We are now back in AZ but I didn’t have time yesterday with all of the travel to post our final experiences. We got to catch up with an old friend, Dean Kuest, who is the lead pastor at Pathways Church in Washington (and the guy who spoke at Central this past weekend). He took us to the waterfront and we had some authentic Seattle cuisine, Ivars, and fed some seagulls. I got up the courage to feed them directly (have you seen the size of their beaks?), but Dean was a little crazier and had them eating out of his hand. Showoff.

After that, we met back up with Kim Proctor, who was our friend/chauffeur/Seattle guide, and walked the beaches a bit.

Today we walked back up to where the Space Needle is and bought tickets to a museum called the Experience Music Project. After spending $32 in admission to see it I can tell you that it ranks right up there with the flying fish market at Pike’s Place. Overrated.

The only cool thing about it was a giant tornado of instruments that was in the lobby. The more I got to thinking about it, it reminds me of what we do in our Third Format worship. It’s kind of a whirlwind of an experience…

On a random side note, I discovered at dinner tonight that I like black olives. Seriously, this is a major turning point for me. I grew up being the pickiest eater in the world and I’m now growing to be more “cultured.” Nachos + black olives = tastiness!

Today Michelle and I visited Upper Queen Anne. Our hotel is in lower Queen Anne. Why are they called that you ask? A giant hill. We had talked about taking the bus system up the hill but then we decided that it was a piece of cake to climb the mountain. Sort of. Check out my pregnant wife conquering the hill. (The pictures don’t do it justice).

After an afternoon at Starbucks and some walking around, we stopped by Kerry Park and saw some amazing views of the city. Seattle is gorgeous and we’re getting to see some amazing views of Mt. Rainier.

Today Michelle and I went down to the famous Pike’s Place Market. There I saw the second-most overrated tourist trap in my life: the flying fish market. What was first? When I was in high school we visited the east coast and I saw the historical Plymouth Rock. I feel like I need to warn everyone not to expect much from this if you haven’t seen this before. It is seriously one little shop and they don’t even throw fish that often. It is just a bunch of tourists standing around with cameras waiting for someone to actually order a fish. Awesome.

We then walked down to see the first Starbucks ever. What was funny about it is that it didn’t actually look like a Starbucks inside. Ironic. We bought a piece of art off of a street vendor of the storefront design. I’ve included my picture of it and a picture of our art so you can compare yourself and see how secretly artistic I am with my camera-work…

As we were walking around we saw a group of nude cyclists riding down the street together. You don’t see that in AZ everyday. Entertaining to say the least.

As I post this latest update, I am currently playing Mozart for my son (Michelle is holding headphones to her stomach). This is his first official music-listening experience. He isn’t ready for my favorite music yet, but I think he can handle a little Mozart.

Tonight we walked down to experience my first ever dueling piano bar called Chopstix (and we didn’t have to pay the $7 cover charge per person because Michelle talked our way out of it!). It was pretty great entertainment and they had the most amazing steak sirloin strips I have ever tasted! Seriously, the flavor was so good I was enjoying licking it off my fingers…I even ordered a second plate. (This is what I’m holding in the picture below in case of confusion).

After that we went to a coffee shop attached to our building and enjoyed some free drinks courtesy of our hotel (they give us a $10 voucher per day!). I finished the first book that I started on our trip, The Catcher in the Rye, and am now pondering why it is such a literary classic?