Seattle - Day 2

I could not resist, I had to go back to Pike Place to see a few more fish be thrown.   While walking through the Market we saw this “work of art”, the gum wall in Post Alley.                     This is listed as the 2nd most unsanitary attraction in the world, the first, the Blarney Stone.

We met Sam and Sue at the Market. We talked and talked for a couple of hours. It was like we already knew each other. Nice people!  We went down to Pioneer Square to take the Under Ground tour of Seattle. Seattle, after many years being at sea level and being subjected to the tides coming in and out and leaving the town in muck, was raised many feet up after a fired leveled the town. It took many years to complete the raising and during this time you had storefronts at street level while the sidewalks were 8 to 10 feet higher. The businesses needed to have 2 store fronts, one low and one high, and the lower one would eventually become the basement. This tour showed us how Seattle was raised and what life was like prior to the raising. Have you ever seen glass squares in sidewalks and wondered what they were for. I did and now I know. They are skylights! When the city was elevated, people continued to use the lower levels and needed light under the sidewalks.           On to the Space Needle.           Amazing views!              Lake Union   The Stadiums    

The Experience Music Project is a rock and roll museum. This was really fun. Not only did you see many instruments and a lot of history behind all types of music, but this is an interactive museum. You could play the drums and guitar etc and you could make a DVD of you being a rock and roll star in front of 200,000 people.

Next is the Science Fiction Museum which is the first museum devoted to paying tribute to the creators, writers, artists, publishers, and filmmakers of Sci-fi. Brought back memories of many shows I watched growing up and in fact I still say “warning, warning, Will Robinson” from Lost in Space” when something is happening that isn’t quite right. For those of you who don’t remember this robot would warn young Will Robinson when something bad was going to happen.

Seattle has a 1% rule. Whatever the cost of new construction is, 1% of that will need to go towards art. There is art of all types all over the city. These eyes are also chairs on the back side.        

This is a stainless steel tree and in the back ground you can see a red star like           sculpture

 

 

 

 

 

                     Of  course you have “working man” outside of the  Seattle Art Museum.         Not only do you have art all over the city but you have artists. There are street acts all over making there living playing.

On to the Lady Mary for a harbor cruise of Elliott Bay.   

We walked over the town and jumped on a tour bus to get more details of what we were seeing.

Seattle is known for the coffee, Starbucks being the most popular and my least favorite. Tulleys is their competitor and we stopped at the cutest little shop for a pick me up. We had an Americana which is a double espresso then the remainder of the cup is filled with water. Really good and smooth. Nice way to top off our day.

Seattle Here We Come, Thanks BCI

We decided to stay just outside Seattle in Tacoma, WA at McChord AFB. It’s an easy 40 minute ride into Seattle and you can’t beat the $11 a night fee to stay in the quiet and peaceful surroundings. The weather has not been cooperating with us for the last several days and doesn’t look good for the next few, but that didn’t stop us. We have the Seattle spirit… it’s just water.  Even the weather guy on the news is surprised about this much rain and the cold temps at this time of the year.

We have a 3 day Go-Pass that allows you entry into all of the participating attractions in and around Seattle thanks to my co-workers at BCI.                       When I resigned at BCI they gave this to Tommy and I as Bon Voyage gift. And what a great gift it has been!! We would not have seen or done so many things without this. What a great city Seattle is. Thank you again BCI!

The first day here we went to Pike Place where the farmers market is.  I could have stayed there all day and watched the fish mongers throw the fish and chime in, almost  in a song, when a customer purchased something. They were autographing books that they sold and made a show of it. One guy would sign a book and yell “sign the book” then all the guys there would yell back “ sign the book”, this continued until all the guys signed the book. It would start over when another book was purchased. They are good with slinging those fish.    They even allowed customers catch the fish they were buying. They would jump up on the counters to get the attention of potential customers and take their orders.     It was fun to watch the customers look at this ugly Monk Fish. Tied to the fish’s tail was a rope that led to the back of the counter.         On occasion an employee would pull the rope to make the fish move and of course the customer really moved. Too Funny!!!!

We looked at all of the goods the merchants had and of course some of the fresh produce made their way home with us.

When we returned to McChord we thought we would bowl a few games.                               What form!

 

 

 

 

 

We had a great time. Tommy and I have only bowled 2 times in the 15 years we have been together.

Not too bad for only bowling two times in all of these years.

Victoria

We caught the 8:20 am ferry to Victoria, BC and unbeknownst to me, today is one of their biggest holidays. They celebrate Queen Victoria’s birthday. This was the longest parade I have ever seen. They invite schools from the US to participate and had schools from WA and OR there. What an honor that must be and exciting for the kids. There is a large Chinese community here and had several entries in this parade. There were local businesses advertising there services.

There were clowns,

characters from children’s stories, bikes, and even Elvis.

Of course the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were present and accounted for.

We watched the parade for several hours and it started two hours prior to us arriving and continued for quite some time after we left to explore the city.

Chinatown was beautiful

. The Empress Hotel is the hotel of hotels. It is so regal looking with the ivy. So many beautiful details, gardens, even the mail box is shiny and beautiful. The Parliament Building is exquisite. Unfortunately we could not tour it because of the holiday and most stores and official places were closed.

What a nice day in Victoria. Hope we are able to return someday.