Postcard from Seattle, Part 2

When we last left off I was ogling the bountiful produce at Pike Place Market and taking pictures of the original Starbucks. My original plan had been to grab some lunch at one of the stalls at Pike Place but I wasn’t super hungry yet so I decided to take a walk to where Seattle began—Pioneer Square.

Pioneer Square is where one of the first founders of Seattle—Henry Yesler—built his sawmill back in the day. It is also home to the city’s first skyscraper and lots of cool galleries, interesting parks, and coffee shops. The area definitely has a different feel than other parts of the downtown area—brick buildings, ivy, and unexpected sanctuaries from city life.

At this point the rain started coming down and I was feeling a bit weary from all the walking so I headed to Zeitgeist Coffee to take a load off and grab a pick me up.  My latte did not disappoint:

After checking my email and consulting my newly acquired guide book I decided to head back out into the rain, back to Pike Place Market to grab a bite to eat. I ended up eating a grilled salmon sandwich at Lowell’s (very fresh and very tasty).  Refueled, I headed back into the misty weather and decided to take a break from the rain at the Seattle Art Museum.

SAM is home to a pretty eclectic collection of Native American, African, old-school European, and modern American art with some ancient Greek and Roman artifacts thrown in as well. I’ll be honest, it was a bit schizophrenic for my taste, but I did enjoy the Pacific Northwest Native American exhibits and there was a pretty cool photography exhibit in the modern art section as well.

At that point it was approaching late afternoon and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do the rest of the day. I knew I wanted to be in kind of early since I had a 6:00am flight home the next morning (getting up at 3:30am for that was painful, let me tell you).  I was trying to decide whether it would be worth it to visit the Seattle Space Needle or whether it was just too touristy when I walked outside. Lo and behold—the sun was out! The skies were blue! It was beautiful weather. I thought I might finally get a peek at those Olympic Mountains so I headed back to the waterfront. Just as I got there, they were boarding a boat to do a harbor cruise so I decided to take that as a sign and hopped on board.

Although incredibly touristy (they made me have my picture take before boarding the ship which was somewhat awkward since I was sailing solo), it was definitely an hour well spent on such a beautiful afternoon. I got a little history, some gorgeous views, and some time on the blue waters of Elliot Bay. It was the perfect way to end the day.

The Space Needle and the Olympic Sculpture Park from the water

I spent a lot of time trying to get a shot of the Olympic Mtn range...here you can see one of Seattle's ferry boats and if you squint your eyes just right you might see the snow topped mountains in the background. Near the clouds.

All in all my day in Seattle was great. Next time I go I would like to spend more time off the beaten path. But for my first solo sightseeing trip it was definitely a good one. And I look forward to going back and sharing the sites, sounds, and tastes of Seattle with Jason sometime in the not too distant future.

Postcard from Seattle, Part 1

As you may remember, I spent a week in the Pacific Northwest a few weeks ago as part of my whirlwind seven week tour of the country for work.  Originally the trip was supposed to be two travel days (to get there and back) and one day each in Portland/Salem, Oregon, and Olympia, Washington, in various meetings. Since I was going all the way out there (after 6 weeks of travel for work) I decided I deserved the opportunity to see some of what the area had to offer. So I took a day off and spent it exploring Seattle.

Given the crazy schedule I had been leading up to my trip I did not have time to do my usual planning. All I did was print out Frommer’s suggested one day itinerary for seeing Seattle and hoped it would guide me well.  Armed with that and my Droid, I figured I’d be able to “wing it.”

That lasted all of 2 or so hours.

I ended up buying a Seattle guide in the Seattle Aquarium giftshop---one of my first stops of the day (more on that in a second). Oh well. You know what they say about old dogs and new tricks, right?! But I’m getting ahead of myself…

Still on something closer to East Coast time despite three days of being on the West Coast, I woke up early and was out the door of my hotel by 7:45am. The weather forecast also indicated that rain was going to move in around noon so I thought I should try and take advantage of not having to use an umbrella while I could. My first stop was going to be Pike Place Market—unfortunately I was a little early even for them. So I grabbed a coffee and a bagel and walked down to the Olympic Sculpture Park instead.

View of the city from the park

The park is part of the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) and consists of 9 acres of exhibits and walking trails all along the waterfront. On a clear day you can see the beautiful Olympic Mountains too. Unfortunately, the day was not that clear.

After a nice walk checking out the art and the view, I decided to walk back towards downtown along the waterfront. I like water and boats and pretty much anything that goes along with those things (I used to be obsessed with Deadliest Catch for goodness sakes) so I really enjoyed the walk, seeing commercial cargo ships, the big fishing boats, the cruise ships, the ferry boats….Seattle really is the place to be if you are in to all things maritime.  After my waterfront walk, I went to the Seattle Aquarium. Given my predilection for life aquatic, I also really like aquariums and can’t resist visiting them whenever I come across them.

The Aquarium

The Seattle Aquarium was nice...small but the real deal. It was very locally-focused which I enjoyed. And does not have any animal shows which I also appreciate. Besides, who needs trained animals when you have really adorable sea otters like these:

My marine life (in all its forms) desire satisfied, I decided to see if Pike Place Market was bustling yet. It was. It was also a foodie’s dream, albeit a bit touristy. Beautiful , fresh seafood and produce everywhere you looked. Gorgeous fresh flowers that were SUPER CHEAP….I walked around there for a good 45 minutes taking everything in and wondering if I could get any of it home with me. I settled for The Pike Place Market Cookbook instead.

Pike Place Market is also home to the very first Starbucks. I decided not to stop there because I wasn’t sure it would be all that different from any of the other Starbucks around the world. And besides, I was on the hunt for latte art! And I wasn’t sure Starbucks…even the Mothership…was going to get me there.

This is where it all began.

Stay tuned for Part 2 where we check out some more art, waterfront views, cool little parks, and yes…latte art!