Columbia and Japan

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Geo: 47.6353, -122.302

The Columbia in the title is the Columbia Center and the Japan is the Seattle Japanese Garden.

The Columbia Center, built in 1985 and at 937ft (286m) is the tallest building in Seattle. It has an observatory on the 75th floor with unparallelled panoramic views of the city. There is a Starbucks on the 40th floor, the highest Starbucks in the world. On a clear day, you can see for miles and miles. The airport is not that far away, so it offers plane spotters wonderful views of aircraft flying by still at fairly low altitude.

The Seattle Japanese Garden is part of the Washington Park Arboretum. Its history goes back slightly further than then one in Portland. Plans were laid in 1959 and construction began in 1960. It was managed by the University of Washington before ownership was transferred to Seattle Parks and Recreation.

On a sunny day, like the day I visited, the garden looked magnificent. It was early spring and the cherry blossoms were in fill bloom. The trees offered shady area to sit for quiet reflection. Unlike when we were in Portland, there were no soggy bottoms sitting on the benches. Comparison with the Portland garden is inevitable. The one in Portland has more elements within the garden, more slopes and more running brooks. Here, the space is more expansive, the slopes were gentler and the lakes gave a more open vista. Both gardens are equally pretty.

After the visit, I took a walk in the Arboretum, which opened in 1935. It is part of the University of Washington Botanical Sciences Faculty. It's a huge park and this time of the year, the azaleas and cherry blossoms are in bloom and they are beautiful.

Forgot to mention, that on the way to the Columbia Center, I went inside the Seattle Central Library, a rather striking glass and steel structure. The inside space was vast and tall with a gift shop, a café and a special area for teens. To keep them away from us wrinklies or is it to protect us from them? There were also security guards patrolling, presumably to stop the more 'colourful' characters from wandering in and outstaying their welcome.

Not much mention of food so far. Well, let's just say that we went to the Cheesecake Factory for desserts!

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Photos

Looking towards the East
Towards Bellevue. The bridge at the left is the longest floating bridge in the world.

from the observatory
Looking down onto the International District

Cheesecake!
Key Lime, slightly tart to cut through the cream.

Comments

[Etsuko & JC]

?Qu? guapo eres, Alan! Las fotos del jard?n japon?s me hacen "homesick".