We followed Hwy 101 all the way to Astoria and then we saw the longest bridge I had ever seen. Looming high above the community of Astoria is the Astoria-Megler Bridge which spans the Columbia River from Astoria, Oregon to Point Elice across the state line in Washington and is nearly 7 km long. It is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America. Tracee had heart palpitations and nearly got off the bike! What made it worse for her was that half way up the steepest segment of the bridge we encountered road works and were stopped by a 'lollipop lady' while traffic was reduced to one lane. My wife is not great with heights - so it didn't pay for her to look over the railing!
We connected with Hwy 12 just before Montesano and then linked with Hwy 8 East and this took us through the city of Olympia and on to the Interstate (I5) for the last leg of our journey into the port city of Seattle.
We rode into the heart of downtown and booked into the Kings Inn on 5th Avenue (with the monorail running down the length of 5th Avenue). After unloading the bike and changing out of our riding gear we walked the few blocks down to the waterfront to the famous Pike Place Market. This is the oldest farmers market in the USA (est 1907) and contains produce, restaurants, retailers, artists and street performers. It had a great vibe. One of the highlights was the world famous Pike Place Fish company which entertains the crowd with banter, chants and flinging fish at each other and sometimes at the customers to see if they could catch!
We also watched a gospel/rhythm & blues group street performing (they were good - I bought one of their CD's for $5) and spent about half an hour in Starbucks on 3rd Avenue just 'people watching'. We then walked to a diner with a view of the harbour for dinner before walking back to the Inn. Seattle is a very attractive city, built on hills, lots of trees in the centre and great views of the harbour along the waterfront with plenty of bars, cafes and restaurants.
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