Seattle, Portland, Olympia & Aberdeen - April 2013

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April 19, 2013: From Vancouver, we took the Bolt Busto Seattle. Bolt is significantly cheaper than Greyhound, and drops you off right in front of Seattle's Chinatown so naturally we had lunch there at a place called Piece of Cake. We took a cab to our hotel, the Medeterranean Inn in the Lower Queen Anne neighbourhood.

Our friends from Vancouver travel a lot to Seattle and Portland and were kind enough to give us a bunch of restaurant and bar suggestions, many of which follow. After sharing a bbq beef sandwich at the Frontier Room (2203 1st Ave.), we headed to the iconic Crocodile (2200 Second Ave @ Blanchard St.) to see some bands play. During the grunge years, this was the place to see all the greatest bands, including Nirvana. The indie/alternative rock/hipster scene today is a bit lamer, but it's still a good venue for live music in Seattle.

April 20, 2013: We strayed a bit from my friends' recommended list in favour of a place I had read about, Toulouse Petite Kitchen and Lounge for breakfast. It helped that it was just down the street from our hotel. It's a very funky cajun creole place, and if you go during the week most items on the breakfast menu are significantly discounted. We went on a Saturday morning - I had to try the Dungeness Crab Eggs Benedict, but decided to come back on Monday morning when it would be cheaper and enjoyed the classic eggs breakfast instead. Both were incredible. We were seated at the bar and while we didn't order any, the numerous Bloody Marys (known as Cesears to Canadians) I saw get made looked really good.

After breakfast, we walked through Seattle Centre and rode the Monorail, which was a little lame and expensive ($2.25 one way) considering the short ride. Then we walked to Capitol Hill and Volunteer Park. We went up the old water tower for panoramic views of the city, and it started to rain. I read that it's nice to visit the Conservatory on a rainy day, and indeed it was. We shopped a bit at Value Village, I found a pair of jeans that fit perfectly, then we had a drink across the street at Butterfly Lounge - Grims Provisions & Spirits (1512 11th Ave @ E. Pike St.) There's another bar upstairs called The Woods, but it doesn't open until later at night. As nice as this bar was, we wanted to check out the other recommendations on my friend's list, so we went around the corner and had a pint at The Unicorn (1118 E. Pike St.), a very colourful bar with painted tabletops, mounted animal heads, and pinball machines downstairs. Our friend also suggested The Comet at 922 E. Pike St, but when we walked by it there was a band playing and cover to get in. We didn't want to pay cover since we only had time for one more drink before making our way to Pike Place Market where we had plans for dinner and a burlesque show at The Pink Door (1919 Post Alley). We had a nice Italian dinner with a bottle of wine and vanilla gelato with a shot of espresso poured on top for dessert. And the burlesque show was pretty damn good too.

April 21, 2013: We had a bit of an adventure getting to what we were told was the best breakfast in Seattle, at Voula's Offshore Cafe. We waited for a bus a while on a Sunday morning, it finally came...I hate riding buses in unfamiliar cities, the routes are so much more complicated than subways. Your never sure how lost your going to get. We managed to get off the correct stop to catch the transfer we needed, but we expected the connecting bus stop would be just around the corner from where we were dropped off. As we were looking for that, the bus we wanted passed right by the stop we were just dropped off at. The next bus wouldn't come for 30 minutes and it was starting to rain, so we just walked the rest of the way. At Voula's, we had breakfast at the bar again, where we got to watch them prepare all the meals. My partner had the Oddinator Omelette, as recommended by both my friend and the waitress, and i had the awesome eggs benny w/ chipolte hollandaise. So delicious.

We walked off our breakfast by passing through Gas Works Park on the way to the Fremont Sunday Market. We had espresso at Fremont Coffee Company and chilled out along the canal as the sun came out. After revisiting the Lenin Statue and the Fremont Troll, we walked all the way back to our hotel. After a bit of a nap, we went up into the Space Needle to watch the sunset. The menu for the restaurant up there actually had pretty reasonable rates, and we probably would have eaten there had the wait not been so long. So we wandered around more. We didn't actually feel that hungry, so after walking along the waterfront, up through a very quiet Pike Place Market and downtown, we finally stopped at Belltown Pub for a couple pints and clam chowder.

April 22, 2013: For our last day in Seattle, it was a beautiful clear day so after our second breakfast at Toulouse Petite, we hiked up the Queen Anne Hill to see if we could get some good views. We did - you could see the Olympic Mountain Range and Mount Rainier, but they were too far in the distance for our camera to get any really good shots. And most of the views we had of the Space Needle with the city behind had hydro wires in the way. Regardless, this is a beautiful part of town for a stroll.

