What a load of kayak *snigger*

Seattle has a very different atmosphere to it than Chicago. It feels more laid back, although I wonder whether this is party due to the weather. The locals are calling it an 'Indian Winter', it has almost been warm enough to walk around with just a T Shirt on! Maybe everything seems more chilled out because no one is rushing from place to place to get out of the cold!

Pike Place Market (where our hostel is) is fantastic, a seemlingly never ending maze of passages on lots of different levels.

We perhaps saw a quarter of it yesterday and realised we had been in there for an hour and a half! The main attraction is the fish market, where fresh fish comes in every day, and the guys throw them to each other, almost like cocktail makers in a bar!

Just after lunch, we joined some others from the hostel to go kayaking in Elliott Bay, West Seattle, opposite downtown. I thought I had been kayaking in Centre Parcs, but clearly not, this was serious stuff, legs through the body of the kayak, with a 'skirt' attached from your chest to the boat to stop water coming in. We all had to practice on dry land first, getting in and out, attaching our 'skirt' correctly, the person at the back (they were tandem kayaks) organising their foot pedal on the rudder. I went at the front as pace setter as i thought that I'd probably have less stamina than Lisa (I was right.

..). We hauled the boats to the jetty, and were told that we would probably go through some rough waves but to paddle through them! At first it seemed fairly easy going, until we got further out, and the 'ripples' from the tug boats combined with the headwind made every stroke painful! The guide stopped every now and then and told us what it was we were seeing, and if there was any wildlife nearby, then we heard the distinctive sound of sea lions barking!! We paddled in the direction of a small wooden platform that they were sitting on, not too close and we didn't want to be dinner! It was amazing, being so close to such huge animals, in their own habitat rather than in an enclosure.

We spent about 2 hours on the water in all, and boy are we feeling it today! By the end, we were paddling about 1 minute on and 2 minutes resting because the current was really strong and it HURT! But it really was worth it!