We are up and away early so that we dont miss the service into Seattle this morning.  We board the the 7.45am service from Auburn, and are surprised to find there is plenty
of room. The trip takes 35 min with two stops, Kent and Tukwila, before we detrain at King Street station in Seattle.

The double deck cars are comfortable and spacious. We make our stop at Kent and we note the railroad cops are coming aboard, better find all day pass. We hand them over when they come through, and note a female opposite is lumbered for travelling without a fare.
Arriving at King street we are supprised to find it is only a couple of tracks under grotty canopies which are in need of a tidy up. As the weather is still giving us some precipitation
we head into what we presume is the main station building, which was now occupied by Amtrak.
We managed to find much of the information we required regarding transport in this city in the way of timetables etc, but we still had to find our way to these spots.

We made our way towards South Jackson St  where we hoped we could find our first bus that would take us to the Monorail station to head for Seattle Centre, and the Space Needle as Peter was going to take a trip up. We find a bus stop, we are still confused as it tells us very little, giving route numbers, and like all good tourists, we stand there like twits scratching our heads and bums making out we know what we are doing. Peter at this stage is the only one who comes up with a common sense answer. "Ask a local" Hey presto a lady with a portable whatever you call them pulls one from here purse punches in the info. "You catch No. so and so get off there catch No. so and so and you're there". We find Westlake Station and climb the stairs to the monorail station. This system was built for the 1962 Seattle World Fair, travels a distance of 1 mile, and carries 1.5 million passengers a year. It rides on 64 tires, 16 load carrying and 48 grip guide tires.

We climb into the rear unit and sit opposite the operators control cab, the speed is rather a suprise, according to speedo we hit 50mph. The ride is short and we arrive a the Space Needle
station. We take a quick look around the tower, and leave Peter as he is making a trip up the tower.

Climb aboard return trip to Westlake station, and decide on next move. We note that we
are a short distance from University street station, we hoof it by shanks pony, and find the entrance to the station, down we head on the longest esculator that I had been on since the
London Underground in 1973. The setup in this underground station is impressive to say the least, what I find excellent is what seems to be a viewing gallery a floor above the tracks,
that you can view the comings and goings.

One thing we did note was, the veiwing area was not covered with netting or the likes that you found protecting the RR tracks from possible jumpers.

The station was shared by both light rail vehicles and buses, and it was strange to see light rail units pull into the platform followed behind by a bus. We also checked out Pioneer station of
the same set up.

We catch our bus to head over to West Seattle, this being an articulated type driven by a large Afro American woman, talk about the Hamilton V8's she took off like a scolded cat, while the front section of the bus was on level ground we were still decending out ot the clouds! in the rear portion talk about an exhilarating ride.
Our trip was in vain as the shop had closed, but the street was filled with a number of junk shops so we pop in to see what treasures are there, and pop out in a hurry, as we would have to have the backing of the Bank of America, still there were some nice items.

We catch a bus back to S King street and walk back towards the station and see the immense size of the Qwest stadium that dominates the skyline.
It is intended to catch the 3.50 out of Seattle, we have a little time so we wander back up the steps just in time to get a BNSF empty coal train about to pass through King Street Station, snap a few shots, then back down, we find Pete who is waiting on the platform.

On time arrival back in Auburn, and we still have the bulk of the rush hour to go, up to the top floor of the car park where we are parked, set up for a few shots. Wrong!
On our two previous nights at the station we told the Security Guard what we were doing and were given their blessing.

I  hear somebody yelling to me and note a security guard at the top of stairs, and walk over to meet him. I greet him, and are asked what are we doing, and explain that we checked with the security guard every night for permission to film. "Well I am not them".

I wont go into detail, but we are asked to leave the station, or else! He was the type that you could not reason with, so "Thank you sir we will leave" you hold all the Aces.

Still we had done well over a couple of nights, and its back to the motel and tea.

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