to our hotel, I noted that we'd done 1100 miles in our journey so far.
	Dinner was at a Sharis Restaurant that was next door to the motel. Although we were seated in the middle of the non-smoking section, across the other side of the building from the smokers, the air conditioning spread the strong fumes throughout the place. So, unfortunately we had to suffer sinus attacks while having our meals. This really spoilt the evening. Vanessa had a country fried steak, which was really a vienna schnitzel. I had a halibut fish fry with salad. The meals were good, although as usual, too large to consume it all. This meant it seemed impossible to have any dessert, as we had no room left. Finally, we wrote a number of postcards each, including one to Crystal, our cat. I told Vanessa that we should write big, so the cat could read it easily. :-)

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