On April 28, 2013, after spending some time with friends in Whistler and Vancouver Island, we crossed back into the US via the Black Ball Ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles, WA. After spending some time driving through Olympic National Park, which I'll detail in a seperate post, we spent a night in Aberdeen, at the Aberdeen Inn. The only thing notable about Aberdeen for us of course, was that this is where Kurt Cobain grew up. So after waking up and having the crappiest breakfast ever at the Aberdeen Inn, we drove to see the house where he used to live (1210 E. 1st St @ Chicago Ave), and the Young Street Bridge over the Wishkah River he puportedly slept under. We were pleased to find the spot had been turned into a tribute park, KC Waterfront Park. There's a big sign with a picture of Kurt and the lyrics to Something in the Way, a guitar sculpture, and a decorative KC Park garbage bin. A third of his ashes were distributed into the Wishkah River here. We went to explore more underneith the bridge, but found someone was sleeping there so backed off so as not to disturb them.

As we drove through Olympic National Park, I wondered how a person could grow up tortured and depressed with so much beauty nearby. But driving through Aberdeen itself, I understood. It reminded me a lot of where I grew up. A small town, with nothing to do, and if you don't have access to a car your stuck. Even the Wishkah River is a cruddy brown, muddy river just like in my hometown.

After this we drove to Westport because I read you can sometimes see whales from the Observation Tower at the Marina. We didn't see any whales, but we did see some seals playing on a buoy out in the distance. It was sunny, but really windy and cold, and the Marina was pretty much deserted so we didn't stay long. There was a Sand Dune Trail that looked kind of cool, but we skipped it in favour of having more time in Portland, Oregon.

It took us a little longer than expected to drive to Portland, but we managed to arrive by 1:30. We drove around the downtown until we found parking near Chinatown in the Historic District, right in front of Voodoo Donuts. There was a huge line-up, and it looked like a funky place so we decided we had to try it. My partner got a coconut chocolate vegan donut, and I was a little disappointed by the Portland Cream, advertised on their menu as their signature donut, it was exactly like a Boston Cream. There were lots of crazy donuts with fruit loops and cocoa puffs - kind of wish i would have chosen something a little more interesting.

Chinatown was quiet and lame compared to most Chinatown's we've been to, but there was a neat spot with a whole row of painted doors. The graffiti on them kind of reminded me of sections of the Berlin Wall. I thought at first it was a cool way to beautify an ugly parking lot or construction site, but it actually turned out to be what looked like Portland's Occupy site still functioning a year after most cities had given up. The spot may have just been a type of outdoor soup kitchen run by volunteers. This part of Portland reminded me a lot of the area around Vancouver's Chinatown - lots of drug addicts and homeless people. But Portland has it's quirks that makes it different from anyplace I've ever been. For example, there's a guy who drives around in a crazy, bronze monkey van, and he has a monkey puppet and makes it look like the monkey is driving.

It doesn't really appear as if people actually live in downtown Portland besides the homeless. Like many US cities, the business district seems reserved for mostly business and panhandling. I think it's awful. Though there are some nice little parks and squares. We walked along the waterfront a bit. They were setting up for a carnival.

When we crossed the river, the charms of Portland started to become more apparant. We checked out a couple vintage shops along Hawthorne and sampled some beers and happy hour snacks at the very cool Bagdad Theatre and Pub (3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd. @ SE 37th Ave.) Next we headed to the Woodsman Tavern at 4537 SE Division St. for an incredible dinner. We went tapas style and ordered small plates of marinated octopus, smoked trout with cauliflower and pesto, dungeness crab, simple greens, and proscuittio followed by dessert consisting of rhubarb crisp and churros, ice cream and chocolate. Wow. The beer and coffee was really good too. Cannot recommend this place highly enough, so glad it got recommended to us!

We attempted to find a nice spot along the river to watch the sunset before leaving town, but failed. We drove onto Olympia, where we slept at the Olympia Inn. May 1, we woke up and walked to the Capitol Building, around the waterfront a little, and had breakfast at a marina restaurant with a nice view. Olympia is a good example of how a small town can be cool. It's pretty, has a good music scene, and last time we were here we saw the Procession of the Species parade. Go see this!

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Photos

Suicidal Sign

Fremont Lenin Statue
Since the last time we were here, someone has painted Lenin's hands red to signify blood.