Day 17 May 7th Seattle

the church we attended

Our holiday continues with this

transit tunnel train

relaxing time in Seattle.  It is called the emerald city - don't ask me why.  From the hotel window we had noticed a local church and we had looked at service times and decided to join the 1100 service.  So we breakfasted, sorted ourselves out and went along to this congregational church.  We were made most welcome and settled in for a service to be led by the youth. A lady came to sit next to us and it became apparent that she had visited the Isles of Scilly and so there was a bit in common there.  The service continued on a theme of caring for the poor, ethnically disadvantaged people in the local area.  After 2 young people had spoken there was a time of congregation response to the message and several people made comments and further points, I wonder how that would go down in our church?  We left after the service and had some lunch in the hotel.

part of the park

Over lunch we discussed the afternoon programme.  Our taxi driver to the hotel had

water tower in park

recommended visiting Volunteer Park as it was pretty and had an old water tower you could climb with great views of the city and it was free!  On the map it looked rather a long way to walk on a hot day and so we chose the transit tunnel underground rail system to get us most of the way there.  We

the park was in the flightpath

found the local station and bought tickets (very cheap) and made our way down onto the platform.  After some hesitancy and discussion we agreed the correct train to

some trees and shrubs

catch as there were several types.  We guessed correctly and were soon on our way and were deposited where we wanted to go.  The whole

tree with flower borders

system was very modern and clean.  While at the station we asked a young family for help in directions to the park and they were most helpful and we were on

view from the tower top

our way.   Almost everyone we spoke to in Seattle has been very welcoming and helpful.  The park was quite an area with trees, shrubs

the space needle from the tower

and flowers to see.  There were lots of families out on a Sunday afternoon enjoying a relaxing time.  We wandered round and then climbed the water tower (quite a climb for oldies)

American robin?

and took some photos of the views.  The cab river was right - you got good views of the whole city.  After an hour or so of doing all this we began the journey back, we spotted what we think is an American robin in one of the house gardens on the way to the station.  Our train journey back was equally smooth and quick.  We wandered to the waterfront and had our first ice cream of the holiday.  We made our way back to the hotel and eventually had fish and chips in one of the restaurants here.  Tomorrow we have to repack and we join our cruise boat at the port in the afternoon.  Blog posts from now on may be intermittent depending on the availability of affordable wifi.