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Welcome to Seattle! I chose the title for this entry because I have been to Seattle before, but this time I get to look at it with a whole new set of eyes. When I visited five years ago, it was a family vacation and we stayed with my sister in West Seattle, which is a more suburban section of Seattle. This time I am on a "girls getaway" with my cousin Liz and we are staying at the Westin which is right downtown, a mile or less from basically all of the major sites. This time I am also looking at it more from a travel planner and traveler perspective, as opposed to a family visit perspective and I think that they way you view a trip has a great impact on your impressions of an area. Being right downtown, I am also getting an even better feel for the city from the point of view of someone who lives and works here, as I am exposed to the daily ins and outs, hustle and bustle (although I will get to my thoughts on the "hustle and bustle in a minute).
So far, our weather has been about what
we expected from Seattle in the spring, and again, this gives me a more realistic look at what it would be like to live here (last time I came it was 85 and sunny for the entire week). We have had temperatures in the mid to high 60s with a combination of sun and clouds and some slight rain. We took our first evening here to get orientated to our surroundings, wandered down to Pike's Place Market and grabbed some dinner at a bar and grill, the name of which I have written down but not handy at the moment so will make mention of in my next blog. Due to jet lag and a day of traveling, Sunday was a low key night, with the intention to kind of hit the ground running on Monday.
Being Memorial Day weekend, it has so far been strangely quiet here. Liz was actually the first to point this out - there have been very few cars, rather empty sidewalks and we literally feel loud as we're talking while strolling around the city because of the lack of usual city noise. We both agree that although it's nice to be able to have conversation at a normal level, we are such "big city people" that we actually miss the noises of the city and are hoping that as people get back to their daily routine after the holiday, it will start to feel like the good size city that it is. It's also quite a clean city, although coming from outside of Philadelphia and Chicago, perhaps we are just used to not so clean cities. I think this also has to do though with the fact that it has a big green focus, including recycling bins alongside trash cans, green cabs and other environmentally friendly efforts.
We wandered around a bit in the morning, down to Pike's Place Market which was open for business this time (although we didn't get to see the fish throwing yet) and then along the waterfront, back up to Pioneer Square and down to Qwest and Safeco fields, us being the huge sports fans that we are. Since we have no real set plans, we have been gathering ideas as we walk along and the morning's stoll inspired two thoughts - a boat ride on the water and a Mariners game. As luck would have it, the Mariners have a series at home against the Red Sox and we got tickets to last night's game. I won't be surprised if that stands as one of the biggest highlights of the trip. The Mariners (as baseball fans might know) are not doing so well this year and there were almost as many Sox fans in the stadium so it made for a lively crowd. It was an interesting contrast to the daily life we'd seen so far. For a city that has seemed so quiet over the past day and a half, the fans were very enthusiastic and everyone really got into the game (and oddly, the silly little games they play on the phan-o-vision in between innings - I think they cheered more loudly for those than the game!). As loud as everyone was, they were very civil. We were commenting that if we'd been at the top of the stadium at a Cubs or Phillies game, the fans would not only be sloppy and slurring their speach, but they'd probably be ready to fight anyone cheering for the opposing team. Here I witnessed the Red Sox fan behind me having a friendly, in depth conversation with the Mariners fan next to me, and almost everyone else displayed the same attitude. And with my final thoughts on the game, one silly question out there for anyone who may be able to help us answer - why do they serve apple slices with your onion fries at the game here? We tried and tried to figure this out and could come up with no reasonable explanation!
Backing up from my baseball tangent (sorry, can't help it, sports run in my blood), we met my sister Maura for a visit earlier in the day. After lunch at the Owl and Thistle, an Irish Pub in Pioneer Square, Maura suggested that we head to some of the sections of Seattle that weren't within walking distance, since she had driven downtown and could show us around. As she pointed out, Seattle is really a city of neighborhoods, each with their own town center and personality. This could also partially explain why the downtown didn't feel as much like a big city - because all of the focus is not the downtown area. We headed first to the Fremont area, which is a really nice area of boutique shops and cafe, a portion of the Burke-Gilman walking/biking trail and it sits on the Lake Washington Canal which is enjoyed by boaters, kayakers and other water sports enthusiast. Most of the stores were closed for the holiday, but Maura was in search of a Smencil which my cousin Jack requested for his birthday, and luckily the store that sold smencils (smelly pencils, if you haven't guessed) was open. From there we headed for a quick tour of Ballard, which has a very heavy Scandinavian influence and then took the scenic drive over to Bellview and back into Seattle where Liz and I relaxed before getting ready for the game.
Some other fun and interesting facts/thoughts about Seattle:
1. Along with Scandinavian influence, there is a large Asian population and a ton of ethnic, particularly Thai, restaurants. Maura informed me that the largest Asian populations here are Chinese, Japanese and Thai.
2. Within our first 30 minutes of walking, Liz and I realized how patient pedestrians were here and decided that this city needs to learn how to J-Walk. We later learned from my sister that the no J walking rule is strictly enforced with a ticket and $60 fine. We have now become patient pedestrians for the next 4 days.
3. While there are not any noticeably poor/run down areas (confirmed again by Maura), there are a lot of homeless - and this says a lot coming from two people in the suburbs of Philly and Chicago. As Liz said, it's a very vocal city here - the homeless/beggers have no problem talking to people and asking them for help. There are very few who just sit on the sidewalk with a cup or hat out, as many do in Philly.
4. There is definitely a more laid back feel here - people do not seem to have a pretentious air at all. We have seen very few people all "dolled up" with designer clothes, purses, make-up and shoes. Instead, it's very "comfy-clothes-friendly" and people seem to have a more natural look. This is a big plus in my book!
5. Their transportation system leaves something to be desired. They have no metro or L. They do have buses and Amtrak, but Amtrak is for longer haul trips. Their is a monorail that goes to Seattle Center where the Space Needle is, which conveniently has a station right by our hotel. However, it only makes this one back and forth route. Finally, there is the recently built South Lake Union Trolley, which goes up to Lake Union. As Maura quickly pointed out, those that created the new trolley didn't think about the fact that the long name would lend itself to an abbreviation, and hence people now walk around Seattle proudly donning "I rode the SLUT" t-shirts.
And with that, I am going to end this part of the blog and get ready for day two!! I will be posting pictures on flickr shortly.
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Mike Northen
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J Walk & Slut
Having been raised on the west coast I fully support the J walking law, but I'd love to see them try enforce it in Philly...I wouldn't mind one of those shirts, though.