Sunday in Seattle

It was Sunday so we had a lazy start to the day before going to a suburb called Ballard, where we met Nicola's friend Solange (sp?), who is from Montreal originally, for brunch. We had the most enormous meals and it was interesting talking to Solange. She and her husband Eddie are about to move to Portland for Eddie's job, so Nicola was a little sad about that.

After brunch Nicola, Hamish and I went for a wander around the Ballard Farmers Market, which had lots of organic food and veges, and some really beautiful hand made jewellery. I bought Mum some pretty glass earings and Nicola bought a pair almost the same for herself. It was a good way to walk off some of our huge breakfast.

Ballard Farmers Market

Hamish and I  -  I am holding the flowers I bought for Nicola at the market

After the market we drove to the Chittenden Locks ship canal, where we watched the boats wait for their turn to be let up or down the lock. Quite fascinating to see how it all worked and there were some beautiful boats there.

Some cool sculptures at the Locks - they looked a bit like the New Zealand koru shape

Another attraction at the Locks was the salmon ladder. It was the time of year when the adult salmon were heading back to their breeding grounds to spawn, and they had to swim upstream against the current.

The salmon ladder

We saw these salmon jump up through the fish ladder, which was pretty cool to watch

Nicola and Hamish watching the activity at the Locks

On the way out of the Locks I spotted a (yet another!) squirrel. I quickly went into squirrel photo shoot mode - they are so damn fast it is difficult to get a good shot of one. Nicola called them 'rats with tails'! Hmmm.

Another great day in Seattle. We then headed back to Nicola's apartment, via Costco - what a massive store - to buy some supplies so that we could cook up a curry feast for dinner. We didn't bother about lunch today as were all still so full from our big brunch.