So day 4 of my travel adventure is not so much a public adventure so much as it’s a private adventure. I wanted to stop in Charlotte, North Carolina becaus eI have some friends and family in the city, and this was a great time to see them, if only for a few hours.

I had breakfast at Cracker Barrel which was…well, Cracker Barrel. Later, I met up with my cousin Bryan. We roamed around the downtown area for a little bit and checked out the Blues, Brews and BBQ’s festival.

Me and my cousin Bryan in Charlotte, NC

While roaming around the BBQ festival, I came across something that I might have been interested in – a ghost tour!

Charlotte Ghost Tour

Ultimately, I decided not to do the ghost tour since I would be alone and frankly, I was too lazy to make a reservation. I decided to catch up on some much needed rest because I have a 6AM flight tomorrow to… ARUBA!

Since Aruba is international, I’m not sure how available internet access is. Because of that, my next update might not be for a few days, but we’ll see. I see a lot of relaxing in my future!

My final day in Seattle was, to say the least, busy! Kendra and I woke up at our hotel which was stationed right next to Safco Field. So, naturally our first stop of the day was to take a tour of Safeco Field, the Mariners home stadium.

Safeco Field in Seattle

The tour was mediocre, and gave a lot of history of general hall of fame baseball players, but we got to go to the owners skybox, the press room, the locker room, the dugout and finally the field. That was a pretty neat experience!

Me on the field at Safeco Field

Next stop was a location deemed by CNN one of the most germiest tourist attractions in the world, second only to the Blarney stone – the Seattle Gum Wall! The Gum Wall is a brick wall with undress of thousands of pieces of gum, with new ones added every day. It was quite a disgusting site indeed, but mesmerizing at the same time.

Seattle Gum Wall

Seattle Gum Wall Closeup - Yuk!

Next it was off to the Seattle Center, which is the home of the Space Needle, the Experience Music Project, the Pacific Science Center and other “touristy” things. Now keep in mind that most, if not all of this was built for the 1962 Worlds Fair, and much of it hasn’t been really renovated since then. One exception to this was the Experience Music Project, a music exhibit and interactive museum. (here is some more info on the project)

Later we went to the top of the Stratosphere Space Needle! What a view!

Top of the Space Needle

We finished the night at a popular local burger joint called Dick’s. It’s no In-N-Out, but it wasn’t bad! Finally the time came to say farewell to Seattle as I jumped on a red-eye flight from Seattle to Charlotte.

Tomorrow is stop number 2: Charlotte, North Carolina!

*NOTE: I just wanted to say that I took most of the photos in this blog. There are a few (such as the Boeing plant) that are stock photos that I wasn’t able to get. All stock photos (if need be) will be marked from here on out.

Hello everyone! Today was day 2 of AYCJ in Seattle and it didn’t disappoint. The weather has been off and on (a little rain never hurt anyone) but that hasn’t deterred me from checking things out.

Adam at Fort Casey in Whidbey Island, Washington

The first place Kendra and I went to was Pike Place Market. It’s this little farmers market overlooking Elliot Bay in Seattle. The market opened in 1907 and is one of the oldest operating farmer’s market in the country. They have 3 stories of fresh produce, arts and collectibles and you can’t forget street performers. They even had a fish market where they THROW FISH!

Pike Place Market in Seattle *Stock Photo*

After lunch (which was very mediocre) Kendra and I headed a few hours north to Fort Casey, a former World War 1 fort. The fort is a national part, but has these huge guns! The place never saw active combat during the war but it doesn’t mean they didn’t prepare for it. For more information about Fort Casey, click here.

A huge gun at Fort Casey in Washington

Finally, we drove north another 25 miles to Deception Pass. Deception Pass was discovered in 1790 and was initially thought to be the Noerthwest Passage, but it wasn’t – hence it’s name Deception Pass. It’s a national park that includes a huge bridge suspended 185 feet above the rushing current below. Parts of the movie “The Ring” were shot there.

Deception Pass in Washington *Stock Photo*

Tomorrow is the Seattle Space Needle, the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction museum, followed by a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina. Onward!

So today was the first trip on my journey. I got to the airport around 6AM for a 7:30AM flight. I had never been to Long Beach airport before, but holy cow it was small. Security screening was in a tent outside, how bizarre. The flight boarded on time and during the announcements, the flight attendant asked if anyone on board was doing the “All You Can Jet” thing. The entire second half of the plane raised their hand, so it looks like I wasn’t alone. Not by a long shot.

On my flight I got to speak to Stephen from Let Dreams Fly. He has planned a 30-day initiative to help people’s dreams come true, a new city every day. What an awesome guy and an awesome idea – check it out at www.letdreamsfly.com.

And so I finally made it to Seattle.

Thank you to Kendra, a former co-worker of mine who picked me up and will be hanging out with me for a few days.

Our first stop was the Boeing Factory in Everett, WA. I have always loved aviation, so I figured this would be an interesting idea, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Kendra and I took the 1.5 hour Boeing tour and we got to see all kinds of stuff. The building is the largest building in the world, spreading seven tenths of a mile long. The building is so large that they had to design a special air system because clouds would actually form on the inside and would occasionally rain. True story, our tour guide told us. Anyways, inside we got to see them actually assembling Boeing Jets, from the 747 to the 777 and the brand new, not yet flown the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. I was actually surprised how cool the tour was.

Thew Boeing Factory in Everett, Washington *Stock Photo*

Afterwards, Kendra and I went to the Seattle Center, which was built for the 1964 World’s Fair and houses the Seattle Space Needle. I was actually quite surprised at how dilapidated and run down the entire area looked, but hey, it was built more then 45 years ago – but how about a little renovation? I decided not to go to the top of the Space Needle just yet, as I plan on doing that tomorrow along with a few other touristy type things, but more on that tomorrow.

I’m exhausted and it’s only Day 1! Time for a good nights sleep! Let’s hope I can keep this blog running every day!