Exploring Seattle
19/07/13 07:02
Our son-in-law grew up in Virginia. He has traveled the world as he served in the Air Force, but this is his first visit to the Pacific Coast of the Untied Sates. So in addition to our spending time in the islands and Olympia, we wanted to do some of the usual tourist activities in Seattle. Yesterday was our day for those events. We went to the top of the Space Needle, ate at the Armory, rode on the Big Wheel, visited Pike Place Market and walked along the waterfront. We by no means exhausted the possibilities of the city, but we did do a pretty good job of catching some of the high points in a day.
Even compared to cities in the Eastern Untied States, Seattle is a young city. It has yet to celebrate its sesquicentennial. It started out as a rough and tumble fur trading and provisioning center with a safe and secure harbor well inside the Puget Sound. The area was visited in the early days by Spanish and British explorers, but Seattle was really founded as an American city. As a place of import and export it quickly developed a bit of a shady reputation. It was visited by smugglers and people who traded in all sorts of illegal commodities and shady business deals including the smuggling of people to provide labor for mines and railroad building among other activities. But there was also a genuine civic side to the city as it grew.
Today Seattle is marked by the presence of many high tech companies. As the home of Microsoft, the presence of the computer software giant has made its mark on the city. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s headquarters is in a prominent location and there are many civic projects and arts organizations that have benefitted from the generosity of software developers.
The face of the city was transformed by the 1962 World’s Fair. Like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Space Needle was designed to be a temporary structure. 50 years later it sports a new coat of paint and is still going strong as a major tourist destination. The city is proud of its look on its skyline, though several downtown buildings now are taller than the iconic structure that at the time it was built was the tallest structure in the city. It sits a bit away from the tallest downtown buildings and provides a great view of the city. At its base is a large science and industry museum, a fascinating gallery of glass art objects, a large indoor food court, and a host of other shops.
Connecting the Space Needle to downtown is a monorail train. The monorail is not a complete urban transportation system. It never developed into more than a novelty, but the two trains run out and back to and from downtown providing a four-minute ride from the Space Needle to the city center. A half-century after the World’s Fair the monorail and the Space Needle both lend a futuristic look to the city.
In a way Pike Place Market is the opposite of that futuristic, space travel-inspired architecture of the Space Needle and Monorail. It is a jumble of shops and stalls and vendors crowded with both the tourists who visit the city and the locals who come there to shop for everything from fish to produce to flowers to handcrafts to a wide variety of other products. The shops and stalls that have the most prominent locations near the entrances tend to have very high prices, but there are bargains to be had for those who are willing to brave the crowds and explore the inner locations. For the most part it is just a fun place to visit and explore.
Near the main entrance to Pike Place Market, at 1st and Pike is the original Starbucks Coffee House. Founded in 1971, it isn’t that old, really, but it carries a certain nostalgia for lovers of coffee and aficionados of coffee houses. It is one of the places I like to visit when I am in the area. Others are drawn to the Seattle Hard Rock Café next door.
If you start at the main entrance of the Pike Place market and descent three levels lower you’re still several flights of stairs above the waterfront below. When you do get there, you’ll see a restored and beautiful area that features the Seattle Aquarium and a large Ferris Wheel that provides beautiful views of the city and the harbor.
Seattle is probably the third or fourth busiest harbors on the west coat. The shipyards are filled with cranes and there is constant coming and going of container vessels with commodities from the orient and export products from the west coast. There is significant agricultural export from the Port of Seattle as well as the export of manufactured goods and other items. For a boat lover like me, it is fun to look at the various ferries, harbor cruise vessels, private boats, tugs and other vessels that are constantly at work in the harbor.
Seattle is also a city with fresh water lakes. The lakes are large enough to provide landing and take off places for floatplanes and both Harbor Air and Kenmore Air have floatplane tours based out of Seattle. It is still possible to hire a ride on a DeHavilland DHC-2 Beaver with the Pratt & Whitney radial engine.
For us, of course, the high point of the visit to Seattle was the opportunity to spend more time with our adult children. Watching their competence and confidence as they navigated the complex urban environment and sharing the joy of discovery and the fun of exploration was a great way for us to spend a day. The conversations we had and jokes we shared as we explored the city were great fun and a wonderful way to invest a day of vacation.
We are reminded that there is still much that can be discovered in a place that we have been before and there is still much to be learned in relationship with the people that we love.
Today Seattle is marked by the presence of many high tech companies. As the home of Microsoft, the presence of the computer software giant has made its mark on the city. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s headquarters is in a prominent location and there are many civic projects and arts organizations that have benefitted from the generosity of software developers.
The face of the city was transformed by the 1962 World’s Fair. Like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Space Needle was designed to be a temporary structure. 50 years later it sports a new coat of paint and is still going strong as a major tourist destination. The city is proud of its look on its skyline, though several downtown buildings now are taller than the iconic structure that at the time it was built was the tallest structure in the city. It sits a bit away from the tallest downtown buildings and provides a great view of the city. At its base is a large science and industry museum, a fascinating gallery of glass art objects, a large indoor food court, and a host of other shops.
Connecting the Space Needle to downtown is a monorail train. The monorail is not a complete urban transportation system. It never developed into more than a novelty, but the two trains run out and back to and from downtown providing a four-minute ride from the Space Needle to the city center. A half-century after the World’s Fair the monorail and the Space Needle both lend a futuristic look to the city.
In a way Pike Place Market is the opposite of that futuristic, space travel-inspired architecture of the Space Needle and Monorail. It is a jumble of shops and stalls and vendors crowded with both the tourists who visit the city and the locals who come there to shop for everything from fish to produce to flowers to handcrafts to a wide variety of other products. The shops and stalls that have the most prominent locations near the entrances tend to have very high prices, but there are bargains to be had for those who are willing to brave the crowds and explore the inner locations. For the most part it is just a fun place to visit and explore.
Near the main entrance to Pike Place Market, at 1st and Pike is the original Starbucks Coffee House. Founded in 1971, it isn’t that old, really, but it carries a certain nostalgia for lovers of coffee and aficionados of coffee houses. It is one of the places I like to visit when I am in the area. Others are drawn to the Seattle Hard Rock Café next door.
If you start at the main entrance of the Pike Place market and descent three levels lower you’re still several flights of stairs above the waterfront below. When you do get there, you’ll see a restored and beautiful area that features the Seattle Aquarium and a large Ferris Wheel that provides beautiful views of the city and the harbor.
Seattle is also a city with fresh water lakes. The lakes are large enough to provide landing and take off places for floatplanes and both Harbor Air and Kenmore Air have floatplane tours based out of Seattle. It is still possible to hire a ride on a DeHavilland DHC-2 Beaver with the Pratt & Whitney radial engine.
For us, of course, the high point of the visit to Seattle was the opportunity to spend more time with our adult children. Watching their competence and confidence as they navigated the complex urban environment and sharing the joy of discovery and the fun of exploration was a great way for us to spend a day. The conversations we had and jokes we shared as we explored the city were great fun and a wonderful way to invest a day of vacation.
We are reminded that there is still much that can be discovered in a place that we have been before and there is still much to be learned in relationship with the people that we love.