It took us all day to fly to Seattle (including a stop in Dallas) and this is where we deviated slightly from our rough plan made back in April ‘08. We were originally intending to stop off in Dallas, rent a car and take three weeks around Arizona but earlier this year we changed all this for various reasons and instead spent the time in Brazil and Uruguay. As a result, we had a long(ish) haul from Costa Rica to Seattle and arrived in the early evening, a perfect time on a clear day to see the stunning scenery from the air (I've included both Seattle (L) and Chicago (R) on the same map below).
View USA in a larger map
The mountains were amazing and rolled on for miles. We had a great view of the Cascades on one side of the plane and the Olympics on the other and it certainly made us wish we had more time to explore the area. Just before landing we got chatting to a lady next to me (we'd been playing very important and competitive card tournament the whole flight), Meg, who lives in Seattle. Incredibly, Meg invited us to stay in her house for the time we were in Seattle, even though she was off to Hawaii the next day. This isn’t the first time we’ve been blown away by American generosity and unfortunately we couldn’t take Meg up on her offer as we had somewhere booked. We parted with plenty of good recommendations nonetheless.
Where to start? We think Seattle is a beautiful city in stunning surroundings and didn’t realise that it’s home to the likes of Google, Microsoft, Starbucks, Nirvana and Pearl Jam. The city centre seems small, relatively spread out and is sandwiched between freshwater of Lake Union
and the saltwater of Puget Sound. On a really clear day you can see mountains all around but we only just caught glimpses and weren’t so lucky to see the full vista in all its glory.
We visited just as the new leaves were coming out and many trees were in blossom so a pretty time of year to visit. Something that immediately struck me though was the number of SUVs and 4x4’s. I don’t think I’ve seen so many in a city before and these RAM things are everywhere!
We can say with some certainty if you’re on any sort of diet then we don’t think Seattle is the place to be! We literally ate our way around the city sights, starting with the famous Pike Market,
home to the famous Pike Place Fish Market, renowned for its fun and innovative approach to doing business.
We didn’t make the connection between the fish stall we were looking at and Pike Place Fish Market (there are a few fishmongers in the market) until one of the chaps out front in bright orange water-proof trousers picked up this whole salmon, a whopping great fish, shouted something to his mate behind the counter about 10ft away and threw this whole fish high over the stand, over the counter to his colleague who caught it, weighed it, packaged it and threw it right back for the customer. This was early in the morning and they were just warming up. This monk fish was laid out on ice and mostly you only see their tails so quite a few folk were taking a closer look at this whole fish. The monk fish tail was attached to a rope behind the counter and one of the guys pulled on the rope when someone got close, causing the mouth of the fish to slam shut as the whole fish was jerked upwards. The reactions were priceless.
Crab was big in Seattle (both figuratively and literally)
and these King Crab legs were well over a foot long.
The fresh salmon was also impressive (but I couldn’t help compare the price to that of the salmon in Chile…. about 10x the cost here).
There were hoards of tulips on sale at the market and they came in a glorious array of colours.
Just outside the market is the original Starbucks store and yes, we had a coffee there and no, we didn’t think the coffee in the original store is any better than any other Starbucks store….
If you want to lose your appetite, head to gum wall in Post Alley. Looking down the alley it looks like any normal street but get a bit closer
and there are thousands of pieces of chewing and bubble gum stuck to the walls. It started when patrons of Market Theatre in Post Alley began sticking gum on the walls while waiting in line and attempts to clean it off have been futile.
A novel idea perhaps but in reality it’s pretty gross! If this happened in Singapore there would be jail sentences being handed out!
After Brazil and Costa Rica we really felt the chill in the air and we wore all the clothes we had and were still cold. The locals however, were wandering around in shorts and t-shirts, lounging on the grass in the sun and soaking up what must have been some of the warmer weather they’d had for a while. We were on our way to Pioneer Square one morning but it didn’t take us long to get sidetracked. These amazing apples caught my eye.
I’d never seen anything like these before!
or these…
and as beautiful as they were, they didn’t look very edible and weren’t cheap at about US$8 per apple… (oh, plus tax. We keep forgetting about the tax!).
