Seattle, Day 1 (Pioneer Square, Public Market and Kerry Park)

We woke up in Seattle on Abby's 18th birthday. It was hard to plan much with such a long trip, but she opened a small gift (18 lottery tickets) first thing in the morning and then we went to a highly recommended biscuit restaurant for a birthday breakfast:

After breakfast, we started walking, first towards Pike's Place market, which we strolled through quickly (we had a more detailed tour planned for the next day):

Cool light fixtures as you wind your way through the market

Bubble gum alley

We headed next to Pioneer Square, where we signed up to take a tour of the underground layer of Seattle. We had a couple hours to kill before the tour, so we spent some time exploring this historic area of the city:

Taking a break in Occidental Park. There was a music event going on behind us

Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Site

The old buildings around the neighborhood were very interesting

This waterfall garden is hidden behind a fence in Pioneer Square. It marks the spot that UPS was founded

When it was time for our tour, we made our way back to the starting point and then spent about 90 minutes walking around below the streets of Pioneer Square. After most of the area burned down in the Great Seattle Fire in 1889, they decided to rebuild the business district one floor higher than it had been. In the ten years that it took to construct the new city, though, businesses rebuilt at the lower level, adding first floor doors that would eventually be at sidewalk height. Patrons used ladders to move from sidewalks to ground floor entrances in the interim. The underground tour took us through the original ground floor level that eventually got covered over by the city:

I did not take very many pictures (it was very cool but not very photogenic), but here is an old bank vault door still under the city

After the tour, we walked back through the market and picked up some fun things for lunch before heading back to our hotel to rest for a bit. In the evening, we headed out to an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner and then exploring north of town. We stopped to take in the troll under the bridge in Fremont, and then on to Kerry Park for sunset:

Kevin ended up parking the car right by the house featured as Meredith Grey's house in Grey's Anatomy 

We ended by picking up some lava cakes from a nearby cake shop for an end-of-night birthday treat.