Entry 9 - 29 August 2000
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	Day 2 of sightseeing in Seattle
Chris	It was very fortunate that we visited the Space Needle yesterday as today it was mostly overcast with a lot of haze. The visibility would not have been any good. Our day started late as we slept in again. Like yesterday, we had the free continental breakfast before heading out for more shopping and sightseeing in Seattle.
Vanessa	For most of the morning we travelled from one hobby shop to another on the north side of Seattle. This took us through the suburbs of the city and gave us a feel for where the "real" people lived. Some areas were quite pleasant with woods and a nearby lake. Our travels took us to the university district near lunch time. We discovered another Wizards of the Coast store. This was stocked similarly to the other store, but featured a large arcade and multiplayer computer area. There was also a well-decorated staircase leading down to some rooms on the floor below. Maybe that's where the dungeon was, or perhaps it was just some gaming areas.
Chris	Adjoining the WotC store was a restaurant called Dalmuti's. It featured a games theme with the walls decorated with pictures of various games like Monopoly, Risk, Magic the Gathering and more. Even the toilets had doors in theme with the men's having the King of Diamonds while the women's had the Queen of Diamonds. The food was ok, along the line of burgers, fries, etc, but the service was woeful. Someone had mixed up the orders and our meals were delayed as the waiter tried to sort things out. After being patient for a ridiculous amount of time, I had to specifically ask for the meals, which had been sitting on a bench in the kitchen all that time, going cold.
	After lunch, it was back to sightseeing and we drove into town to Pier 59 to have a look at the Seattle Aquarium. We saw otters, seals, lots of fish and a great variety of sea life. The otters were great. There was one that was lazing on its back in a pool. The currents within the water gradually moved the otter closer to a wall. Just before impact, it casually put out a paw to the wall and gave a gentle push which moved it back into the centre of the pool, only to have the current drift it towards the wall again. This happened several times as we watched. The creature was just so beautifully blase, as if nothing could disturb it from its relaxed state.
	Although it was great to see these animals, we both felt that the enclosures for the otters and seals were perhaps a bit too small. We have no idea if these areas were their permanent homes or not.
	By the time we left the aquarium it was starting to rain, so we didn't bother going into the Pike Place Markets on foot. I had been there before and I didn't feel it was important enough for the effort of walking around it, as from my memory of 6 years ago, it was mostly overpriced tourist shops. We drove through the streets of the market to give Vanessa a feel for the place. As we were stopped in traffic, a young lout came up to my window and pounded on it - trying to scare me. It was a pretty stupid, dangerous act, although hilarious to this moron. I was not really surprised, having just seen the idiot out of the corner of my eye moments before, so I lowered the window and said something witty, but unfortunately unprintable here. By this time the traffic had cleared in front, so we moved on through the area.
	As we headed back to our hotel, we stopped by a hobby place that had been recommended to us by another hobby store owner. It was huge. We could have gone ballistic in spending here, but we managed to control ourselves (and our budget) and bought just one miniature. The rain got heavier as we arrived in Kirkland. I was wanting Mexican again, since it was at least 24 hours since I had last consumed any. We had noted that there was an Azteca restaurant not too far away from our motel, so that was our destination for dinner. The salsa and chips were great and, as usual, we couldn't eat all of our very large meals.
	While I did the clothes washing, booked the next accommodation and planned of the next day's activities, Vanessa wrote up our next journal entry. We had a pleasant evening, knowing that our next day would take us into Canada!

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