DAY 12: 2/24 (Wed.)
sunny
Visit UW and Seatle's Waterfront Area

We took a full day excursion to Seattle's waterfront area that day. We first visited University of Washington, and looked around the campus.  Laura's friend Kendra, who was studying at UW, showed us around.  We first looked inside of a huge library. The inside of the library building was so beautiful and looked just like the buildings we saw in the Harry Potter movies.   We also saw recreational facilities for the students.  The campus was simply so huge.

We then took a little tour to the Freemont area, and saw the famous Freemont Troll.  The sculpture was just huge.  After we visited a chocolate factory called "Theo," we arrived at Pike Place Market. We went to the first store of Starbucks Coffee, and we all bought some souvenirs at the store. We then spent some time looking around and shopping at the market. 
 
After we took lunch at the food court in West Lake Center, which is a major shopping mall, we took a monorail to Seattle Center, which is famous for the Space Needle , the landmark of the city of Seattle.  We were planning to go up the Space Needle, but the observatory deck was closed that afternoon for a private party.  We were sorry for that.  We enjoyed looking around the souvenir shop at the bottom of the tower anyway.

We also visited a nearby park where we can enjoy the whole view of the waterfront area, and took many pictures. Our final stop was at Uwajimaya, a Japanese grocery store, and we made some shopping for our host families or friends and families in Japan.  We spent a lot of money for shopping that day, but it sure was a fun day!

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