Wednesday - Today turned out to be another marathon day, but we got Seattle taken care of. We actually overslept a little, we intended to leave the campground by 7:30 and we didn't wake up until 7:15, so it was close to 7:45 when we got on the road. We made a quick stop at McDonalds when we got to the freeway, then headed south. We got through the first 40 miles in fairly light traffic, running at speed limit, but about 9 miles out we got slowed down, and at about 5 miles out we hit stop and go traffic. But the GPS put us in the express lane so it really didn't take that long to get into Seattle Proper. It did take a little while to figure out the parking place and where the bus stop was, but we got all that handled and had our tickets in hand by 9:30, so we had a half-hour to spare. I decided to leave my sweatshirt (that I had been wearing this morning) in the car, thinking I wouldn't need it. Well, that was a mistake. We chose the back seat of the trolley, which was open air, and I was chilly all morning. When we came off this tour, back to our original boarding site, I decided to walk back to the parking garage to get my sweatshirt. So, when we boarded that trolley, the back was full, so we sat inside, where it was warmer. And the temperature was probably close to 80 by now. So I did all that backwards. I had to wear or carry my sweatshirt all afternoon, although I didn't really need it now.
Anyhow, as we drove into Seattle, we caught our first glimpse of the space needle. We ended up being right beside it, and going up in it, but this was our first glimpse of this famous ikon of Seattle.
Our bus tour began at its base, right next to MoPOP (Museum of Pop Culture), but we did not go in that museum. It's supposed to represent melting guitars, but we didn't get that. I guess you have to see it from overhead, and I didn't think to check it out at the top of the space needle.
Our tour took us past the Amazon headquarters building, which originated in Seattle, along with Starbucks and Red Robin. Amazon employs 1/5 of the population of Seattle, soon to be 1/4, and they allow dogs in all their buildings. They hire about 100-150 people a day, and own (I think they built) two huge skyscraper buildings to house their employees because there was not enough places available. This picture below is their headquarters building.
Our tour took us through several historic neighborhoods, and an extensive drive through the University of Washington campus.
There is a park-like area called the "Rainier Vista View" which was created for Seattle's first World's Fair, in 1909. Four million people attended that fair. Their second World's Fair was in 1962, which brought in the Space Needle. Mt. Rainier is 50 miles from campus, but you can see it, and no buildings are allowed to be built to obstruct the view from this vista.
Our first "get-off" was at the Gas Works Park," voted the "ugliest" in some landscaping contest. The gas works is pretty rusty, and graffiti-covered (we could see it had been painted over in some places), but it's right on the waterfront, and we could watch the activity out on the water.
We got a good look of the Seattle skyline from here, and a better view of the floating homes we had passed earlier. These homes are like houseboats, but they don't have motors on them, and they are more than one story. They are basically a mobile home that floats. During storms, they tie them all together to try to prevent damage. These homes are priced from $500,000 to the millions.
We drove through the Ballard area where a troll had been built under the bridge. The area had had trouble with a lot of illegal activity being carried on under the bridge, so they hoped this addition would stop that, and it seems to have worked.
Another area we drove through had a lot of reconstruction over the years, but one little old lady refused to sell her home. I think she had lived there for something like 80 years. She refused offers of $750,000 and even a million. She became friends with the project manager, and left the house to him when she died at age 93, I think. They did not tear it down, and it may become a museum.
The next area, which is mainly Scandinavian, had a little park to recognize their roots.
Seattle has a major homeless program, and Microsoft, not known for its philanthropic works, has brought in a bunch of tiny homes to try to help solve this problem.
Our next stop was the Chittenden Locks. There's a 20 foot drop between Pugent Sound and the lake below, which I think is Lake Washington. We've seen several sets of locks in the last few years, so we didn't spent too much time here. And there were places to grab lunch back at the bus stop, so that's what we did.
Continuing on, we went through some ritzy neighborhoods with great waterfront views. And of course, all those people own boats, so we could see the boatyard where they are moored.
We finished the first tour and started the second one (now with my sweatshirt). We passed the aquarium (believe me, we've seen lots of those, especially in Florida), and our first "hop off" was down on the waterfront. We (I) walked through some souvenir shops, and we took a very pleasant ride on the ferris wheel that extends out over the water.
Again, we had great views of the water and Seattle skyline. There was a car ferry docked, and then we saw it leave, a freighter being brought in by a tug, the Olympic range across the way, and the Argosy tour boat heading out with its passengers..
Along our tour we also passed lots of breweries. Washington grows 2/3 of all the hops grown in the U.S. Our next stop was the famous Pike's Market. We had a 2-block walk from our stop in front of the Seattle Art Museum, uphill, to get to this market. When we left, we forgot to make a turn and walked about 4 blocks in the wrong direction before we asked directions and got turned around. At this point, we were over 10,000 steps, so we did NOT need the extra walk.
Anyhow, Pike's Market was a mess. So crowded you could barely walk, stinky with fresh seafood, and the prices seemed pretty high on their fruits and vegetables. I don't know the significance of the golden pig, but we stopped at it too. They did have beautiful flower bouquets for sale, and that seemed to be the hottest item.
Wikipedia says "The Market opened
August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continuously operated public
farmers' markets in the United States. It is a place of business for
many small farmers, craftspeople and merchants. Named after the central
street, Pike Place runs northwest from Union Street to Virginia Street.
With more than 10 million visitors annually, Pike Place Market is
Seattle's most popular tourist destination and is the 33rd most visited
tourist attraction in the world." I thought the bus narrator said the space needle was the number one attraction here. He also said there are over 600 vendors here, and over 200 restaurants. And we did get to see them "slinging fresh fish" from behind the counter to another worker in the aisle.
From here, we got another picture of our ferris wheel.
We finally got back to our bus stop, and got to sit down for a while waiting for the bus. I'm sure this art museum would have been worth a visit, but now we are at 12,000+ steps, with the space needle still to tour, so that wasn't going to happen. I did take a picture of the "sculpture" in front.
We concluded our bus tour with one more agenda item -- a trip to the top of the Space Needle. Fortunately, we got our tickets and they were already boarding for the next tour (5:30) so we didn't have to wait very long (we were told there could be as much as a three-hour wait). Of course, they were taking pictures as we went through to the elevator, but they are a free download, so that was different (free).
We could see the gift shop as we waited for the elevator. It appears to go all the way around, lots of opportunity to shop. The view from the top wasn't much different than the view from the top of the ferris wheel, but we did walk completely around it, through the gift shop, and FINALLY back to our car.
Selfie.
We could see Mt. Rainier from here, but didn't get a good picture, but we've got lots of pictures of that mountain, so that's ok. Nephew Paul proposed to Becky at the top of the Space Needle, so we gave that some thought while we were there. Not very private, is all I could think of.
We left Seattle about 6:30, traffic was not too bad, especially in the express lanes. We stopped at our exit for dinner at KFC and finally got home about 9:30, with 14,469 steps logged for the day. It was a very long day, and we could barely climb the four steps into our motorhome. But we can check Seattle off our list -- done with that.
And here's our professional photo from the Space Needle.
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