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Published: October 10th 2006
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Once we had dropped off the truck in Vancouver we caught the Greyhound for the 4 hour journey to Seattle for the bargain price of 15 quid each........wa hey, alright now baby it's a alright now, cue the Wrigleys gum!!
The boarder crossing broke up the journey and apart from the control personell having a charisma bypass and trying to intimidate me with a white plastic glove....it all went relatively smoothly.....Quite enjoyable really!! And they only charged $6........
Other highlights of the journey was meeting Norm, an Aussie who we had a good chat with. He had recently done a similar trip to us in Canada and so we were reminising on the places we had been and the quirks of Canadian life such as the lack of roundabouts and the large number of bums laid out on the Vancouver streets!! We also talked about a lot of other stuff so Norm, thanks mate it was good to meet you and we hope you had a good stay in Seattle.
The first thing I’d say about Seattle is that there doesn’t seem to be much budget accommodation, not within a 20 mile radius of downtown anyway. The two
hostels that where listed were both full, but lucky the guy who answered the phone at the Green Tortoise gave us a number for the Moore Hotel. $90 a night INCLUDING TAX!! Like I said there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of budget accommodation.
The Moore Hotel was cool though, big rooms, clean, comfy beds, good views from the window and a great location in the Bell Town District. The friendly staff were really helpful and we ended up staying for a week and managed to negotiate a good price for our room.
The first night we ventured out on the town for a meal. Immediately you notice the amount of homeless and general nutters loitering on the streets, which for a person from Newton Abbot can be quite intimidating (but I kept her close under my wing, cheep cheep!!). We were having a general wonder when all of a sudden Jo pipes up with a “right here” what? “I can smell some nice food!!“ Did she find a restaurant? No, she found Tiffany’s!! So I think her internal food/ jewelry navigation system’s got a cross wire! Anyway, to cut a long window shop short
we ended up having a really nice Mexican with accompanying frozen Margaritas.
Over the next couple of days we took it easy enjoying walks along the harbour front to Elliot Bay (homeless sunbathing order of the day!) and through Pike Place Market which was fun. We saw the singing fish throwers and lots of nic knack stuff a bit like Camden Market. We also saw the first Starbucks and a wicked movie memorabilia shop with thousands of back dated comics and the original miniature figure merchandise of lots of films (Katie you better look after Steve’s Star Wars figures as there worth a bit!). Oh and the flowers (hand over to Jo!) The flower were lovely, there were lots of flower stalls with bright unusual flowers even miniature cabbages in great big bouquets, all for $10, bargain (hand back to Ben). Yeah the flowers!! ANYWAY!! We also got to eat a Russian pasty, so that's Jason's pasty challenge done and dusted. You'll have to come up with a better one than that mate ; ).
On one of our walks we met another Norm who gave us some pointers on what to see when in Seattle. One of
his recommendations was a duck tour.
We took Norm’s advice and weren’t disappointed. We toured the city in a World War II amphibious vehicle. The tour included all the down town attractions before heading onto the waters of Lake Union for a look at the famous houseboats (Sleepless in Seattle & Amazon owner ’s), Gas works park and the city skyline. The driver was a bit of a nutter, born and breed in Seattle! But was good fun and had some good one liners.
The duck tour was right next to the Space Needle and the Music Project (weird reflective building in duck picture, which is meant to be a broken guitar!). We didn’t go up the needle as Norm said it was a bit of a waste of money so we put the money towards a boat trip to Bainbridge Island which was recommended as having much better views of the city if you caught it back after dark.
Bainbridge Island is a short half an hour ferry ride from Seattle and was first inhabited by settlers from the east in the early 1800’s. Before that Native Americans used the Island as a sort of camping/hunting
stop, camping along the shoreline and gathering clams. By the time of WWII it was being used as a Naval Radio Station sending and receiving messages from bases and ships in the Pacific. Today it is a thriving commuter community with quaint shops and quiet tree lined streets. We picked a spot by Eagle Harbour and sat and talked while the sun went down, well until we got hungry!! We walked up the road and found an original caboose Diner and pigged out on burger and chips, oh and onion rings and chocolate milkshakes!! After our refueling it was time to head back and the recommendations were right I don’t think we could of got a better view of the city. As soon as the ferry left the harbour you could see Seattle’s shoreline lit up standing out against the black backdrop. Awesome!!
The next morning we took a long walk from Downtown up to Volunteer Park and the Lake View Cemetery where Bruce and Brandan Lee are buried side by side. I don’t know a great deal about Bruce Lee’s life having only watched a couple of his films, but I know that he has had a significant
influence on a lot of people in a positive way either by entertaining them in his films or by giving them the motivation to take up a martial art discipline. So we waited our turn to pay our respects and as we left and walked down the hill you could see a wicked view of Washington Lake.
After our pilgrimage of sorts it was back to our hotel room for a cheese, wine and cards evening. We got to grips with the rules of ‘Shithead’ and played out a 3-3 draw before we were exhausted and hit the hay.
Sunday was ‘Game’ day and we were off to Safeco Field to see the Seattle Mariners take on the Texas Rangers. It was a great experience as it was their last game of the baseball season and they call it "Fan Appreciation Day" where they give away a lot of prizes. It was my first baseball game and I was really quite excited and needless to say so was Joey!!! We took up our seats behind, and a little above 3rd Base!! The seats were brilliant though and we had clear views of the battle between the pitcher and
the batter. We were treated to an excellent game with three home runs and couple of double plays. The Mariners edged out winners 3-2. Good game, will definitely go see another one if possible. We also found out where Storey has been since he disappeared from Barnes!! Check out the photo below.
On the way back from the game we walked through Pioneer Square, which was part of the original settlement of Seattle. The great fire of June 6th 1889 saw a large part of the city burnt to the ground . By the end of the year 130 new brick buildings had risen from the ashes and are there standing today, the majority unchanged. Unfortunately, as with many of the historic come tourist attractions in Seattle the square was filled with homeless people sprawled out against the statues and surrounding benches. It's a shame and you start to think that they are like ghosts, people just going about their business as if they weren’t there. I guess that’s why the homeless just hang out where ever!! Anyway, I don’t want that to deter people from visiting, but it will be the first thing you notice. This aside the
views are awesome with the Olympus mountain range oneside and Mount Rainer to the other, this is a great place, full of great experiences with laidback and talkative locals all going to create what feels like a modern, upbeat, going places city.
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