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Published: June 22nd 2008
UW
University of Washington fountain with Mt. Rainier in the backgroundSeattle
~ * ~ DAY 1 ~ * ~
Arriving on my early morning flight from New York (caught the 4am bus through Harlem), I landed to a sunny day in Seattle. My friend David met me at the airport and we headed toward the university district, north of the airport. We took a stroll around University of Washington, which had a beautiful library and a great view of Mount Rainier (since it was a sunny, clear day). From the university, several buses went downtown.
Pike Place Pike Place is one of the must see stops in Seattle. It is similar to a fisherman’s wharf, where we could see men throwing fish as customers made their orders from a selection of seafood laid out decoratively on ice. We also browsed a tea and spice shop, and the rest of the marketplace that sold souvenirs such as miniature statues made from ash from Mt. Saint Helen. We met Chris and had a seafood lunch at market - mmm cod sandwich, though I still prefer steamed fish instead of fried. =)
Right across the street from the main market was a row of shops that included the
original Starbucks - whose logo was colored brown instead of the typical forest green. (It was interesting to discover how entrepreneurial Seattle is - the birthplace of world brands like Starbucks, Amazon.com, and Boeing, among others.) We also passed a cheesecake store with miniature cakes, and I wished I had the space for more food!
Seattle Center We walked about a mile from Pike Place to Seattle Center, the location of the iconic Seattle Space Needle and surrounding fair grounds which was crowded with roller coasters and other carnival rides. The Key Arena is the home of the Seattle Supersonics, and I was excited to find that the Sonics team store was having a sale, although for a sad reason: the relocation of the basketball team to Oklahoma. There was a protest at the courthouse that day in support of the Sonics staying in Seattle. To avoid the long walk back to Westlake, we bought tickets for the monorail; however, there was such a long wait due to maintenance testing. But the ride back was very quick and ended in the Westlake Mall, a transportation center with a bus hub and future subway/metro system.
Gas Works Park
The Gas Works Park is one of the stops along the Burke-Gilman Trail that runs all along the northern coast of Lake Washington. The site was originally home to a coal-to-gas plant that went out of business when the city started to import natural gas in the 1950s. Several of the original buildings still dotted the park, some serving as a playground while others lay idle and were being slowly overgrown with plants.
We climbed past the extreme boot campers to the top of a grassy hill, where there was a sundial and a gorgeous view of the Seattle skyline. I could not get enough pictures. I would have loved to have more time to go kayaking - perhaps with the friendly man who went off on a 15 minute soliloquy when we asked him to help us take a picture! (just kidding!) The Gas Works Park hill offered a peaceful view of the city and the grass was just calling for me to lie there all day. It was one of my favorite places in Seattle.
We then paid a visit to the Freemont Troll, who resides under a bridge in Freemont, a colorful
artsy neighborhood of Seattle.
Hiram M. Chittenden Locks and Carl S. English Jr. Gardens We arrived at the locks with just enough time to cross the locks to the fish ladder, where we saw large salmon struggling to swim upstream. On our way across the dam, we saw a sea lion/seal sticking its head out of the water, probably taking a break from feeding on the salmon-rich waters. We also saw a heron, gazing at the water and posed to attack. The Army Corps of Engineers had built a viewing gallery that offered an underwater glimpse of the fish ladder and the salmons’ attempts to go upstream towards their birthplace. The sunset behind the raised train bridge was amazing, though the setting of the sun around 9pm meant the temperature had dropped significantly.
Food and Fun We had dinner at a Oaxacan cuisine restaurant, decorated floor to ceiling with interesting black and white photos of Oaxacan landmarks, sights, and people. From our original counter table, we could observe the food preparation - it was amazing how everything was being produced at the tiny open kitchen, and I even saw a lady rolling out flour
tortillas from a huge ball of dough. My fried rolled tortillas were stuffed with mashed sweet potato and were great!
We headed to the Ram, a popular hangout for UW students in U-village. It reminded me a bit of the Tombs with a whole crew boat and oars suspended from the ceiling. Monday nights are trivia nights, where each person buys in for $1 and there is no limit on how many people on one team. There were four rounds with 20 questions each, and after waiting a while for the results - surprise! Our team won (tied - at 68 points)! Although I can’t say I helped very much at all - the only semi-significant contribution I made to “What is the base of the Academy Awards Oscar statue?” A reel of film!
~ * ~ DAY 2 ~ * ~
San Juan Islands -
one of the 1000 places to see before you die We began the day early with an hour and a half drive north to the town of Anacortes, where the Washington State Ferry operated a ferry terminal. The town was very quaint and there were artistic touches added in
the form of painted portraits of townsfolk on the corner of each store. We grabbed some breakfast at the cosy Gere-a-Deli, then headed along to the terminal. We could see the intense development of the land in between the center of Anacortes and the terminal - several new luxury housing development projects that will offer spectacular views of the inlets of Puget Sound. The $12 roundtrip ferry ride on the large car ferry was about an hour, and by the time we woke up from our naps and arrived in Friday Harbor, the gloomy wet weather had subsided. We bought a $15 day pass for the San Juan Transit tour bus that traveled around the island to the major tourist sites.
Lime Kiln Park I was so excited to visit the whale watch park, officially known as Lime State Park, where, if we were lucky, we would get to see whales up close! There were several low viewing areas right above the rocks and rock pools, beyond which whales were known to feed on the migrating salmon that passed through in the summer. We stayed for two hours at Lime State Park, but, we were not so
Lighthouse
Lime Kilm Park lucky to see any of the J, K, or L pods. (We learned that the whales were not followed by tracking devices - instead, a network of whale watchers would alert others in the network of sightings or sonar readings.) However, we did get a little tour of the lighthouse (it had a light-sensor that automatically switched on the light beam after sunset) and we walked a wildflower-filled trail towards Dead Man’s beach for magnificent views of Puget Sound.
