Saturday, May 5th: Sunny Seattle

We last left you cruising at 37,000ft over continental U.S.A.

The flight from JFK to SEA was long, never mind having to sit on the plane for 2hrs before taking off. We had been 'upgraded' to an exit row but don't be fooled, people! While there's extra leg room, the seats do not recline. Maim not happy.

We landed at about 11:30pm and thanks to some forward planning, headed straight to our home for the next two nights, the Red Lion Hotel.

If you're ever in the Seattle area and staying downtown, we recommend the Red Lion. The bathroom was about the size of my room at The New Yorker.

Being on Eastern Standard time, we were both up quite early (by vacation standards). We headed down to the local famous market and then cruised around for the rest of the day.

We did a bit of shopping (I scored a trench coat; continued to fail dismally on buying jeans and sneakers), ate lunch at a local brewery, rode the monorail and headed up the Space Needle. We then headed to an Italian restaurant on 2nd to resolve our hankering for pasta and then retired for the evening.