I was pretty tired when I got back from San Diego. I had reservations at Mt. Rainier National Park, but I decided to cancel them figuring that I wanted to rest up a bit and being in a National Park means that I would’ve been pretty limited as to where I could take Abbey. I found a nice state park just on the outskirts of Bremerton and on an arm of Puget Sound so we ended up staying there for 3 nights. It was there that I solved the mystery of the squirting water on the beach. In the mornings I took Abbey down to the beach so she could go “fishing”. The tide change was pretty dramatic so at low tide there was a huge wide beach covered with all kinds of stuff. I was watching Abbey in the water and this family came down to the beach. I saw them poking the sand and mud and water was squirting up. So I had to ask them what was squirting the water out. They didn’t know the name of the things, but they showed me. They looked kind of like slugs, but with a mouth on the end that looked like a tube. They burrowed in the mud and rocks. Sometimes they would squirt water out on their own, but if you touched them or stepped near them they would often squirt a stream of water up in the air. If you weren’t careful where you stepped, they would sometimes nail your legs. Well I felt much better after figuring that mystery out. Abbey had no clue what important things were happening on the beach, but she was just fine keeping busy with her “fishing”. She rarely fails to intrigue people and sometimes they stop for a while to watch her. I should put out a hat and see if anyone will throw money in. If she’s gonna entertain, she oughta make something from it. Or should I say, I oughta make something from it.
Bremerton is across Puget Sound from Seattle. My first full day back there I ended up shopping, doing errands and recuperating from the drive. I found out I could take the ferry across to Seattle without too much problem so on Friday I parked the RV at a mall, took a bus downtown and took the ferry across. 
On the way over we saw a bald eagle flying over us. It was the first one I’ve seen in quite some time. Later on the same day, I saw another one down at the beach when a lady, who was a wildlife rehabilitator, pointed it out to me. Being in Seattle I wanted to sample the seafood, so right after the ferry docked I stopped at Ivar’s Fish Bar, an institution on the Seattle waterfront since 1938. They have a unique system of ordering. They take everyone’s seafood order all at once, and while the seafood is cooking they come back to each person and get their sides and drink orders. It actually goes quite fast. I went with something simple, the fish n’ chips but man was it good. Piping hot and really crisp and tender. Welcome to Seattle! There were kids next to me feeding the seagulls, but they weren’t getting any of mine.
After stuffing myself I walked down to Pike’s Place Market, another Seattle institution. 
It has gotten quite commercialized over the years, but it is still a fun place to go. A must stop is the Pike’s Place Fish Co. Don’t buy your fish there ‘cause it’s overpriced, but go for the show and buy your fish across the street at Jack’s. That was the advice I got, and followed. The “show” consists mostly of the workers throwing fish back and forth from the counter to the outside cases and back. 
The guy on the outside shouts out an order, and the guys on the inside, in unison, repeat it as the guy on the outside tosses a fish over the counter. 
Sometimes the fish start flying pretty fast. When I was there one of the customers actually became part of the show, though it was pretty sick. They cut the eye out of one of the fish and this guy ate it, though not before holding it in his teeth for his wife/girlfriend to get a picture. How would you like to bring him home to mom? I thought one lady was going to throw up. She didn’t stick around long after that. I did what I was told and bought my salmon at Jack’s, brought it “home” and cooked it up on the grill. It was real tasty that night, and the next night too in a salad. You can’t go to Seattle and not get salmon, even if you do cook it yourself.
The Space Needle