Yes, the title is still wrong – live with it.
Today we had decided to catch the ferry to Bainbridge Island so leisurely made our way down to the waterfront to catch the Ferry. We bought our tickets for $8.50 each which included a free return (just as well) which for some bizarre reason you don’t need a ticket for.
It was all very civilised. A lovely large ferry with very few people on board. Within moments of boarding we set sail. As we pulled away from Seattle we took some nice pictures of the skyline. We soon sought sanctuary inside though as the wind was quite fierce offshore even though the Puget Sound was very calm. The crossing only took 30 minutes.
We were quickly off the ship and like a school outing walked with all the other foot passengers along the path to downtown. This amused us whilst we were on the island as we saw the same march and influx of people each time a ferry arrived. Eagle Harbor the downtown area was a nice little street with several interesting shops. We found a coffee shop and sat and chilled in the sunshine. After this we wandered further and found an excellent supermarket from which we bought our lunch which we ate outside. Although a nice place we felt we had seen the best of the place and so wandered back to get the 2.05pm Ferry back to Seattle.
On board we bagged great seats right at the front of the ship. I was looking forward to the ride back to see the Seattle skyline. Well we were certainly treated to a spectacular view, but it was such as shame that it was so marred by the smoke. For the first time on my Apple Watch it showed the weather conditions as Smokey. It was still hot but never reached the promised 31c as the haze stopped the sun burning through.
From here we walked to Columbia Tower to seek out the Starbucks on the 40th floor. It was such a steep walk up the streets to it though. It was possible to go to the observation tower at the very top for $22 each, but we had been told that to go to the Starbucks was free and Karen needed no better incentive than that. Well the view was good, the little we could see again due to the smoke so we were pleased we hadn’t paid money to go to the very top.
Whilst here I used the Wifi to check in for our flights home, a sad but necessary chore.
Then we went for a final wander around Pike Market before making our way back to the Hotel via Amazon Go. We went into the Amazon Understory first of all which is there domed new office which has a public exhibition about itself. It was not that inspiring but the building itself was great. We then went into the first ever Amazon Go store. I had downloaded the app in preparation. I had to scan both Karen & I in separately using the app. Then we were free to literally pick anything off the shelf and it would link it to my amazon account and bill me. There was no queuing and no check out. It was great but it did feel like we were shoplifting!
It is all done by cameras and the weight of something being taken off the shelf. As soon as we left the shop I got a notification of the cost of the items we had taken. It is the future and Karen told me to write to Jeff Bezos telling him Norwich was ready to be his 2nd store.
Walking back I started thinking again about our use of English. Why do we have words that sound the same but mean different things and are spelt totally different. The word that was puzzling me was queue, coup, kew, cue and coo. I couldn’t work out if it was just our Norfolk twang and pronunciation that caused them to sound the same. I still don’t know the answer and nor did Teacher Karen.
When back in the room we decided that despite being the wrong end of the City for the Baseball that we make the effort to go. I booked a ride using Uber and tried their relatively new Express Pool option. We walked to our pick up point at the end of the road we were staying on and waited for the ride. We spotted the car and he just drove straight past! We were flabbergasted but couldn’t do anything. As we didn’t have Wifi or mobile data I couldn’t order another and we were 20 minutes walk from the transit point. He seems the driver cancelled the pickup but because I wasn’t connected it didn’t inform me.
After having a calm discussion we decided to abandon the Baseball (also as we hadn’t planned how we were getting back) and decided to walk to get some food. We ended up in Buffalo Wild Wings, not normally a favourite of mine but I had a terrific combo meal. On their Wifi I found that the Uber driver had cancelled our pickup but because we were not connected I could not see that.
Then we went back to our room and finished up the wine whilst sorting a few things out before our departure in the morning.
