Alaska Highway, Day 4: Seattle, WA

Today was sightseeing day in Seattle. First point of business was to hop a UW free shuttle to downtown; in crossing the University Bridge, I got a great view of the waterfront on a beautiful day:

On the way from the Harborview Medical Center (where the shuttle drops off) into downtown, I passed by St John's Cathedral and figured I'd compare an American Catholic Cathedral to a Latin one. Still grand, but less ornate (and, I think, more to my preference for it).

St John's Cathedral: Let there be light (and don't tell me about mixing up the Testaments, OK?)

A beautifully appointed devotional wing of St John's Cathedral

After St John's, I hiked (slightly) uphill to Capitol Hill to visit the Skillet Diner, a restaurant to which Nola had never been, but which she had suggested as "always smelling delicious". Good enough for me. I planned to get something small and then follow up with seafood on the waterfront, but then I got this monster meal:

Fried chicken sammy and poutine at Skillet Diner, Seattle

The sandwich was delicious. The Seattle hipster interpretation of poutine isn't as good as the real deal in Canada - notably, there wasn't any gravy, so it was basically just cheese fries. Still, cheese fries are pretty good.

After lunch, I went downhill to downtown to catch a ferry from the waterfront, and on the way visited the magnificent Seattle Public Library:

Main atrium of the Seattle Public Library

Finally, hours after starting out, I caught a ferry to Bainbridge Island. The island itself has a small downtown and is otherwise mostly residential. The ferry ride, though, has spectacular views on a nice day and is well worth the $7.10 round trip. The island is a nice place to grab coffee and read a book, too.

I'm on a boat.

The return ferry didn't follow the posted schedule, putting me 30 minutes behind schedule. Then the bus didn't stop in the designated place, making me run 5 blocks uphill to catch it. All in all, my hour-and-a-half margin turned into fifteen minutes - which still meant that I was on time to pick up Nathan. On our return to Nola's, he was greeted with a surprise birthday celebration:

Happy birthday, Nathan!

After another lovely dinner from Jing, we headed out to pick up JT from the airport, at which point our Alaska crew was complete. After dealing with a few last-minute trip arrangements, we settled down to an all-too-short rest before the early morning drive.

Tomorrow: Seattle, WA to Chetwynd, BC