Moving on from apples, I also saw this t-shirt in a shop window and while I can’t honestly believe that anyone would wear this, I found it quite funny.
We finally reached Pioneer Square, the place where the original settlers relocated to in 1851. There are some cool old buildings in the area
a lovely old wrought iron bus stop
and the area is home to some cool shops, one of which we spent quite a bit of time in. The glass blowing studio was open for viewing and while there was no way we could carry any of the delicate pieces home with us (check out the blue vase thing with a squiggly yellow glass tube hanging from it. How on earth that would travel anywhere I have no idea!)
We spent a long time chatting to two young artists
who were making lamp shades (and it was also very warm and cosy with the glass being heated to temperatures over 2000 degrees F).
We visited the Seattle Public Library, one of the more architecturally interesting (free!) buildings in the city centre
and headed up another fascinating building, the Needle. Pretty way out for a building built in the 60’s we thought.
Apparently Prince Philip had something to say about the colour sequence, commenting that it reminded him of the protective paint used on rail bridges in the UK…. the colour is now a subtle white and gold I think (it was originally ‘galaxy gold’ (orange!) from memory).
The Needle isn’t that high but the views are stunning. This is downtown Seattle.
and this is looking out on Puget Sound and towards Bainbridge Island
You can stand outside but are fully wired in.
On the waterfront I even managed to get my ‘horse fix’.
This lady had her black Percheon harnessed up and was taking people along the waterfront. We aren’t into that sort of thing but were quite happy to stand and chat to her and the horse for a while. He was absolutely enormous, standing over 18hh (well over Euans head) at his shoulder and she told us it cost her US$200 every time she had to shoe him!
This was one of our favourite eating places
and they made the crumpets and we suspect that they even mixed the mixture by hand.
They offered wonderful crumpet toppings like ricotta, honey and toasted almonds or cream cheese, maple butter and walnuts. Yum!!
Another favourite eating spot was the Pike Place Brewery that did the most awesome burgers we’ve had in a long time and also a tasting platter of some of their favourite beers. Euan had a good go at them
before pushing them across for me to try.
We both had our favourites and their pale ale definitely wasn’t one of mine (I liked the Kilt Lifter Ale that had a whiskey taste to it).
We had dinner at a popular cheap Mexican restaurant one night and I’ve never seen so many people stream continuously through a door of a restaurant, always a good sign. Some folk here don’t understand my accent, something that was both frustrating and amusing at the same time. Lady behind the desk asked “What’s your name ma’am?”, I said “Kate” which was followed by dead silence from behind the desk…..then “Could you spell that for me please ma’am”. Sigh. (I won’t even begin to relay the conversation I had with two woman about whether tax was included. They honestly had NO idea what I was talking about.)
We gave a gasp of horror when we saw the Mexican meals. They looked amazing but one meal was plenty enough for two. The waitress leant down and whispered conspiratorially “that’s why Americans are so fat…” which we thought was a bit harsh and decided she could be from Canada, I mean who would insult their own (and her accent was difficult to pick)? When we asked her where she was from the next time she came by, she cheerfully said “Texas!”. So much for that then!
We did the recommended boat trip from Lake Union, through the Ballard Locks and back to the city in Puget Sound was pretty cool. Zymogenetics bought this old power plant and kept it intact, complete with all the chimneys. Capitol Hill is in the background.
We went past the floating homes in Lake Union, some of which looked pretty flash (the one on the left featured in that movie “Sleepless in Seattle”). These houses cost upwards of US$1 million now as no more are able to be built. There is a 2-story limit on them so some have hollow concrete bunkers underneath that create a basement space.
Boats were everywhere and had special garages
and some apartments came complete with boat shed below! How cool is that!
A canal joins Union Lake with Puget Sound and is home to yet more boats, including a stretch known as ‘Tugboat Alley’.
The wind whistled over the water so never mind “Sleepless in Seattle”…. we were “Freezing in Seattle”!
