Jeff Billimek’s Journal

Today marks the last full day for Jen and I in Washington State. We woke up and had a great breakfast prepared by Jen’s Aunt Sandy and Uncle Chuck.

When I woke up this morning I wanted to get a pre-dawn long-exposure photograph of the bay. I had my chance today and ended up with this photo that I’m pretty happy with:

We packed up and then headed down to the frame shop before opening time. I helped Chuck with some more computer stuff. I got him mostly squared away and I think he appreciated the help.

While we were hiking yesterday I put my sunglasses in my coat pocket. When I removed them from the pocket today I was shocked to see that they were broken! The temples were both broken and detached from the frame. This really made me sad since the salesman told me that they were so durable that you could sit on them. Obviously not.

Jen and I loaded up the car with our bags and drove down to the ferry on our way into Seattle. It took a while but eventually we reached the city. Jen noticed that REI has a huge store in Seattle. You could call it their flagship store.

I didn’t have a receipt, the original box, or any of the other things that came with the sunglasses (like the extra lenses, strap, etc). We decided to give it a shot to see if I could return them at REI.

To my great surprise and delight, I was able to get a full refund on the broken sunglasses with nothing but my name. They didn’t need the receipt or other materials. I bought the same sunglasses again because I like them so much. This time I’ll be more careful with them.

The REI store was very impressive. It was certainly large. We looked around for a while and then left.

Jen had a map of the city and wanted to go to the ‘Pike’s Fish Market‘ area. We found a garage to park in and then headed out. The sky was super overcast so I was a little worried about rain.

Walking through the fish market place seemed a little touristy but we tried to make the most of it. We didn’t find anything to buy.

It was close to lunch time and we were hungry so we looked for a place to eat. We walked around a bit and finally found a place called ‘94 Stewart‘. It was a nicer restaurant than the others around the same area.

We had a nice & leisurely lunch along with some wine. The weather wasn’t so good outside so we opted to take our time.

(Photo of Jennifer at dinner)

After lunch we decided to head over to the space needle. We found an elevated train to take us over there. Once we got to the space needle place, it began to rain. The ride up to the top was $25 per person. Given the poor weather, we decided not to go up to the top.

There wasn’t much to do around the space needle place, unless you are a kid. We headed back to the area near Pike’s Market. It was raining now and we don’t like to get wet. We found a Banana Republic store to shop at. Jen ended up buying something.

We stopped in another store and then decided to head back to the car since the weather was so uncooperative. Out next stop was the hotel near the airport.

It wasn’t the best hotel (we booked on Expedia) and I can’t even remember the name. It did have internet access which was nice.

Jen suggested that it would be nice for us to get some wine. The really good Santa Emma Merlot we had the other night would be great. On a whim I looked online to see where the nearest Costo is located. There was one only a few miles away! It was closing in about thirty minutes so Jen and I rushed over there.

We were in luck and managed to find a bottle of the wine. We picked it up and headed back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel, we stopped by the lounge to see about borrowing a bottle opener and two wine glasses. The bartender lady was nice enough to do this for us.

Once back in the room, we opened the wine and had a little. We were hungry and decided to head out again to find something to eat. After a little driving around we found a Thai restaurant that was pretty crowded. We had a nice dinner.