The English Camp We caught the bus to the English Camp National Historical Park - the site of controversy during the Pig War, which lead to the definitive claim of the San Juan islands as American territory. The American Camp rests on the southeast corner of the island, and has several beaches.
Roche Harbor The bus driver told us it was a 2.5 mile walk from the English Camp to Roche Harbor, so we started off walking along the road instead of waiting for the bus. An hour and 5 miles later, we arrived in Roche Harbor! At least the road was fairly flat, although I made the walk in my flip flops. We passed
the oyster farm and sculpture park. Roche Harbor was much smaller than Friday Harbor, although it looked much more exclusive, with many nice new townhouses being built. The harbor with its beautiful white sailboats was a relaxing sight as we melted into the bus seats for our ride back to Friday Harbor.
Friday Harbor 20 minutes later, we returned to Friday Harbor and decided to explore that few blocks of the town. The Pelindaba lavender store was filled with soothing smells and the number of products they managed to make with lavender was astounding - chocolate lavender gourmet ice cream and lavender dog biscuits? We grabbed some ice cream - chocolate cheesecake ice cream - before heading back on the ferry to Anacortes. The ride was longer this time, as we stopped by another island, and our appetites were rightly worked up by the time we got back to historic Anacortes. We ate a great meal at Adrift, which was interestingly decorated with bookcases, a huge sail, and local art. I had a grass-fed beef burger (tasted much better than the average beef), and we ended it with a chocolate chip cookie, ice cream, and hot fudge.
See Portland entry Back to Seattle
Experience Music Project The 3 hour Quickshuttle ride from Vancouver back to Seattle dropped me off at the Best Western. I walked around Seattle Center under the warm sunshine, killing time until the Experience Music Project (EMP) opened at 10am. The EMP was like a music museum, but took an alternative approach to preserving music history and included many hands on and interactive exhibits to give people an appreciation of music. I was surprised to find out how many bands made their start in Seattle/the Northwest (and to learn about the battle of the "Louie Louie" songs), and I also found the temporary exhibit “American Sabor” - about the Latin music scene in the USA - very interesting. (Reminder: Watch “La Bamba” again!) The Guitar Gallery showed the development of the guitar - I had no idea how important the Hawaiian steel lap guitar was to the invention of the electric guitar! There was also a "sky chapel" (you could feel the holiness of rock music!) and a cool guitar sculpture in the central atrium - an art installation of 700 guitars! The Science Fiction Museum
(SFM) was also included in the $12 student entrance fee, although it was a bit eerie to walk around among the robots, models, and costumes of space aliens.
Downtown Taking the monorail down to Westlake Center, I met up with David. We walked along 5th Avenue and explorer the Seattle Library - an innovative building featuring highlighter-bright green escalators and a spiral through the book stacks up to the 10th floor, where we had a view of the atrium. The tiny store had an assortment of interesting products - books showing the construction process of the library, pouches made of Vietnamese rice bags, even travel guide books on sale for $1! We also passed through the city hall (more innovative design with a stream flowing from inside the building to the outside courtyard) and courthouse.
Views from the Columbia Center Next was the Columbia Center - the tallest building in Seattle at over 1000 feet! It was extremely modern for a building built in 1985. We took the elevator to the 73rd floor and our $3 student entrance ticket gave us a 180*+ view of the city (best value in the city!). The Columbia Center towered
over the Seattle Space Needle, and with such a clear day, we could see the mountain ranges (Mt. Rainier), Lake Washington, the many sports stadiums, Boeing Field, (other city by airport), and Smith Tower, which used to be the tallest building in Seattle. I loved the views, and especially seeing the city's layout, tracing how the highways looped over each other, and checking out the green roofs on some buildings.
Pioneer Square and I-District We walked down the steep roads towards the water and Pioneer Square, and settled on Luigi’s Little Italy for a homecooked Italian meal of pasta. Pioneer Square was more like a triangle and we passed a tour group who were learning about the underground tunnels that run through downtown Seattle. The area beyond Pioneer Square is known as International District, or I-District, a more inclusive Chinatown. Chris, Jenn, and I popped in to Eliot Bay Bookstore, an iconic Seattle landmark. It was very homey - there were even handwritten staff recommendations and, of course, coffee downstairs for the caffeine-high city-zens. We continued down to the waterfront under the Alaskan Way Viaduct, and explored the Curiosity Shop along the piers, where there was a bit
of every random thing imaginable - two headed calves, dried lizards, Chinese beheading swords, etc. (I also saw a poster in a store window advertising a concert by Keali'i Reichel and Na Leo - apparently they are doing a West Coast tour! My timing was just off! =( ) I made a quick stop at the Asian grocery store in Chinatown for food, snacks, and bubble tea for the last trip of the day.
Off on the Amtrak I met up with Robin and Alex at the Amtrak station, which had one of the most confusing/indirect paths to the door possible. We took the 5:30pm Amtrak Cascades train to Portland, passing Tacoma (the City of Destiny!), Olympia, Vancouver (Washington, not BC!)etc…. The trail was beautiful and we sat on the right side of the train for a great view of the setting sun glistening over the various lakes with the distant mountain backdrop and occasional horse farm.
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im amazed that you guys went to so many places in a day! i took 4, 5 days to cover all that you did on day1 - and i didnt even go to the gasworks park!?! sounds like a really pretty place though. and san juan looks pretty too, but did you scare away the whales?!