This yellow floating device detects any water contamination from the boats and sets off an alarm and there was a company devoted to ensuring the waterways stayed clean. Apparently all the floating houses were going to be destroyed because of the pollution but then the residents agreed to conform to the city standards.
I loved this pretty little house next to the gigantic barge.
The fishing boats were all moored up, waiting for the next crab season to start up in Alaska. Apparently these boats work 24/7 to harvest the crab during the season and can make in the region of US$1 million per season. Hard dangerous work but clearly worth it if it all works out OK. There is a programme over here called ‘Deadliest Catch’ that follows some of the boats and many of them were moored here.
These are the Ballard Locks (with a rail bridge open in the background). The drop is only 12ft and there is a fish ladder on one side so the salmon can go upriver to spawn.
Once out into Puget Sound there were some lovely homes along the water-front
and 1000’s of boats in marinas.
These houses were on less stable ground as this land is prone to huge slips
and there were remnants of fallen houses all along the waters edge!
The city came into view – a great skyline from the water.
Seattle has two very impressive stadiums. QWest is on the left, home to the Seattle Seahawks Football Team and Safeco, home to the Mariners Baseball Team is on the right. Safeco is one of the most expensive single-use stadiums in the world with the retracting roof alone costing US$67 million.
In between eating and seeing the sights we also squeezing in trips to the aquarium and the zoo, the latter being one of the better zoos we’ve been to. You might ask why on earth we’d go to a zoo when we’d travelled through countries with such incredible wildlife but there were animals there that we’d never seen before, such as a grizzly bear (me) and komodo dragon (Euan). They even had a Kea from NZ there. He was asleep with his head under his wing and Euan encouraged me to talk to him to see if he recognised a kiwi accent so I obliged. His head stayed tucked firmly under his wing.
We decided that, as far as cities go, Seattle was really pleasant place. We found it really clean, felt really safe and as far as eating options go, I don’t think I need to comment any further! Had the exchange rate been better we’d have stayed longer and rented a car but we were being hammered as it was and had gone from paying US$14 for a room in Costa Rica to US$81 per night. Difficult to swallow no matter how you look at it.
Next stop is Chicago and in all the people we’ve met, we’ve not heard one bad word about either Chicago or Seattle. Seattle has definitely lived up to expectations and we’re keen to see how Chicago compares.
View USA in a larger map
The mountains were amazing and rolled on for miles. We had a great view of the Cascades on one side of the plane and the Olympics on the other and it certainly made us wish we had more time to explore the area. Just before landing we got chatting to a lady next to me (we'd been playing very important and competitive card tournament the whole flight), Meg, who lives in Seattle. Incredibly, Meg invited us to stay in her house for the time we were in Seattle, even though she was off to Hawaii the next day. This isn’t the first time we’ve been blown away by American generosity and unfortunately we couldn’t take Meg up on her offer as we had somewhere booked. We parted with plenty of good recommendations nonetheless.
Where to start? We think Seattle is a beautiful city in stunning surroundings and didn’t realise that it’s home to the likes of Google, Microsoft, Starbucks, Nirvana and Pearl Jam. The city centre seems small, relatively spread out and is sandwiched between freshwater of Lake Union
and the saltwater of Puget Sound. On a really clear day you can see mountains all around but we only just caught glimpses and weren’t so lucky to see the full vista in all its glory.
We visited just as the new leaves were coming out and many trees were in blossom so a pretty time of year to visit. Something that immediately struck me though was the number of SUVs and 4x4’s. I don’t think I’ve seen so many in a city before and these RAM things are everywhere!
We can say with some certainty if you’re on any sort of diet then we don’t think Seattle is the place to be! We literally ate our way around the city sights, starting with the famous Pike Market,
home to the famous Pike Place Fish Market, renowned for its fun and innovative approach to doing business.
We didn’t make the connection between the fish stall we were looking at and Pike Place Fish Market (there are a few fishmongers in the market) until one of the chaps out front in bright orange water-proof trousers picked up this whole salmon, a whopping great fish, shouted something to his mate behind the counter about 10ft away and threw this whole fish high over the stand, over the counter to his colleague who caught it, weighed it, packaged it and threw it right back for the customer. This was early in the morning and they were just warming up. This monk fish was laid out on ice and mostly you only see their tails so quite a few folk were taking a closer look at this whole fish. The monk fish tail was attached to a rope behind the counter and one of the guys pulled on the rope when someone got close, causing the mouth of the fish to slam shut as the whole fish was jerked upwards. The reactions were priceless.
