Sunscreen in Seattle

To save a little cash on the way up to Seattle, we decided to rough it for a night at Mt. Ranier National Park. We arrived in the early afternoon to a park that was mostly empty … even the Visitor Center and ranger stations were closed. We set up a quick camp and spent the rest of the evening relaxing next to the raging creek, the water a sparkling blue runoff from the mountain glaciers above.

The next morning we took a 3-mile loop hike to check out a waterfall. We realized we made a poor decision of wearing our water shoes when we came across snow on the trail. But the scenery was beautiful and we realized why Mt. Ranier is the most beloved park of Seattleans.

Chacos and snow don't mix!

We made it! Wha wha?!?

We then headed up through the Seattle suburbs with Jeremy as our soundtrack.

Mt. Ranier view from suburbia

Much to our surprise, downtown Seattle was very sunny and we loaded up on sunscreen before starting our exploration. Our pal Genie had recommended checking out Pike Place Market downtown (who can resist crazy fishmongers), which turned out to be a fabulous recommendation. We chowed down on some fish sammies and picked up some giant fresh Washington apples at the market.

Fruit stand at Pike Place Market

How's this for authentic grunge attire?

We continued our jaunt through downtown Seattle with a stop at the Patagonia and ExOfficio stores (has great deals, by the way) and then back to our hotel to rest up for the show. As we strolled the half mile over to The Paramount Theater we watched as the Neko Case fans accumulated towards their mecca. We’d heard all about how nice the people of Seattle are, but we encountered a few fight-pickers while waiting in line at will call.

Hello, Neko!!

Our seats were amazing and so was Neko. The place was packed with her home-town fans … well as close to Tacoma as you can get. Afterwards we wandered back to our hotel and dreamt of tornadoes and sparrows all night long.

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