Day 278: Seattle and the 1st Balloon Landing

Today we got to sleep in and recover from our marathon city tour yesterday. This is just outside of Joey's Restaurant, where we had breakfast, and Doug comes down with a severe case of multiplicity:

Doug, as you may recall, also has a weather curse, so the beautiful weather Seattle had apparently been experiencing--before our arrival--gave way to rain. (Again, my apologies, Pat!)

Parking is tough in Seattle. This is the lobby of the Seattle Museum of Art. We saw an exhibit of Impressionist art. (I personally think the commentary was a sanitized version of the lives of those French guys; I liked our libary's series on the lives of the Impressionists much better.)

Saturday night, we went to a dinner concert at The Third Door. We got to sample salmon in banana leaves, and was tortured by Joan as a Police Woman. Joan has wild hair, and dresses in go-go boots.That would have been fine, if she had actually had good music. I feared my distaste was because I was old--except Scott amused himself by playing Pong on his new Blackberry, and the young women in the bathroom said Joan looked like something out of Flash Gorden. Half the audience left during the intermission.

We walked back to the parking garage, stopped at a little grocery, and I was amused by the organic molasses sitting side-by-side on the shelf next to Spam. Scott said Spam was considered a delicacy in Japan.

Balloon Installment #2: We Chase the First Group

The "chase" was on. There were 13 passengers in our chase vehicle and one guide. One man said that he was extremely afraid of heights, had trouble going 3 steps up a ladder, but couldn't wait to do this again. Still, I was wishing the champaign breakfast had come before the balloon ride rather than afterwards--

These photos are shot from the window of the chase van. We could hear Frank, our pilot up in the balloon, talking to our guide, the van driver. He gave instructions:

"We're heading for the school parking lot . . . "

It was 8 am, kids were being dropped off for geography and spelling, and here comes the Wizard of Oz above their heads.

"Not here! Too many cars!" We head one block over to a residential street.

The balloon just clears the rooftops; carpooling moms race back into their houses for cameras. . .

The balloon can only steer up or down, based on the propane and hot air, and here the balloon is fired up to keep from landing on this van. . .

The crew from the vans also worked the ropes to keep from landing on the van!

And one woman rushed out in her bathrobe for photographic evidence to show her husband what happened after he left for work this morning!



Tomorrow, I'm posting photos of our visit to my dear, sweet brother, Ronnie in Graham, WA, and Balloon Installment #3, our launch in the balloon with Frank.