Crab was big in Seattle (both figuratively and literally)
and these King Crab legs were well over a foot long.
The fresh salmon was also impressive (but I couldn’t help compare the price to that of the salmon in Chile…. about 10x the cost here).
There were hoards of tulips on sale at the market and they came in a glorious array of colours.
Just outside the market is the original Starbucks store and yes, we had a coffee there and no, we didn’t think the coffee in the original store is any better than any other Starbucks store….
If you want to lose your appetite, head to gum wall in Post Alley. Looking down the alley it looks like any normal street but get a bit closer
and there are thousands of pieces of chewing and bubble gum stuck to the walls. It started when patrons of Market Theatre in Post Alley began sticking gum on the walls while waiting in line and attempts to clean it off have been futile.
A novel idea perhaps but in reality it’s pretty gross! If this happened in Singapore there would be jail sentences being handed out!
After Brazil and Costa Rica we really felt the chill in the air and we wore all the clothes we had and were still cold. The locals however, were wandering around in shorts and t-shirts, lounging on the grass in the sun and soaking up what must have been some of the warmer weather they’d had for a while. We were on our way to Pioneer Square one morning but it didn’t take us long to get sidetracked. These amazing apples caught my eye.
I’d never seen anything like these before!
or these…
and as beautiful as they were, they didn’t look very edible and weren’t cheap at about US$8 per apple… (oh, plus tax. We keep forgetting about the tax!).
Moving on from apples, I also saw this t-shirt in a shop window and while I can’t honestly believe that anyone would wear this, I found it quite funny.
We finally reached Pioneer Square, the place where the original settlers relocated to in 1851. There are some cool old buildings in the area
a lovely old wrought iron bus stop
and the area is home to some cool shops, one of which we spent quite a bit of time in. The glass blowing studio was open for viewing and while there was no way we could carry any of the delicate pieces home with us (check out the blue vase thing with a squiggly yellow glass tube hanging from it. How on earth that would travel anywhere I have no idea!)
We spent a long time chatting to two young artists
who were making lamp shades (and it was also very warm and cosy with the glass being heated to temperatures over 2000 degrees F).
We visited the Seattle Public Library, one of the more architecturally interesting (free!) buildings in the city centre
and headed up another fascinating building, the Needle. Pretty way out for a building built in the 60’s we thought.
Apparently Prince Philip had something to say about the colour sequence, commenting that it reminded him of the protective paint used on rail bridges in the UK…. the colour is now a subtle white and gold I think (it was originally ‘galaxy gold’ (orange!) from memory).
The Needle isn’t that high but the views are stunning. This is downtown Seattle.
and this is looking out on Puget Sound and towards Bainbridge Island
You can stand outside but are fully wired in.
On the waterfront I even managed to get my ‘horse fix’.
This lady had her black Percheon harnessed up and was taking people along the waterfront. We aren’t into that sort of thing but were quite happy to stand and chat to her and the horse for a while. He was absolutely enormous, standing over 18hh (well over Euans head) at his shoulder and she told us it cost her US$200 every time she had to shoe him!
This was one of our favourite eating places
and they made the crumpets and we suspect that they even mixed the mixture by hand.
They offered wonderful crumpet toppings like ricotta, honey and toasted almonds or cream cheese, maple butter and walnuts. Yum!!
Another favourite eating spot was the Pike Place Brewery that did the most awesome burgers we’ve had in a long time and also a tasting platter of some of their favourite beers. Euan had a good go at them
before pushing them across for me to try.
We both had our favourites and their pale ale definitely wasn’t one of mine (I liked the Kilt Lifter Ale that had a whiskey taste to it).
