Saturday

Woke up at 7am with a blinding migraine. Yikes! It felt like my head was splitting in two (don’t we know a song about that too?) I was dizzy and felt like I was going to puke. Not good. I took as many headache pills as I dared and sat very still for several hours. A yummy stack of pancakes as big as my face with warm syrup was consumed (purely for medical reasons, of course). Thankfully, it did eventually pass and by the time Andy, Gabi and Alex arrived at 1.30pm I’d had plenty of time to chill out and almost felt normal again (for me).

We had a fun couple of hours at a kids birthday party at ‘Pump It Up’. It was all quite civilised. None of the expected screaming and punching tantrums and what not (and that’s just the parents!) The kids, and some of the adults, bounced and slid around, then there was cake and ice cream and presents for the birthday boy. Not the nightmare situation I imagined. Quite fun.

Gabi, Alex, Mark and Andy on the inflatable throne.


Weeeeeeee.....

After the party they drove us back into Seattle to get us checked into our 3rd hotel in 3 days, the Crowne Plaza. Turns out we got a room on the priority club floor. 34th floor – top floor! It’s crazy high up here. You need your room key to get the lift to come up to this floor. No riff-raff allowed. We feel like imposters! Haha. It’s an ace room with fantastic views. One of the first things we saw (Mark spotted it) was two eagles having a mid-air punch-up and swooping around. Cool!
Massive thanks and kudos to Andy for getting this room for us. We REALLY do appreciate your endless generosity.


It's a LONG way down.

Stunning views.

The bed is enormous and very squishy – just how I like it.

Saturday evening Jon picked us up from the hotel and we went for a nice drive around (he used to drive us around – arf arf,). We headed up to Ballard to see the sun setting over the Olympic mountain range. It was absolutely beautiful, looking out across the water to the mountains on the horizon. Stunning.
We coveted some very nice houses, then went to Ballard Market, which is a huge supermarket crammed full of really good stuff. Lots of veggie and organic and locally grown stuff. I could have spent A LOT of money in there, but restricted myself to some chocolate bunnies and some cheese bunnies. The intention was to bring them home, but the cheese bunnies didn’t last very long at all. They’re lovely. Cheesy little biscuits in the shape of bunnies. Mmmmm.

Mark admires the stunning view.

Sunset over the Olympics.

Back to Chez Auer for a lovely home-cooked dinner of a delicious pasta bake with garlic bread, followed by yummy apple pie with loads of cinnamon and whipped cream. Oh man – soooooo good.
A great evening.