Belltown

Seattle is not the city we visited two decades ago. My winter ("Alaska") weight jeans were much too heavy in the late summer heat, at the beginning of what weather reporters are calling the last weekend of summer. Our cab driver told us that it is rare to see dead grass in Seattle, but the landscape seemed very parched as we drove north from the airport to our Belltown condo. He used a GPS to find the coordinates of our building -- in retrospect, it seemed to me that the location is rather simple and he should have known it. No matter.

We had no problems getting into the building, as we did in Miami. The condo was open and all the keys worked. We have beautiful view of Puget Sound and the city from decks on the 7th floor; we're a little disappointed with our street view, and related street noise, but the condo itself is comfortable, newly decorated and, perhaps most important, well plumbed.

We walked a little outside, finding a Starbucks and many restaurants. We settled on "La vita e bella", an Italian establishment in our building. Because the street is noisy, we sat inside, at the window so we could see the action outside. We were tired and wanted a light meal, so we ordered Caesar salad (mine, but so large that Bob had some too) and thin crust pizza, with sausage, broccoli and great tomato sauce. Splurged on a Sicilian cream filled cannelloni dessert.

We intended to watch the Sarah Palin interview but I knew I was done for when I lay down ... just to rest. Bob soon followed. I awoke early but figured that I just couldn't get up at 3 AM, so went back to sleep. I went out for coffee in the dark, and was easily distinguishable from the natives -- I was in t-shirt & shorts, they all had long pants, jackets and hats!

The day promises to be sunny and hot. I'm looking forward to great views from the Space Needle.