Monday, October 21: Seattle

Monday morning.  I strolled out into the living room of our unit to find that Kathi was already up and quite busy.  She was typing up her very late journal entry for Saturday, but had already made a pot of coffee and was hardboiling eggs in the microwave.  Wait.  Hardboiling eggs in the microwave??  POP!!!!  Yes, as you can see in the photo, one of the eggs did, indeed, explode.  All over the microwave.

Ummmm,  Kathi, have you ever tried microwaving eggs before???  Did you, maybe, research how best to do that on the internet???  Nope.  Just figured you could put them in a bowl of water and cook them for a couple of minutes.  Well, it turns out that when cooking an egg, in the shell in the microwave, steam builds up inside the shell and pretty soon you have an exploding egg.  I actually think that it was pretty impressive that only one exploded!!!  So the reason for the experiment in microwaving eggs is a result of the fact that we bought groceries while we were in the Birch Bay condo, which had a full kitchen.  Once moving to the urban location of The Camlin, however,  all we have is a kitchenette, consisting of a coffeemaker, a sink, a refrigerator and a microwave.  But, we had some eggs left and thought we should cook them.  We had some bacon left, too.  And, though I said I would never go back, our circumstances forced Kathi to microwave the bacon, rather than bake it due to the lack of an oven.  Well,  that didn't turn out so well, either.  The paper towels stuck to the bacon.  So, not only did we have to clean up the microwave after the exploding egg,  Kathi also found herself peeling paper towels off of the bacon!!  It turned out to be quite tasty, however, as did the morning pot of coffee.  I lost my appetite for the eggs due to some weird discoloration where the yolk attached to the white and decided against partaking.  Kathi took a bite or two and declared that the eggs had a weird texture and decided that bacon and an Australian muffin would do for breakfast.

After such an interesting culinary morning, we got ready to get out and about in Seattle for the day.  I went on-line and signed us up to take the tour of underground Seattle at 2 pm.  We decided to do a little shopping at Nordstrom Rack and wherever else might strike our fancy along the way.  One of the things that I love about Seattle and that is wonderful about the location of The Camlin is that, if one is up to it, just about everything that you might want to do is within walking distance.  So, walk we did.

First stop, Nordstrom Rack, where we both found some wonderful new things to add to our wardrobes.  From there, we walked the 10 blocks or so to Pioneer Square where the underground Seattle tour begins.  I had been on this tour many years ago with my husband when we were here for our anniversary.  I remember being a bit disappointed because I was expecting to see a lot more than what I did.  I had imagined wooden sidewalks, hitching posts and old storefronts.  Those things are not to be found on this underground tour.  Mainly because pretty much the entire town of Seattle burnt to the ground in 1889 after glue caught on fire in a woodworking shop.  When the town was rebuilt, they elevated the street level about a story because much of the town would be underwater at high tide otherwise.  These are the kinds of stories and historical facts that one learns on the tour making it worth the time even though there isn't much to see.  Hearing the stories of how the land was settled and developed is really quite interesting and the kind of stuff that Kathi and I love.  Before going underground we grabbed a couple of slices of pizza to satisfy our hunger, because, after all, our breakfast was not quite as satisfying as it had been the 3 previous mornings!!

An early "crapper"

Much of the tour guide's talk on the walk throughout the underground tour seemed to focus on the problems of plumbing and sewage for early Seattlites, making for some funny stories.  Initially, a wooden box sewage "pipe" was built once early toilets were installed.  This worked on the principle of gravity flow.   For folks living on the hill this wasn't too bad, but once the "pipe" hit the flatter areas of town, things didn't flow so well.  Then, when the tide came in, there was pressure causing the contents of the "pipe" to flow in the reverse direction.  And when one pulled the chain on their "crapper" to flush,  the contents would explode up and out of their toilets due to this reverse pressure rather than flowing downward and into the bay.  YUCK!!! By the way, I'm not just being crass.  What has developed into our current flushing system was developed by Thomas Crapper, a Brit, in the mid-to late-1800s.

At the end of the tour, we browsed the gift shop (oh yes, Disney style, you have no choice to exit without first going through the gift shop!), made a few purchases and began our trek back to our home away from home.

We actually stopped and took a photo of the blue sky that we saw peeking out between downtown buildings because for the majority of this trip it has been foggy and we wanted evidence of this glorious, beautiful fall day.


Kathi had e-mailed a St. Richard's classmate of hers (Kathi attended St. Richard's for grades kindergarten through 6th) who had been unable to attend their class reunion last summer and who lives here in Seattle, in hopes of connecting with him for a bit while we were here.  Upon checking her e-mail, she had received a response saying that he would love to meet us for dinner so that they could catch up.  He chose a restaurant, Gordon Biersch Brew Pub, that was only a couple of blocks away from our condo and we agreed to meet him for dinner.  After taking a brief rest in the room, we went back out, walked around downtown a bit, browsed Barnes and Noble Bookstore, (which is just a few stories  below the restaurant), then went up to meet him.

We had a lovely, and delicious, dinner and John and Kathi, who last saw one another 42 years ago at their St Richard's graduation, caught up on one another's lives.

Kathi and her St. Richards classmate, John Atcheson

We parted ways with John and went back to our room, where we watched a little bit of TV (The Blacklist)  and did our computer stuff.  Unfortunately, Kathi's cold had worsened and she got sleepy a bit early due to her cold medicine, although, I fell asleep during the last 15 minutes or so of The Blacklist and she had to fill me in on what happened!!

Oh!!  And I almost forgot!!  We actually did the final tossing of the states this morning before we left the room and next year's Girls Weekend will be taking place in North Carolina!!