Seattle

We left Victoria early in the morning- a bit too early, as is my custom. We got to the ferry terminal nearly two hours early for our sailing, and were quite thoroughly alone in the waiting area for some time. Dani was somewhat unhappy with me, but I like to be prepared. Sadly, the Clipper's terminal in Victoria is a touch uncomfortable, filled with the most unpleasant folding chairs you can imagine. It felt like we were waiting for an awful school play. Around 10:00, U.S. Immigration started processing us, and I held out hope that there would be somewhere nicer to sit on the other side. Sadly, it was an even less pleasant holding room, filled with the same chairs, but we were soon liberated and taken aboard the ferry.

Once aboard, all the seats that were available were at tables facing each other- and I had the dubious fortune of sitting across from a very, very tall gentleman. Neither of us had any legroom for the three-hour crossing to Seattle, during which the cabin staff did their best to sell us something, anything, from their on-board shops. Puget Sound was astoundingly calm, and the crossing was uneventful (if highly commercialized). We pulled in to Seattle on a drizzly afternoon and enjoyed a short, if hilly, walk to our hotel- which brings me to the second time I had to call my family for help. Despite our best efforts, we didn't have enough money on hand to pay for the room. After a few hours on the phone and Internet, my mother came through with everything necessary to persuade the desk clerk to let us in to a room. (Thanks again, mom!) Of course, $80 a night in downtown Seattle doesn't buy too much of a room, but it was a place to keep warm and dry.

I asked the desk clerk what she'd do with an evening in Seattle, and she tipped us off to a few suggestions. One was a pub called Buckley's just down the street, reputed to have an excellent happy hour, and the other was a visit to the Seattle Public Library. Both were spot-on. The pub had excellent happy hour appetizers- I had delicious pulled-pork sliders and chicken wings, Dani had a quesadilla that was far too big for her, and we split a plate of garlic tots. If you're ever in Seattle, do stop by and give them a try- tater tots smothered in garlic and cheese, fried to perfection. After a week of peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches, they were welcome.

After dinner, we headed to the amazing new Seattle Library. The building is a great example of recent architecture, and uses its unique shape to the fullest. Aside from being beautiful and expansive, it also houses a book robot and the world's only book spiral- a slowly-sloping hallway that wraps around the central stairway, organized by dewey decimal number. Libraries are wonderful places, but Seattle's library stands out as unique among them. Give it a visit if you're nearby.

At the library, we stopped by their small store in order to buy a magnet and postcards. While there, I had the happy accident of somebody mistaking me for a Canadian. We made a comment about how the only cash we had was Canadian, and that it was useless but pretty. The clerk agreed that "our money" was pretty... I told her I took it as a compliment.

We headed back to our hotel, courtesy of Seattle's extensive free-bus area, and got ready for our train back down to Sacramento- where, we were told, that we would connect to the California Zephyr to Chicago. Of course, the next morning was when it all started unraveling.