![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Seattle-001.jpg\")
<\/a>Bainbridge Island and then it was about a half hour’s wait to get on.\u00a0\u00a0 While waiting I walked over to the water and snapped a picture of a couple spare ferry’s parted just south of us.<\/p>\nIt always amazes me how many cars and trucks can get on one of these “real” ferries.\u00a0\u00a0 It reminded me of that Monday night Larkspur ferry, except this time it was zillions of cars and trucks streaming out for a long time.\u00a0\u00a0 There were lots of pedestrians too, but they were up on an overhead walk so you had to look for them.\u00a0\u00a0 They vehicles were right in your face.<\/p>\n
They sell all sorts of junk in there.\u00a0 \u00a0Surprisingly there were even a After lunch Kathy wanted to vamoose that place.\u00a0\u00a0 I think both of us were feeling claustrophobic by then. \u00a0\u00a0 That’s when Seattle started to suck.\u00a0 The streets were really steep, traffic was horrible with cars and pedestrians, and it was only Wednesday afternoon!\u00a0 We missed a ramp to get over to Lake Union where I figured it would be a bit calmer, but attempting to get around that block was tedious to say the least.\u00a0 We couldn’t turn and all lanes went on the “unmarked” on-ramp to highway 99.\u00a0 \u00a0And then within a mile or so it ended on the left The traffic here was almost as bad as downtown.\u00a0 I’m starting to dislike Seattle… did I already say that?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Anyway, we finally got to Lake Union, and to my surprise, there wasn’t anywhere to park.\u00a0\u00a0 It was getting late and we didn’t want to find out what rush hour looked like; so I mapped a way back to the ferry, bypassing the freeway that we saw was completely stopped on the southbound side as we were going north a bit earlier.\u00a0\u00a0 We took an interesting drive on older mostly residential streets that eventually got us back downtown and very close to the ferry.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, Google took us to the ferry car loading ramp, but it\u00a0 had just moved about a mile south from where Google thought it was; so we again had to reroute to the new location.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We finally made it into the lot and queued up just as a ferry was shoving off.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Great, another one-hour wait for the next ferry,\u00a0 but at least we weren’t out in that traffic anymore!!<\/p>\n We finally got back around\u00a0 5 pm and it felt like we were gone 18 hours.\u00a0\u00a0 After that day,\u00a0 Kathy said she no longer thought it was a good idea to take the motorhome on the ferry across to Seattle\u00a0 on our way east.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I really wanted to take Kathy to Friday Harbor for her birthday, but the timing from Port Townsend just didn’t work,\u00a0 either a long waiting time or not enough time to make it onto the next ferry; so we opted for a trip to Seattle.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The ferry system takes a bit to get used to.\u00a0 … <\/p>\n<\/a>Finally, the first row got the signal.\u00a0 \u00a0We were in the fourth row, but it was just a few minutes and we were heading onto the ramp down to the ship.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Turns out Kathy made a video while I was driving on.\u00a0 \u00a0There was so much glare, I had difficulty seeing the guys directing me till my windshield went into a shadow, and then they were pointing me in two directions.\u00a0\u00a0 I chose to the right.<\/p>\n<\/a>We parked and walked up two flights to the sun deck where it was a gorgeous sunny morning with a cool breeze.\u00a0\u00a0 I headed up toward the bow to snap some pics.\u00a0\u00a0 We could see Seattle way off in the distance.\u00a0\u00a0 As soon as the ship got out near the Sound, it got really windy,\u00a0 <\/a>making it difficult to keep the camera steady.\u00a0\u00a0 It took about a half hour to cross the Sound and land right downtown.\u00a0\u00a0 The crew has this down to a science.\u00a0 The chime went off, then the speakers announced it was time to get back to our cars.\u00a0\u00a0 We weren’t in the car more than\u00a0 2 minutes before I had to start it and move off the ferry.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A very efficient operation.<\/p>\n<\/a>We headed out to find the Pike Marketplace.\u00a0 I had been there once before on a business trip back in 1998 or so.\u00a0 It was a Wednesday afternoon and the place was packed.\u00a0 Even the streets around it were packed with people that seemed oblivious that there were cars driving around them.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Somehow as we turned onto the street right in front of the market, a car started backing out of a <\/a>space.\u00a0 \u00a0My first assumption,\u00a0 it was probably a handicap spot.\u00a0 But it wasn’t, must have been our lucky day.\u00a0\u00a0 We pulled in about 15 minutes later as that’s how long it took the folks to back out with all the people walking around their car like they didn’t exist, and then them doing the same to me as I inched forward toward the spot.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It took so long I was thinking I wouldn’t get there in this lifetime.<\/p>\n<\/a>We got out and walked over toward a small park at the north end.\u00a0 By then it was just about lunchtime and the park was crowded with people.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dusty found just the right tree and all was good with the world again.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We crossed back across the street and entered the market.\u00a0 Must be a great place for pickpockets, as “really crowded” was a huge understatement.<\/p>\n<\/a>few produce sellers in the mix of jewelry, soap, pictures, clothes shops, and artsy things.\u00a0\u00a0 We found a hole in the wall to each lunch as we were very hungry by the time we got toward the southern end of the market.<\/p>\n<\/a>side of I-5 north with the next off-ramp a quarter mile up the road and on the other side. \u00a0 Needless to say,\u00a0 we couldn’t get over for close to a mile,\u00a0 way past the off-ramp we needed.\u00a0\u00a0 We ended up getting off somewhere near the WU campus,\u00a0 even drove right past their expensive football stadium.<\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n