Snohomish, My Kinda Town!

Yesterday we hung out in Snohomish. It's really a beautiful city! When Guin told us she was from Snohonish and talked about Snohomish, Skykomish and Snoqualmie rivers, I thought she was just making up words! Snohomish was founded in 1859 and is called the "Antique Capital of the Northwest". It is the best old town antique shopping place I've ever experienced! The town is so charming and authentic!

Jim and I are at Seatac airport now waiting for our flight home. Thought I would take this opportunity to collage our trip to Washington with pictures I thought were interesting.

            Pictures taken in Seattle

Bronze fundraising "piggy banks" around Pike's Place Market. One of them is named "Rachel"!

          Famous car wash, I'm told.

Seattle skyline taken from a car speeding down the highway. "Look kids, there's the Space Needle!".

            The road to our airbnb.

Our front door. Well, it was our only door.

                   Another view.

                  Our Living room. 

                       Bedroom.

            Ginormous bathroom!

               "Kitchen" area. Hi Jim!

Yesterday we worked on some fun projects.....Transforming this $1 St. Vincent de Paul table....

Into this beautiful unique work of art!

Then we had a delicious BBQ at Guin's. And of course no BBQ would be any good without guys talking about cars.

            

This morning before going to the airport we strolled around Snohomish.

                     Big chunk o' tree!

That's Jim looking through the big chunk o' tree. He's estimated to be 54 years old.

That's it folks. Our Washington trip is over. We're at home now. We had a great time! Thank you Travis and Guin, from the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU!!!!

The Underground

We spent most of our day in Seattle today. According to my health meter app, I walked 16,463 steps which sounds much cooler than the estimated 6.98 miles 16,463 steps converts to. Even cooler and more amazing is the 23 floors my health meter says I climbed today. I know that has to be true as I found out you don't so much walk around Seattle, you climb it!

It was a perfect day weather-wise and company-wise too. Jim, Travis, Guin, and I explored the city, top to bottom, so to speak.

First up, we went to Pike Place Market

It's been a farmers market since 1907.

Fish, flowers, fruit and Lobster mushrooms? Who knew? Had no idea there was such a thing as lobster mushrooms. Do you serve them with lemon juice and butter? Shouldn't they be in a tank at a seafood restaurant?

 

Just outside Pikes Place Market.

Just outside "Gum Alley".

This is why we can't have nice things!

Evidently, this is the migratory destination of masticated gum. I was told this is only about a years worth of gum. The nearly 5-inch thick layer of gum on the alley 

walls was de-gummed about a year ago.

Seattle is an interesting place. And being able to tour it's underground history is pretty awesome! 

Underground, this is a skylight, above ground, it's just part of the sidewalk.

Crazy Seattle plants!

Before we left Seattle, Travis and Guin took us to Lincoln Park.

What a beautiful place! We got to watch the sunset over Puget Sound.

I Can't Breathe On a Ferry!

Another adventurous great day! We took a ferry across Puget Sound. In case you're wondering, a Sound is a large sea or ocean inlet larger than a bay, deeper than a bight, and wider than a fjord. Found out if you look up nautical terms you get more nautical terms. I think Google's just making up words. Bight and fjord, really now? 

This is the ginormous ferry we took. Never been on a car transporting ferry before so I thought it was cool!

I caught the exact moment when Travis and Guin answered Jim's question, "Where's Seattle?". At least I thought that's the moment I thought I caught. It could be the moment they told him to walk the plank.

Soon after Travis took our picture he stated, "I can't breathe on a ferry." and went into the boats interior. To be fair, it was very windy, but we decided that's a great blog title.

Our destination, Whidbey Island.

 Fish and chips for lunch. It was a nautical meal, seemed appropriate. It was yummy!

Best discovery on Whidbey Island...a pay phone!!!! While posing for this photo op another group of tourists asked me if I needed a dime to make a call.

Puget Sound.

Nautical birds and barnacles.

Not as windy on our return ferry ride. Meaning, Travis can at times breathe on a ferry!

Back in Snohomish, Guin and I went to visit her mom, Rachel, and she put Guin to work vaccinating goats.

I provided morale support. Like I know anything about vaccinations or goats, so don't judge me! I helped by feeding bread and bananas to the other goats to distract them from vaccination anxiety.

This little guy kept a watchful eye on me. I think he was judging me. He knew I knew nothing about vaccinations and goats. He was so very cute though!

What A Day!

These two! What a pair! Ones a Gremlin and ones a Pacer and then there's Travis and Guin!!! They're showing us such a great time. It's been an adventure hanging out with these two AMC loving kids. 

Day started with a delicious pancake breakfast at Guin's then off to see more of Snohomish.

Snohomish river and...

An abandoned railroad bridge over the Snohomish river. 

Then we went thrifting. We covered several cities and various thrift stores around Snohomish. It was heaven!!!

All that hardwork thrifting made us hungry and we had Sushi at the Wild Wasabi. First time I had sushi and I loved it!!! Yesterday we had Pho (a Vietnamese soup ) for lunch and we loved that too! Sushi and Pho, who knew???

Then we stopped by Travis and his roommate Will's apartment where we met

RFW. Those are his initials. His first name is Really and his last name is Weird. You can guess his middle name. He's an axolotl. He's Will's pet. There's another one in the tank as well and his name is RW.

We ended our days adventures at an old bar (established in 1910) in Snohomish called the Oxford.

What a great day! Pancakes, abandoned bridges, thrifting, sushi, strange amphibian creatures, and pool! I'm not sure if Washington is great, quirky and wonderful or Travis and Guin are!