We weren’t up too early since we had to find a post office
we could mail our box at. Talking to the
front desk girl, many post offices in the area were closed on Saturdays but,
there was a large one in Lakewood, just 10miles up the road, that would be open
and we could mail our box from there.
They opened at 0900 so Rosie and I were checked out and on the road by
0930. We still got to the post office
early, no matter, there was a small coffee hut, the ‘Black Star’, right in the
parking lot of the post office. There
were tons of small coffee joints everywhere we went in Washington State. I had a double espresso and Rosie had a ‘wet’
cappuccino – wet meaning more steamed milk instead of steamed foam… that would
make the cappuccino a latte, right? J Anyway, got our package mailed out back to
New Jersey just after 0900 and jumped back in the SUV to continue our drive up
to Seattle.
As we approached the city, traffic slowed quite a bit on the
I-5 for no real discernable reason.
Rosie and I had decided to head straight for the Space Needle on Broad
Street so, at our first opportunity I exited off the I-5 and drove into the
city. In no time at all, we were parking
in a pay per lot very near the base of the Space Needle. A short hike later and we were buying our
tickets, $19/adult, and queuing up for the elevator ride up to the observation
deck at around the 500’ level.
Side Note: The Space Needle is an observation tower in Seattle, Washington, a landmark of the Pacific Northwest, and a symbol of Seattle. Built in the Seattle Center for the 1962 World's Fair, which drew over 2.3 million visitors, nearly 20,000 people a day used its elevators. Once the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River, it is 605 ft (184 m) high, 138 ft (42 m) wide, and weighs 9,550 tons. It is built to withstand winds of up to 200 miles per hour (89 m/s) and earthquakes of up to 9.1 magnitude, as strong as the 1700 Cascadia earthquake. It also has 25 lightning rods. It has an observation deck at 520 ft (160 m) and a gift shop with the rotating Sky City restaurant at 500 ft (150 m). From the top of the Needle, one can see not only the downtown Seattle skyline but also the Olympic and Cascade Mountains, Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, Elliott Bay, and surrounding islands. Photographs of the Seattle skyline often show the Space Needle prominently, above the rest of the skyscrapers and Mount Rainier. Visitors can reach the top of the Space Needle by elevators that travel at 10 miles per hour (4.5 m/s). The trip takes 41 seconds, and some tourists wait in hour-long lines. On windy days, the elevators slow to 5 miles per hour (2.2 m/s). On April 19, 1999, the city's Landmarks Preservation Board designated it a historic landmark.
The elevator ride didn’t take long. On this day the weather was overcast but,
starting to clear. Visibility was
unlimited and Rosie and I made a couple of circuits around the deck. I spent time at each cardinal direction and 4
other positions to take photos of the view.
We only spent about 30mins on the observation deck. Enough time to place an order for a posed
photo taken by the Space Needle’s photographer.
When we got back down to the gift shop at the base of the Needle, we
made some souvenir purchases and left to go take a ride on the nearby city
monorail to the Pike’s Place area on the water.
The monorail was nothing extraordinary, just another means
of getting around the city. Once we
debarked near Pike’s Place and started to walk around some – I actually stopped
into the Seattle Mariners store and bought a mini-bat – we realized that it would
be much better if we’d driven here, parked and then walked down to Pike’s
Place. So, we jumped back on the train
to the Space Needle, picked up the SUV and drove down and found parking near
Pike’s Place Market.
Side Note: Pike Place Market is a public market overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, United States. 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 Pike Street to Virginia Street, and remains one of Seattle's most popular tourist destinations. The Market is built on the edge of a steep hill, and consists of several lower levels located below the main level. Each features a variety of unique shops such as antique dealers, comic book and collectible shops, small family-owned restaurants, and one of the oldest head shops in Seattle. The upper street level contains fishmongers, fresh produce stands and craft stalls operating in the covered arcades. Local farmers and craftspeople sell year-round in the arcades from tables they rent from the Market on a daily basis, in accordance with the Market's mission and founding goal: allowing consumers to "Meet the Producer". Pike Place Market is home to nearly 500 residents who live in 8 different buildings throughout the Market. Most of these buildings have been low income housing in the past; however, some of them no longer are, such as the Livingston Baker apartments. The Pike Place Market sees 10 million visitors annually. It is also the home of the first and original Starbucks Coffee shop.
We parked up by the intersection of 2nd Avenue
and Stewart St, for $30/10hrs, which meant we had a 2 block walk, mostly
downhill, to Pike’s Place. On our way
down we followed a young, tattooed couple happily sharing a joint… we were quite surprised. I was so surprised by this that I called my
West Region colleague, Mike, and asked him about the legality of ‘pot smoking’
– he confirmed it. Wow! We would see evidence throughout the day of
people of all shapes, sizes and ages, buying and enjoying lighting up. Just not for me.
Rosie and I really enjoyed the smells, people, stalls,
vendors, activity and, energy of Pike’s Place!
It’s not a tremendously large area, probably about 2 to 3 city blocks
long and only as wide as the vendors and merchants lining both sides of the
street. We made several passes through
the market area before we ever bought anything.
Since it was coming up on mid-day, Rosie and I looked for and found an
interesting looking place to buy lunch:
Piroshky Piroshky’s, Russian Bakery.
There were quite a few people queued up to buy their offerings but, the
line was moving very quickly. We bought
our pastries and strolled over to the northwest end of Pike’s Place to a small
grassy area, Victor Steinbrueck Park, and took a seat under a tree for shade
and enjoyed our tasty repast while people watching. There was a couple directly across from us
selling trinkets and Mary Jane to anyone wanting some… they were doing brisk
business.
