Day 15: Seattle 3- The Final Day

Our last day of this amazing honeymoon began with a slow start. I don't think Jason was quite anticipating exactly how sore he was going to be. I had a little pain in my heel when I first got up, but after that I felt pretty good. I couldn't blame Jason, though. After my first half, I thought I was going to die for at least 3 days, so I understood his pain. 

When we were finally moving a little easier, we had the incredible task of packing! We had been driving for 15 days and visited some really incredible places. This meant we had accumulated A LOT of stuff! We knew we were going to have to pay for our two checked bags, but then came the task of trying to keep them underweight. It became an impossibility, and we had to suck it up and come to the realization that getting our bags home was going to cost a fortune. With everything packed, we checked out of the hotel and left our bags in their holding room to pick them up later. Our flight wasn't until 7:20pm, so we had the entire day to enjoy Seattle.

This would have been perfect except for three minor details. First, Jason was having a very difficult time walking. It got worse throughout the day, but it's certainly not easy to sightsee when your legs won't move how they are supposed to. 

Second, Jason got a new phone, which meant every single second he had where we weren't moving were spent with him totally occupied by the Galaxy Note extravaganza. I couldn't blame him for this either. If I had gone 2 weeks without a phone I would have spent much more than just the few resting spots we stopped at to check my phone. He was actually really a good sport about not having it out all the time for the last day. He did have it out a bit though...

The third thing that stopped us up a bit was the fact that the Pride Parade was taking place all day in downtown. We saw some really interesting people, but the bottom line is, I loved their message about equality, peace and love. And I loved this sign which was on almost every street corner:

We made it to the market at about 7:30a.m. to buy some fresh fish to bring home to Phoenix. I bought some Puget Sound oysters, a whole sockeye salmon and 1 lb of tilapia. I just couldn't resist the freshness of the food, or the guys throwing it across the room. We went early enough that they were able to get it all packed in ice for us to pick up about 3pm before we left Seattle.

After the market, we stopped at a little place called Bacco cafe which had gotten good reviews. They had really good coffee and amazing brioche french toast, and it was located right on Pine and 1st ave in the middle of Pike's Place Market.

Around 9:30, we met up with my old friend Brianne Lunzmann and her fiancé Andrew. I have known Brianne for over 10 years. We were Yearbook Tech TAs together in the summers in San Diego for four years while we were in college, and it was so good to see her doing so well in Seattle! It was great to catch up and kinda fun to think about how far we have both come in the last ten years. Plus, our menfolk seemed to get a long great too, but I don't think either of them have a problem with getting along with people. They are both really amazing guys, and I would say Brianne and I are pretty lucky girls. 

We walked around the market and all the way down to the Seattle Art Museum's (SAM) sculpture garden with Brianne and Andrew, and when we looked up, we had ended up exactly where we needed to be for our next stop, the Pacific Science Center.

Jason and I both knew we did NOT want to leave Seattle without going to the Pacific Science Center. Why? King Tutankhamen. For the last time ever in North America, the King Tut exhibit was on display at the PSC, and we knew we couldn't pass up this opportunity. Plus, we had our city passes which had already gotten us our admission into the museum and saved us $16 on the King Tut exhibit. They had other cool stuff in the museum, too, like a huge butterfly house that you could walk through, but King Tut was IT for us. 

Most of the stuff you will see in these pictures date to 3,000 years old. Some of the artifacts came form other pharaohs tombs like Ramsses, but all of it was just incredible.

This jar holds the organs of one of the pharaohs wives.

The sarcophagus of one of the pharaoh's cats.  

King Tut's bed. It was preserved so well the wicker matting is still in tact. 

This originally held King Tut's stomach. 

The next four pictures, while seemingly disturbing, are actually really neat. This is just a replica of King Tut's remains. His actual remains and the casings they found him in, remain in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt in their original burial place. At first, Jason and i were really disappointed not to be able to see his sarcophagus that you see in so many pictures of King Tut. But the bottom line is, he remains in the final resting place his people chose for him 3,000 years ago, and that is really cool.

Almost right next door to the Pacific Science Center is the Experience Music Project (the EMP museum). The EMP is a museum set up to celebrate popular culture and it's impact on society. It was a huge museum, and unfortunately we were running out of time so we had to choose only two exhibits to see. We decided to forgo the horror film exhibit and Avatar exhibit in favor of the Jimi Hendrix exhibit and the Nirvana exhibit. Both were definitely worth it. 

Original Nirvana Demo Tape 

Yes, that is the exact shirt you think it is: 

MTV Moonman!

After the museums, it was time for us to bid adieu to Seattle, so we took the monorail back to Westlake Plaza and then went to the fish market to get our package.

On our way tot he airport, we had one more museum to stop at that was part of our city pass experience: The Museum of Flight. We saw some awesome stiff like JFK's Air Force One, the Concorde, and the first Boeing Factory that ever existed. They are also working on a really cool NASA gallery which they just built. 

Jason with the first engineer of Boeing

At long last, we arrived at the airport and it was time to say good-bye to our sporty little convertible. I won't lie, I was a little sad after we dropped off the car. It meant this adventure was really, truly coming to an end. 

One more pic of the car for memory's sake

Waiting to board the plane 

My sad face

To those of your out there who don't have pets, you won't understand this at all, but there was one huge perk to coming home: seeing our kitties! We made it home about 11pm last night and Rex and Gonzo were just as cute as could be (thanks to our friend's Lettice and Andrew for taking care of them!!). It felt good to be back in the heat. It's where I am most comfortable. 

I can't begin to thank all of you who took the time to follow our journey on this blog over the last two weeks! Knowing you were reading motivated me to keep writing and now Jason and I have this incredible travelblog as a keepsake forever. That, to me, is priceless.

After 15 days, 1,650 miles, and 12 hotels (including one campsite) these newlyweds can truly say this was the best honeymoon ever. I am more in love with my husband today than the day I left and I truly believe that for us, two hearts really did become highway one.