MORE GREETINGS FROM SEATTLE
Washington (WA), USA
We ended up having a bit of a siesta around dinner time and after our room service burgers got a second wind and managed to stay awake through the evening. We then slept pretty well till around 7am and I think we were well rested and ready to take in more sights of Seattle.
For breakfast we decided to head back to the markets. It is a much quieter place in the morning ! There was a café called Lowells we had seen yesterday which had a view over the bay so we decided that would be a good spot. We tucked into the American breakfast specialty of “Burnt to A Crisp Bacon” and lovely eggs and hash browns.
To fill in time before we met our tour guide at 10am, after breakfast we roamed some of the arcades we had missed yesterday and headed down to the waterfront to walk along the piers – and find one of our possible choices for dinner.. At the meeting point we met fellow members of the tour – a couple from St Louis, Missouri – and we chatted until the tour guide arrived. When we asked where they were from they seemed a little surprised that we even knew where St Louis, Missouri was. When we told them it was on our list to visit and we were up to state 27 their jaws hit the side-walk.
Our tour guide, Terry arrived and we headed for the bus which was parked just up the street. It was a small bus with 10 of us in total which was a good size.
First stop was about a 40 min drive south east of Seattle to Snoqualmie Falls. Along the way he filled in time with a lot of facts and information about Seattle and the surrounding areas and the history of these parts.
At the top of the falls is a power station which provides power to approximately 35,000 homes. We had about 30 minutes here to wander around and take photos. The area has nice gardens and there is a hotel at the top overlooking the falls. It was actually used in the 1990’s cult tv series “Twin Peaks” – about finding the murderer of Laura “wrapped in plastic” Palmer.
Apparently they are about to shoot a remake so it may get another lease of life.
Next it was back to Seattle and across town to the Fremont Troll. He is a sculpture under a road bridge which came about as a result of an idea to get rid of an unsightly area where people tended to dump old cars. The area received an Arts grant and they decided to run a prize for an appropriate choice of something to go here. From the 4 best entries, the “peoples choice” was the Troll so here he sits – with VW in hand !
We then headed to the locks which connect the lake to the river. The lake is the lower reaches of the Puget Sound and where the river comes in here there is a rise where they have built locks to move boats from one part to another. It also has locks for the salmon who migrate up the river to their spawning grounds – having come all the way from feeding in Alaskan waters !
Like the boats, they congregate in the water below the locks until they are opened then rush up the stepped levels and back into the river.
Last stop for the tour was a place called Kerry Park which is on a hilly area north west of the downtown. It gave us a great panorama of the city skyline. Unfortunately with the smokey haze we were unable to really see Mt Ranier, which is actually in the background of the photo. But today “the mountain wasn’t really out” – this seems to be the way the locals refer to the visibility of the mountain. When you can see it, the “mountain is out”.
Terry dropped us off back at the markets around 2pm and we ducked into Uli’s Famous Sausage for lunch. Uli makes all kinds of fancy sausages which you can have on a bread roll. We went for the hot “Cajun Poorboy” which was an andouie sausage – we had come across these tasty morsels in the South – with caramelised onion and coleslaw. Very tasty !
Probably not a great choice straight after lunch but we had to see the “gum wall” before we headed off. Terry, the tour guide had described this as the second most un-hygienic tourist attraction in the world after the Blarney Stone. You have probably seen all the bridges around Europe where people have clamped padlocks all along the bridge fences. Well this is the wall of a building – sort of an alleyway really – where people have been depositing used gum ! And it is absolutely covered with it ! Gross looking – but there was definitely a pleasant waft of Spearmint in the air.
We made a brief stop at the hotel then walked a little way to the monorail stop to head to the Space Needle. The Needle was built as part of the 1962 World’s Fair and the area around it has been made into a bit of an entertainment quarter. Right next door is a weird looking building – designed by Frank Gehry – which is the Experience Music Project Museum – basically a museum of rock and roll. The is also a great kids playground, a science centre and a futuristic Chihuly Garden and Glass – and exhibition which displays glass garden sculptures.
But the task was to get me to the top of that needle for the view – and I have the Gopro footage to prove it has been done !
Again, it gives a fine panorama of the city and surrounding mountains – Mt Ranier to the east, the cascades to the north and the Olympic range to the west.
With feet back on terra firma, we took the monorail back to the hotel to put our weary feet up for a while before heading out again for dinner.
Seattle is definitely the place for seafood so tonight’s choice for dinner was Ivar’s Acres of Clams down on Pier 54. The pier area seems to be going through some sort of sea wall reinforcement or rebuilding so the pier area is a bit of a building site. (Mind you a lot of Seattle is also) Ivar’s pier has been newly renovated but has been here for nearly 80 years. It started out as an aquarium and diner but he found that he was selling more meals than aquarium admissions so the aquarium disappeared.
It was a great spot to watch the sun go down as we had our meal – we shared a lovely hot Dungeness Crab and Goats Cheese dip then Adrienne had Ivar’s world famous Fish n Chips and I had a Grilled Wild Sockeye Salmon – all delicious !
Luckily we had a good uphill walk on the way back to the hotel so we could walk off our dinner !
One last photo of the markets and it was back to get ourselves sorted for tomorrow as we pick up our car and head off on the next part of our tour – tomorrow it’s Mt Ranier.