September 7
It’s funny that some of the places I was most excited to visit were somewhat disappointing in the end, like the Canadian Rockies. Others that I barely noticed were on our itinerary have wowed and amazed me. Seattle was one of those.
We arrived at Beth’s on Wednesday night. Thank goodness for Aaron’s college friends. We received yet another warm and gracious welcome, and we savored some sweet conversation as we caught up and compared life perspectives post-college and post-getting-married. Beth is waiting to welcome her Navy husband back from a 6-month assignment at sea. Wow. Aaron and I have barely been married long enough to be separated for 6 months, so that seems like an eternity to me. Beth and Kip seem to have handled it with much courage and wisdom, however, and they’re relieved that next summer’s assignment will “only” be 4 months.
After dinner at Chipotle, at Aaron’s request and great satisfaction (we’d been looking for Mexican eats throughout Canada, to no avail. A city with no Hispanic population/food is hard to understand for Americans, but Vancouver has a grand total of two “Mexican” restaurants), we mapped out a game plan with Beth’s help to explore Seattle the next day.
They say that Seattle is cloudy, foggy and rainy from early September through late August. True to its reputation, as we approached the city, fog and mist enveloped the landscape. It was not good weather for climbing the Space Needle, but it was great weather for drinking coffee.
Accordingly, our first stop was the historic, waterfront Pike Place Market, founded in 1907, where we planned to sip coffee and wander the colorful and noisy market.
It was a photographer/painter’s dream come true: a bustling crowd milling through a metropolitan of vivid colors, textures, sounds, scents and shapes.
It was my dream come true: organic dried cantaloupe, cascades of freshly picked peaches, and bundles of bright peonies.
It was Aaron’s dream come true: fresh-caught halibut and hot donuts.
Ah, the donuts. Aaron gawked. There was no negotiation on this one. It would be the full dozen please, for a mere $1.85. But first we needed a cup of coffee in hand. We made a bee-line for the closest coffee shop and then backtracked to the stand where hot mini-donuts plopped out of the donut-making machine four at a time. A baker’s dozen later, still sipping our Seattle’s Best organic coffee, we felt as round and happy as the little pastries themselves.
Onward to Pioneer Square where we purchased tickets for Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour. Now, we are pretty cheap tourists. We pay for coffee regularly, and for food when there are no granola bars within reach, but that’s about it. However, we heard fabulous things about this tour, and it is the only way to access the underground city. It was well worth it and we thank all those who recommended it to us.
After the Great Seattle Fire in the late 1800's, the citizens were eager to rebuild. The city, however, initiated a seven to ten year program to raise the level of the city eight to thirty feet by pulling the nearby cliff down over the mud flats. They made this decision in light of some serious structural deficiencies in the city. Reports of 7-foot “geysers” of sewage erupting out of “crappers” (toilets) gives you an idea of what they were dealing with.
The merchants, however, insisted on rebuilding immediately instead of delaying their profits for seven years. Their complaint is understandable, but what is not understandable is the solution concocted by the city. They would make it a bi-level city. Merchants rebuilt their stores and sidewalks at the original, swampy level, while the city rebuilt the roads 8 to 30 feet above the sidewalks.
[Underground storefronts and sidewalks]
Imagine being a woman wearing a six foot wide skirt trying to maneuver her way up a ladder with groceries in one hand and a baby in the other while horses fling mud and manure down at her as they drive by on the elevated road. The city’s genius proved implausible, and eventually they rebuilt the sidewalks overtop the original ones at level with the second floor of the buildings. Underneath, a maze of old sidewalks and storefronts remained, breeding all manner of immorality and corruption.
["Skylight" from street level down to underground sidewalk]
It was a great tour, followed by a great lunch of Vietnamese Pho (pronounced “fuh,” so please articulate clearly when you talk about it). Then an accidental Occidental Park encounter. As it turned out, we happened upon the park on the day of its grand re-opening. Artists and craftsmen gathered to peddle their wares, a huge inflatable movie screen showed “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and homeless people and cheap tourists enjoyed the free (and scrumptious) gourmet cookies and Starbucks coffee.
Aaron and I sat at a sweet stone chess/checkers table long enough for him to beat my tail twice at checkers.
[He didn't really have to think this hard to beat me]
A visit to a top-notch bookstore added another volume to our library, this one Aaron’s pick on the African front during WWII. Next, a stroll along the waterfront led us back to Pike Place Market, where we visited the original Starbucks and caught the city’s free street car for a tour of Chinatown and the waterfront.
By the time we returned to the market, our parking was nearly expired and we were exhausted, so we called it a day and waved at the glowing space needle on our way back to Beth’s.
