Visiting Family and Sightseeing in Seattle

We are currently spending a week at the Thunderbird Thousand Trails Resort in Monroe, Washington.  We're about 25 miles from Seattle, but close enough to go into the city for a visit.

We have visited Seattle before, but we thought we would make a trip down to Pike Place Market.

  It was a beautiful clear day.

We have to have a picture of the colorful flowers in the market that can be had for great prices!

One of the many ferries that cruise the waters around here was carrying passengers across the water.

This is the Gum Wall. Since 1993, people have been sticking their gum on the brick walls down an alley by the market.  Once you get over the grossness, it's pretty fascinating to look at.

And of course, we went by the first Starbucks.  The line was out the door to get coffee, so we didn't stop.

Snoqualmie Falls is nearby where we are staying so we took the short drive out there to visit this historic falls.  There is a 268 foot drop and that's the Salish Lodge overlooking it.

Jim's mother grew up in Seattle and most of the family still live here.  We have enjoyed dinners with his  cousins.  It is always so much fun to reconnect after many years!

I had heard about the little town of Leavenworth and Sunday we headed in that direction.  We were originally going to hike to the falls in Wallace Falls State Park, but couldn't find a parking place.  We just continued driving and made it to the cute little "Bavarian village."

The town is in a picturesque setting in the middle of the Cascade Mountains.

We spent a few hours wandering through the town and visiting the art show that was taking place in the town square.

There was even some local music to entertain.

The flowers around the town were breathtaking.

It's been a fun week, but time to move on to our next stop.  We're just going a little over 60 miles to our northernmost stop before we turn south.