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Published: August 7th 2007
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Jerry Seinfeld is the Devil. His show ruined my life. I can hardly go a single day without something happenening that causes me to make a lame Seinfeld reference. This day was no exception.
The Shangri-La hotel, nice as it is, is situated next to a 24-hour gas station. The shades on the windows of the Shangri-La might as well not be there. The light poured through the window, keeping me up most of the night. So, of course, it didn't take me long (it was probably before we left the Shangri-La, but after we had both showered in our flip-flops) to tell Rachel that I felt like Kramer in the Kenny Rogers Roasters episonde, expect without the delicious chicken to make it all worthwhile.
I mean, I didn't even think about it. It's not like I was trying to make a joke. It's just the way I now see the world, through a gauzy layer of half-remembered Seinfeld episodes. Isn't there something seriously wrong with this?
Anyway, we were in B-ham, so it was time to keep it real. I had a head start on keeping it real with my scraggly vacation beard. I decided before we
left that I wouldn't shave for the trip, and I was starting to have almost what would count as a real beard. Well, I fit right in with the locals, as every man we saw in the busy diner where we had breakfast had some sort of unkempt facial hair. I kept it real.
Keeping it real also involved walking around downtown B-ham aimlessly. It was Sunday, so the museums were closed or didn't open until after noon, which was longer than we were going to be there. Michael's Books, one of the bookstores we had earlier decided to try to visit, was also closed. But I got a picture anyway. Owning a small-ish bookstore in a small-ish city would be a wonderful way to live, assuming Barnes & Nobles didn't run you out of business. For now, I'll have to settle for the picture. Across the street was another bookstore that was open, and we spent a good hour wandering around browsing the titles. They had some very interesting old and rare books.
Another oddity about B-ham was the exclamation in the guidebook that it was "just like Belgium!" Now, I think it was talking about the
old city hall building, but not having been to Belgium, maybe I was missing something. Check out the photo and tell me, is it really just like Belgium?
So that was our exciting morning in B-ham. We left as it was approaching lunchtime, and I thought I remembered a Taco Time an exit or two south. I'd worn Rachel down by this point, so she agreed we'd get Taco Time. An hour later we were still looking for Taco Time. Where had they all gone? The signs that had once seemed ubiquitous had now disappeared. But, just as I was about to give up, there it was, the sign to brighten all days. (I know I can't be the only one who's favorite time is Taco Time.) Of course, the Taco Time was 4 miles off the Interstate. But what else did we have to do?
After all that buildup, Taco Time was, well, pretty average. Pretty much Taco Bell but a bit fresher. A good fast-food lunch, but little else.
We headed on down to Seattle looking for something to occupy our time. We thought about wineries and breweries but decided we weren't really in the
mood. Rachel perused the guidebook and came across a recommendation for a neighborhood in North Seattle called Fremont. Fremont has a funky Sunday market, and it was a funky Sunday, so we decided to go check it out.
Fremont is actually a really cool little neighborhood. It deems itself to be the Center of the Universe, and it's slogan is De Libertas Quirkas, or, Freedom to be Peculiar. We walked the market and saw lots of cool and quirky stuff but didn't buy anything. Then we set off to see some of the Fremont sites. We started our walking tour by crossing over what was billed as one of the busiest drawbridges in the country to check out some stuff on the other side and then re-cross back into Fremont. Well, sure enough, as soon as we got across, up came the drawbridge, stranding us on the other side for several minutes. Next we went to see an old rocket fuselage that neighborhood residents bought rather than see it destroyed. They attached it to the roof of a local business, after several failed attempts (they were worried for a bit that Fremont would be accused of not being able
to "get it up" so they made a final push to get the rocket safely attached). We also saw the "Waiting for the Interurban" sculpture, which depicts six individuals waiting in perpetuity for public transportation that has long been discontinued. The residents of Fremont routinely adorn the sculpture with odd clothes and the like, although today we had to settle for some ribbon. The last of the interesting sites we saw in Fremont was a very big troll. In 1990, the neighborhood had commissioned a sculpture contest, with the sculpture designed to represent the community. The winner: an 18-foot high troll that emerges from underneath the Aurora bridge to crush a Volkswagon Beetle in its left hand. The street running under the bridge is now known as Troll Ave. Fremont definitely has exercised its liberty to be peculiar.
Done with Fremont, we decided to walk over to Gasworks Park. The park is situated on an old industrial site, and the rusting hulk of the gasification plant still remains situated right in the middle of the park. I'm still a bit befuddled as to who made the decision: "This would be a great place for a park, but let's leave
Gasworks Park
A former industrial site, which has turned into the city's favorite kite-flying spot. the old rusty building. Just put a fence around it, it'll be cheaper." But the contrast between the green grass, the rusty building, and the blue sky made for some nice photos. The park is situated on the north shore of Lake Union with great views of downtown Seattle across the lake. It is also a kite-flyers heaven, with winds coming off the lake and a hill in the middle from which even the most inexperienced kite flyer could get one up. (Well, we did notice one young father who was having a terrible time getting his kids' kites to fly. The very able mother went back and forth helping them fly for a while, only to see the father crash the kites to the ground once she switched to the other kid. It was hilarious.) We sat on top of the hill for a while, rested, enjoyed the views, and plotted our next move.
Rachel was calling around for hotels for the night again, and tried the Best Western up by the University of Washington. Except it turned out not to be a Best Western anymore, but the Hotel Deca, a newly remodeled art deco hotel, complete with
clean showers, a king sized bed, and a flat screen high-definition TV. It was no Shangri-La, but it would have to do. Once again we got a "transient discount"---how good it is to be a transient!
It was getting on towards dinner time. We had talked about going downtown and eating at Ivar's, a very Seattle restaurant that claims to have acres and acres of clams, but decided that we weren't quite in the mood for a trek downtown just yet. So we found Ivar's Salmon House instead, which was only a mile or so from our hotel. It is also on Lake Union, and we got a seat right next to the window with beautiful views of downtown across the lake. They also had fresh Copper River King Salmon, which was delicious.
An awesome dinner later, it was approaching sunset and we decided to bite the bullet and go to the Space Needle, something we'd been going back and forth about all week. It turned out to be the perfect time to go. A Sunday evening in early June resulted in hardly any crowds. We walked straight up to the ticket window and then straight to the
elevator. We were at the top within 5 minutes of arriving, and just in time to see the sunset over Puget Sound. It was well worth the price of admission, although I doubt it would be if you had to wait in line in the middle of the day in the hot summer sun. We didn't, though, and we very much enjoyed our time at the top. We stayed around and waited for the city to light up, then we descended and headed back to the hotel. Our flight was the next day, but it didn't leave until 11:00 pm so we had all day to explore Seattle.
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