We Meet a Persuasive Car Rental Firm Employee
We have let you all down badly. There will be no gun rack. There will be nowhere for Cousin Hiram to sit chewing a straw, for we do not have a pickup truck. When we arrived at Budget Car Rental back at the airport, after a bus journey from the motel, the saleswoman was incredulous at the idea that we wanted to drive a pickup truck. She offered us a mid-range for for $5 a day difference, but we wanted the truck. Then she offered us a luxury car for the same price; she started tempting us with words like "cruise control" and "CD player", and we buckled. We left in a Mercury Sabre with silly features. So far we've discovered that you adjust the pedals, rather than move the seat backwards and forwards, and that there's a digital compass built into the rear view mirror. More as we find it!
So, we gave it a workout by driving to Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks, is of course fictional, but we went to North Bend, home of Twede's Diner, formerly the Mar-T Diner, which was used as the Double-R Diner in Twin Peaks. Of course we ate there, but I couldn't bring myself to buy cherry pie. Alas, the decor had changed completely since the programme was made, but there was plenty of memorablia on the walls.
From there we moved on the Snoqualmie Falls, seen in TP's opening credits. At the top is Salish Lodge, which was used for exterior shots of the Great Northern Hotel. What a fall! The spray at the bottom was spectacular; I'm sure it would have been refreshing to stand in. but we couldn't bring ourselves to walk the steep half-mile to the bottom, in the heat (the return journey was what scared us).
Our drive back to Seattle took us past a few other Peaks landmarks: a log, the Road House.
We stopped by a kite shop in Seattle, which we'd spotted on the Duck yesterday, and bought a Beetle stunt kite for Debbie, and a nice big Flowform for me. We needed a break instead of going out to fly them straight away, so we went back to the motel for a while. The Brady Bunch Movie was on TV...
We drove out to West Seattle to see if there was a good kiting venue in Alki Park, on the seafront. I drove, for the first time, it went OK but we missed a few turnings and took a few wrong ones. Driving past Alki Beach, we could see that it was scenic, but the beach was far too narrow for kites, so we carried on to Lincoln Park. This turned out to be a wooded area, quite unsuitable for our intended purpose, but very pleasant anyway. We walked through it and down to the waterfront, next to which there is a heated outdoor swimming pool (which we didn't use). We frolicked among the driftwood awhile.
Dinner was at an Pan-Asian restaurant in the International District -- Mongolian Beef for Debbie, Sashimi for me. Deliciuous. There was an Oriental supermarket next door, which opened late, so we allowed ourselves to be tempted into buying some tat -- Hello Kitty pencil cases and the like.
I realise that yesterday's diary entry, and today's to a lesser extent, are merely catalogues of places we went and things we did. I was tired when I wrote them. My opinion of Seattle hasn't been made clear: I think it's very nice indeed. It probably helps that it's been sunny throughout our stay; a bit of drizzle could well put a damper on things. Pun unavoidable.
Seattle's people are mostly very friendly (early on a policeman greeted us heartily for no particular reason), it's pretty, it's easy to get aroun, both by car and by public transport.. Maybe my only gripe would be that there are too many Microsoft T-shirts and baseball caps around.
Tomorrow we hit US-2 and begin our journey in earnest.