Vancouver, et al.: Day 8: Lake Padden and Pike Place Market (again)

This day, the last of our trip, I took a smattering of pictures. The day roughly mirrored day one in reverse: Lake Padden, Pike Place, and flying.

Di Yin also took pictures. The link goes to her first picture from this day (picture #187), the last day of our trip. If you're in slideshow mode and see a picture of the large Pike Place Market sign, you've cycled back to the beginning of the album--day one of our trip--and are seeing pictures I already linked to.

First, we drove south from Vancouver/Richmond and went through customs (easy this time). Once in Washington state, although we'd planned to picnic by Lake Padden, we didn't see the highway exit for it. (We guessed the exit must've been only on the other side of the highway.) Instead we pulled over by Lake Samish and ate. After eating, we still had the time for and desire to walk around Lake Padden so we attempted to find it by getting back on the highway and driving north. (We didn't consider walking near Lake Samish--it's huge and mostly developed and therefore less pleasant.)

Lake Padden turned out to be the next northbound exit! (It's actually the same exit as for north Lake Samish.)

Because it was a cool day, we changed into warm clothes and hiked the 2.5 miles around the lake.

From Lake Padden, we went to Pike Place Market in Seattle, where we had lunch, bought snacks, and bought supplies for dinner. I purchased some overpriced dried cantaloupe, in the process taste testing dried apples, figs, and more. I also again tasted and contemplated buying the good balsamic vinegar I spotted on our last visit. As part of lunch, I was in the mood for raspberries, but I couldn't find any organically grown raspberries at the market. (This was especially important to me because I didn't have a place to wash them.) I guess the organic movement hasn't hit Seattle as much as the bay area.

Getting to the airport and home from Pike Place was dicey. We couldn't figure out how to get to the highway we wanted. (We forgot the rental car company gave us a map of the area.) Eventually, we made it to the airport, was about to return the car, then realized we forgot to refill the gas tank. We left the airport, filled the tank, and returned. Returning was made more complicated due to some minor damage to the vehicle. As I dealt with it, Di Yin went ahead as a precaution (just like our trip to Seattle) and checked our bag. Once we landed in the bay area, we learned our bag had been misdirected to southern California. It would be delivered the following day. I was quite concerned because my apartment keys were in my luggage. Happily, Di Yin had my backups in her carry-on, so everything worked out. Plus, she got $25 to spend on emergency clothes and toiletries to compensate for the day without the luggage. So, yes, getting home from Seattle involved a number of unusual occurrences.