We squeezed our way through crowds, watched some fish tossing, grabbed some chowder at Pike's Place Chowder, and delicious eclairs and meringues at Le Panier. We've eaten and eaten and eaten our way through several states--always relying on TripAdvisor to help guide us to the best dining experiences in whatever region we're in. I've discovered that the salads in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho are not like California. The potatoes (fried, tatered, baked gratined(?) and mashed) are pretty tasty in Idaho. Food in National Parks is just NOT good--it can be decent, but not good. When in need for something tasty, no matter where you are, you can almost always rely on a milkshake to make you feel normal. At least, it makes me feel normal. Moving on...

There's nothing like a wall of gum to capture the perfect family photo. As a matter of fact, I might go so far as to say that the best family shot is one in front of gum. After gum, we went to a huge, homey bookstore and perused and browsed to our hearts' content. This evening we had an excellent dinner at Lola with Mark's 1st (or is it 2nd) cousin Gil and Laurie. Delicious, delicious mediterranean food. Quite possibly the best meal we've had on this trip.

Part of our explorations in Seattle today have led us to a small bug safari (which included seeing a massive Goliath Bird Eating Tarantula), the aquarium and then the 'troll under the bridge'--a cool community art project from 1990 of a massive, cement troll (under a bridge, of course). Later, we went to the Black Bottle--a restaurant owned by Moose's friend Brian. Due to a slight age limit hiccup, we were given our own private dining room, in which we ate many diffeerent tapas. It was quite yummy and by far the best bang for our buck so far.

Tomorrow our plan is to drive north for 90 minutes and take a ferry to San Juan island and do some orca watching.