Denny Hill

I'm sure I've been going on about how great the weather has been. Oh, is that you karma? Today we have been introduced to the famous North Western Pacific rain. The last few days Alice and I have been visiting the very finest tat shops, laughing to ourselves at all the fridge magnets, postcards and badges referring to the rain. Luckily, it's a driving day, and so it's basically felt like any other day in London with the added authenticity of traffic as we approached Seattle. It was also about this time that we hit the 2000 mile mark of the road trip.

A few words on Portland. Alice and I had high expectations for Portland and we're glad to say that the city has risen to the occasion. We both loved everything the city had to offer (minus bar basements) and the feel of the place in general. The west coast and in particular the north west continues to grow on us.

Seattle was next. The home of the grunge music scene of the 90s and modern coffee drinking as we know it. Alice insisted we listen to Nirvana and Pearl Jam on the way in and so we felt reasonably fed up with our existence and the point of it all as we arrived. We needed coffee. So, for a self confessed caffeine fiend, the very first Starbucks is a modern mecca. And we weren't the only one's to visit 1912 Pike Place. The old signage, limited edition merchandise and even exclusive brews of coffee ensured that the queue to enter was the longest we would ever contemplate tolerating. Once we made it in I grabbed a limited edition enamel mug (yeah I know) and two cups of the 'pike place' blend coffee. It was actually very nice and Alice enjoyed it too.

The sun had decided to break through by now and so that rain we witnessed on the way to Seattle had the decency to hold back whilst we shopped. As the evening approached it was dinner time and we had intended to just go for a drink at the Pike Brewery but we saw the menu and thought we'd go for food too. It's another all American dining experience and the food, mussels for me and fish tacos for Alice, was very good. We moved to the bar area and continued to drink, trying the Pike Brewery sampler of six of their finest. Another city another brewery sampled. Although just six drinks, we both thought that all but the stout were winners.

We have a whole day in this city tomorrow and neither of us can wait.

Song of the Day:
Pearl Jam - State of Love and Trust (on the soundtrack to the movie 'Singles', which was set in Seattle, which also featured Pearl Jam, also from Seattle)Read more