Tuesday was a busy day! I’m yawning just recalling it! LOL! We got up early (7am – ouch! NOT a vacation get-up time!) and took the expressway through the city – surprisingly, there does exist a city in which the HOV system works. We’ve used the HOV lanes/Expressway system here since we figured out how it all works and it’s all rather efficient!
Our destination was just over an hour away in Olympia, the State Capitol Buildings. We’ve visited the one in Austin (on our mini-moon in 2009) and since we’re both interested in Government and Politics, well, it makes sense! Plus, we both found Austin very interesting and agreed that we’d like to see the State Capitol of each of the states we visit – if at all possible.
The State Capitol itself was ‘in session’, it was like walking in to the office of hundreds of people and taking pictures of where they work – it wasn’t quite like that in Austin. Definitely a different feel and as much as I wanted Col to enjoy the experience, he just felt uneasy the whole time and was reluctant to take/stand for many pictures. I understood though, it was definitely different.
Unlike the Austin Capitol, Washington’s isn’t designed for the tourist or enthusiast. It’s not got any framed pictures of Congressmen, women and State Representatives hanging around the walls with little plaques of information.
It struck me as ‘all business’, there wasn’t much to look at inside and the place was overrun with marble – which, as Col rightly pointed out, was so overdone that it was obviously fake (either that or all of America’s money is in Washington – not the D.C!).
Not to be too sexist, (I’m simply commenting on what I witnessed firsthand!), the men in particular were cold, standoffish and definitely looked down their noses at us (and the other tourists who were buzzing around). The women were less hostile, some smiled and said hi and one even stopped to point out to us that you are supposed to rub the nose of the George Washington statue for good luck (which it’s why it’s a shiny colour compared to the rest of the statue. The contrast between the behaviour of the sexes was stark and surprising!
We enjoyed walking around the building and taking a look-see in the different chambers etc, but it just didn’t have the same ‘vibe’ as the one in Austin did which was a little disappointing and meant we didn’t spend a lot of time there.
When we were done in Olympia, we drove back North to the city, Lucy SatNav took us to a TGI’s which was closed down (that makes boarded up building no.2 that she’s taken us to so far on this trip!), so instead, we went to a chain restaurant Shari’s to grab a bite of lunch (with another BOGOF coupon!).
Shari’s was full of old people, like it was located right next to a retirement community – which had us momentarily concerned, but the food was tasty, prices cheap and they had an entire wall of pies (which Col promised to take me back to for a slice before we left to go home!).
Once we’d finished our lunch, we drove to the Museum of Flight.
As you can imagine, this was most definitely a ‘Col-thing’, in fact, it was another port of call that I was dreading and before having gone, I’d have said I would rather boil my head than go.
Ha! Eat your words Lasairiona McMaster – eat your words!
We had a blast! It was totally exhausting though, we walked around for 3.5 hours and even Col was wiped by the time we left.
Our starting point was the ‘live’ exhibitions since they closed ahead of the others and, had we missed those, I think Col would have cried!
We started out on Concorde, moving on to Air Force One (no, there wasn’t a President on board, at least to my knowledge!) and then had a dander around the yard looking at the other planes, NASA etc.
It was a big moment for us, you could almost smell the history aboard AFI. It was so interesting, lots to read about and Col must have taken about 200 pics in that section of the museum alone.
Next up was the WWI and WWII exhibits which I enjoyed less, I’m not a history buff or a plane buff so I was pretty bored – same for the big red barn display they had (I ended up leaving Col here and going for a mosey around the gift shop!).
Col joined me in the gift shop, where I had found him a model concorde to take home for his birthday present which made him a very, very happy Col!
After the gift shop, we went in to the final area of the museum, the gallery, where they had planes hanging (quite literally) from the rafters!
Col got to try some planes for size (after some ‘gentle’ shoving on my part!) and became an instant pilot!
Since I’d been such a good girl at the museum, Col took me to Michaels (I’ve been trawling for Seattle Scrapbook stickers, to no avail!) and to the BIGGEST JoAnns I’ve ever seen (I should have taken a picture!). The place was so big that I needed to give Col directions on how to locate me when he came inside – I swear, it was HUGE!
After JoAnns, we went to a pizza place in Lynnwood, (yes, another BOGOF coupon!). It looked a little retro from the outside (and inside) but we ordered and sat down. It was overpriced pizza, full price we’d have been hitting $40 and we’d not have paid it. However, it went downhill from the moment we ordered!
We waited 30 minutes for our pizza and when they finally arrived, she delivered them with a, ‘Not to rush you or anything, but, we’re closing in 15 minutes’ and disappeared!
15 minutes later, the restaurant is empty, bar Col and I and she goes on the intercom to say ‘Thanks for choosing Alfy’s, we hope you enjoyed your experience but we’re now closed. We hope you have a great evening’.
Apparently she couldn’t just come up the stairs to tell us in person, she needed to announce it to the entire neighbourhood *eyeroll*.
Worse than that, Col went down to get a box and a to-go cup (we’d just refilled our drinks!) and she goes, ‘oh, we don’t have to-go cups’ WTF?! You don’t give us 15 minutes to eat our dinner and you don’t have a cup for us to take our drinks home?!! AGH. Not a good dining experience at all! :-/
Back at the hotel, I hit up YELP and wrote a review or two of some places we’ve frequented while here in the area and turned in.