Spent about 20mins enjoying our meals and just being in
Seattle before we got up and headed back into Pike’s Place proper. We decided it was time to get in line for
Starbucks, not necessarily for coffee but, for the experience and to buy some
gradu from the very first Starbucks Coffee shop. We ended up buying not only, drinks, but also
a couple of mugs and t-shirts. While we
were in line we struck up a conversation with a nice lady from Pennsylvania who
told us about some ‘locks’ nearby that were worth the visit. After doing a bit more research, we found out
that the locks were the Chittenden Locks, Northwest 54th Street, in
a suburb of Seattle known as Ballard about a 6mile drive from where we were. Decided we’d go visit after we’d done a bit
more shopping inside the market place.
On our first pass through the market place, we saw several
leather goods makers that were of some interest, initially to me J before
Rosie cottoned on, and we decided to go back and make a few purchases. Of the 2 vendors we saw, our favorite was
Stickman Leather and the owner/artisan, Shawn.
After some light negotiation, I bought a gorgeous leather bag to use for
my new GPS and Rosie bought a slightly larger black leather over the shoulder
hand bag. We were quite pleased with our
purchases. Rosie also bought some all
natural, handmade lotions before we departed the market place for our SUV and
the Chittenden Locks.
Side Note: The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks is a complex of locks that sits at the west end of Salmon Bay, part of Seattle, Washington's Lake Washington Ship Canal. They are known locally as the Ballard Locks after the neighborhood to the north. (Magnolia lies to the south.) The locks and associated facilities serve three purposes:
- To maintain the
water level of the fresh water Lake Washington and Lake Union at 20–22 feet
(6.1–6.7 m) above sea level (Puget Sound's mean low tide).
- To prevent the
mixing of sea water from Puget Sound
with the fresh water of the lakes (saltwater intrusion).
- To move boats from
the water level of the lakes to the water level of Puget Sound, and vice
versa.
The complex includes two
locks, 30 × 150 ft (9.1 × 46 m) (small) and
80 × 825 ft (24 × 251 m) (large). The
complex also includes a 235 ft (72 m) spillway with six 32 × 12 ft
(9.8 × 3.7 m) gates to assist in water-level control. A fish ladder is integrated into the locks for migration of anadromous fish, notably salmon. The grounds
feature a visitor’s center, as well as the Carl
S. English, Jr., Botanical Gardens. Operated by the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, the locks were formally opened on July 4, 1917, although
the first ship passed on August 3, 1916.
They were named after U.S. Army Major Hiram Martin Chittenden, the Seattle District
Engineer for the Corps of Engineers from April 1906 to September 1908. They were added to the National
Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The locks proper:
As noted above, the complex includes two locks.
Using the small lock when boat traffic is low conserves fresh water
during summer, when the lakes receive less inflow. Having two locks also allows one of the locks
to be drained for maintenance without blocking all boat traffic. The large lock is drained for approximately
2-weeks, usually in November, and the small lock is drained for about the same
period, usually in March. The locks can
elevate a 760-by-80-foot (230 × 24 m) vessel 26 ft
(7.9 m), from the level of Puget Sound at a very low tide to the level of
freshwater Salmon Bay, in 10–15 minutes. The locks handle both pleasure boats and commercial vessels,
ranging from kayaks to fishing boats returning
from the Bering Sea to cargo ships. Over 1 million tons of cargo, fuel, building
materials, and seafood products pass through the locks each year. The drive through Seattle to the locks in Ballard didn’t take long. We found parking right outside the entrance and went in. Turns out there’s a visitor’s center and botanical garden within the boundaries of the locks and we stopped into the visitor center first to do a little souvenir shopping and to watch the short movie that played on the hour about the locks before going to the locks. Rosie and I spent a very nice hour or so wandering around the locks, watching them in action and, visiting the salmon ladder on the southern side of the locks where visitors can watch salmon, this time of year, Coho, negotiate the steps back up into the lakes from the Pacific. You could spend most of the day just watching salmon through the thick glass. We did a high speed pass through the botanical gardens before departing the locks to go back to Pike’s Place for dinner.
We parked in the same place as earlier in the day and walked down to the market place and just wandered around until we found an interesting place for dinner at the north end of Pikes Place, Seatown Seabar & Rotisserie. We didn’t have reservations so couldn’t negotiate a seat outside but, the wait staff very quickly seated us on the inside which was just fine. Our last dinner in Seattle was relaxing and a good opportunity for Rosie and me to reminisce about our fantastic road trip. We would do it again by ourselves or with friends in a heartbeat! As with every trip, we’re not looking forward to going back East.
After dinner we made it back to our SUV and drove the 15miles or so down I-5 to our newest favorite hotel chain, the Hampton Inns & Suites. Rosie had found this one very close to SeaTac International Airport. By the time we had checked in, got a complimentary upgrade to room 306, dropped off the SUV at the rental return and got picked up by the hotel shuttle, it was ~1930. We didn’t have a whole lot of time to enjoy our accommodation on this evening. We packed, relaxed and hit the rack when we got tired. Had to be up at 0330 for a short ride to the airport and our United Airlines flight, which should take off just after 0600, direct for Newark.
Well, time to bring an end to this blog… it’s taken me a while, post-trip, to complete. I’m sure I haven’t captured everything we saw or how we were feeling about the sights and sounds of our trip but, at least we’ll have something down on paper to reflect back on down the road.
Total miles traveled on this road trip: 1550miles
Until our next adventure….
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