We had dinner at a popular cheap Mexican restaurant one night and I’ve never seen so many people stream continuously through a door of a restaurant, always a good sign. Some folk here don’t understand my accent, something that was both frustrating and amusing at the same time. Lady behind the desk asked “What’s your name ma’am?”, I said “Kate” which was followed by dead silence from behind the desk…..then “Could you spell that for me please ma’am”. Sigh. (I won’t even begin to relay the conversation I had with two woman about whether tax was included. They honestly had NO idea what I was talking about.)
We gave a gasp of horror when we saw the Mexican meals. They looked amazing but one meal was plenty enough for two. The waitress leant down and whispered conspiratorially “that’s why Americans are so fat…” which we thought was a bit harsh and decided she could be from Canada, I mean who would insult their own (and her accent was difficult to pick)? When we asked her where she was from the next time she came by, she cheerfully said “Texas!”. So much for that then!
We did the recommended boat trip from Lake Union, through the Ballard Locks and back to the city in Puget Sound was pretty cool. Zymogenetics bought this old power plant and kept it intact, complete with all the chimneys. Capitol Hill is in the background.
We went past the floating homes in Lake Union, some of which looked pretty flash (the one on the left featured in that movie “Sleepless in Seattle”). These houses cost upwards of US$1 million now as no more are able to be built. There is a 2-story limit on them so some have hollow concrete bunkers underneath that create a basement space.
Boats were everywhere and had special garages
and some apartments came complete with boat shed below! How cool is that!
A canal joins Union Lake with Puget Sound and is home to yet more boats, including a stretch known as ‘Tugboat Alley’.
The wind whistled over the water so never mind “Sleepless in Seattle”…. we were “Freezing in Seattle”!
This yellow floating device detects any water contamination from the boats and sets off an alarm and there was a company devoted to ensuring the waterways stayed clean. Apparently all the floating houses were going to be destroyed because of the pollution but then the residents agreed to conform to the city standards.
I loved this pretty little house next to the gigantic barge.
The fishing boats were all moored up, waiting for the next crab season to start up in Alaska. Apparently these boats work 24/7 to harvest the crab during the season and can make in the region of US$1 million per season. Hard dangerous work but clearly worth it if it all works out OK. There is a programme over here called ‘Deadliest Catch’ that follows some of the boats and many of them were moored here.
These are the Ballard Locks (with a rail bridge open in the background). The drop is only 12ft and there is a fish ladder on one side so the salmon can go upriver to spawn.
Once out into Puget Sound there were some lovely homes along the water-front
and 1000’s of boats in marinas.
These houses were on less stable ground as this land is prone to huge slips
and there were remnants of fallen houses all along the waters edge!
The city came into view – a great skyline from the water.
Seattle has two very impressive stadiums. QWest is on the left, home to the Seattle Seahawks Football Team and Safeco, home to the Mariners Baseball Team is on the right. Safeco is one of the most expensive single-use stadiums in the world with the retracting roof alone costing US$67 million.
In between eating and seeing the sights we also squeezing in trips to the aquarium and the zoo, the latter being one of the better zoos we’ve been to. You might ask why on earth we’d go to a zoo when we’d travelled through countries with such incredible wildlife but there were animals there that we’d never seen before, such as a grizzly bear (me) and komodo dragon (Euan). They even had a Kea from NZ there. He was asleep with his head under his wing and Euan encouraged me to talk to him to see if he recognised a kiwi accent so I obliged. His head stayed tucked firmly under his wing.
We decided that, as far as cities go, Seattle was really pleasant place. We found it really clean, felt really safe and as far as eating options go, I don’t think I need to comment any further! Had the exchange rate been better we’d have stayed longer and rented a car but we were being hammered as it was and had gone from paying US$14 for a room in Costa Rica to US$81 per night. Difficult to swallow no matter how you look at it.
Next stop is Chicago and in all the people we’ve met, we’ve not heard one bad word about either Chicago or Seattle. Seattle has definitely lived up to expectations and we’re keen to see how Chicago compares.
1 comment:
Seattle looks great and food looks pretty good too! Seeing big horse reminded me of a trip i'm going to talk you in to when you get back - keep the adventure going! Pippaxx
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