Today was a lovely day. We slept in, attended to some household things (such as laundry), and generally took our time. It was overcast and not particularly warm, but the weather report promised that the sun would come out by mid-day.
We drove up I-405 on the eastern side of the Seattle metropolitan area, aiming for Snohomish County. On our way, as we drove through Redmond, our curiosity got the best of us, and we had to take a detour to see if we could find Microsoft. The AAA Tour Book said that there was a visitor center, and listed the address. We found the address, Building 127 on the Microsoft campus. It was unassuming and gave no indication of being a visitor center. (It would appear that AAA gave us wrong information about which building is the visitor center.) We drove around a bit more and found more and more Microsoft buildings – indeed, just like a campus, with a special Microsoft shuttle bus and lots of people coming and going to lunch, meetings, etc. It was a little surreal, and we actually got lost a bit before we finally found our way back onto the highway.
Back on track, we drove up to pick up our friend Kim, who is living on her aunt’s farm in a small town called Maltby. For lunch, Kim took us to a cute diner in the tiny town’s center, called Maltby Cafe. The portions are huge (their cinnamon roll itself could probably serve 8 people) and the menu covers a lot of options. It had been over a year since we last saw each other, so it was good to catch up and also to have some yummy lunch. After a couple of hours of a leisurely lunch, we dropped Kim off at home.
On the way back to the interstate, we saw a couple of unmarked State Patrol cars that had pulled over another victim. Total tally for today: 5.
As a little tour of Puget Sound, we took the ferry from Edmonds to Kingston. The timing was great – the ferry was there and ready to be boarded, and it wasn’t too crowded. The trip across the Sound is 35 minutes, and we stood on the sun deck and enjoyed the ride, the weather (sunny by now, though hazy), and the beautiful views.
Once across the Sound, we drove down the Kitsap Peninsula (part of the way on Miller Bay Road, which of course we enjoyed). We then crossed the Agate Passage bridge onto Bainbridge Island. We stopped at a couple of spots to take photos. Once we got to the ferry terminal, we decided that it would be faster and easier to cross again than to drive the entire way back to Puyallup. Of course, the real reason to take the ferry from Bainbridge to Seattle is that it’s an incredible view of Seattle, and really the best way to get good photos of the city.
The timing was perfect again – a good thing this time, since this ferry runs somewhat less frequently. Once across, we decided to head back to Puyallup. We made good time driving down the HOV lane on I-5, and had a nice dinner at home with Madison and Kim.
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