After an 11 hour day of traveling 140 miles in a 4WD Tundra, 200 miles flying in a Beechcraft 1900, 10 miles riding an electric SkyLink, 334 miles on Amtrak Cascades and 1/2 mile walk for a grand total of 684 1/2 miles, we crashed hard at our familiar loft until 5am until harshly woken by the former tenant’s alarm settings. Tip: always check the alarm before going to bed if you want to sleep in.
It’s a sunny day in Seattle, sitting here in Zeitgeist Coffee House noshing on homemade granola with blueberry yogurt, a morning glory muffin and two gigantic mugs of Z dark roast while reading local papers, Seattle Weekly and The Stranger, deciding how to spend the day. We’ve learned a few interesting things, like they have free power outlets to charge phones and laptops around the city; the hybrid strain Bubble Jack (Bubble Gum x Skunk x Jack Herer) has a diesel bouquet with skunky overtones and gives a head high that provides both pain relief and functionality; and the Emerald City has it’s own Gotham City thing going down – costumed crusader Phoenix Jones vs. villainous rival Rex Velvet are duking it out for internet fame – check out The People’s Villian on you tube if you want to learn more.
Across the street from Zeitgeist is the Klondike Gold Rush museum. After hiking around BC, we had a new perspective on how hardy the 100,000 folks who took off to make their riches in gold had to be. John Nordstrom was one of the first Gold Rushers who spent 4 years staking a claim, only to give up return to Seattle to open a shoe store. With only about 50 people actually making it rich on gold, the stories reminded us that nothing ever really changes when it comes to getting rich quick.
Returning from morning coffee, we relaxed in the artist loft while we assembled our packs. Exchanging emails over AirBnB, Dirk said we could leave our packs in the building while we toured Seattle, picking them up on our way to the airport. Loft #7 is 2 weeks new and was very comfortable. Dirk and Jaq pay particular attention to the quality of the mattress, pillows, and linens. WIFI, cable, super clean washrooms, and 2 minutes to light rail or bus service round out a great stay. The location in the International District is trendy and convenient to cool art, decor, and food shops and is close to the touristy area of Pike’s Place market without being in it.
After stashing the bags, we jumped on the bus (free) for the 7 blocks to Pike’s Place. I had a craving for a fish chowder. As we walked without too much of an idea of where we were going, we turned the corner on Pike Place Chowder, voted best clam chowder in America. We decided to hold our own Chowder Bowl and ordered three popular chowders which come with as much fresh sour dough bread as you care to dip.
Sharing three small portions, we put their world famous clam chowder up against the daily special, a market chowder special, and a local favorite, the seafood bisque. The market chowder came a distant third. A crab and oyster creamy broth with chorizo and fresh veggies had more promise than punch. It was a heated tie for first with Sheri crowning the New England style with bacon and Eric declaring seafood tops with its Pacific cod, wild northwest salmon, crab, dungeon bay shrimp in creamy basil broth.
After lunch we shopped our way through the hundreds of artisan stores in the Pike Place market. Not being a big shopper, and with my back aching from the pounding in the back seat of the Tundra the day before, I laid out in the warm sun in the park while Sheri canvased the remaining stores, buying a watercolor of Pikes Market from artist Jim. Feeling like we should check out the infamous Space Needle, we jumped on the monorail at Westlake Plaza and took it to Century Park, home of the iconic structure.
The monorail is quite the joke. The six block distance could nearly be walked as fast and this is the only two destinations on its extensive route. Feeling like we stepped off of a really bad Disney ride, we lined up for tickets to the top of the Space Needle.
I guess it should have seemed exciting, but it just didn’t. Maybe we had been too long enjoying the freedom of electric bikes in cities, and ATVs in the Chilcotin to line up for the 1+ hour wait for a lift to the top. We bailed on the famous landmark and walked around the park in which it sits.
We peered into the Chihuly Garden glass exhibit, taking pictures over the fence and window shopping in the interesting gift shop. While looking for a way back to the downtown that did not involve a monorail, a scary clown head on the top of a building caught our eye.
Ducking in to the Fun House, we ordered a Manny Pale Ale from a local microbrewery (aren’t they all in Seattle), and checked out the ambiance of Seattle’s last and most famous punk and heavy metal music venue.
The bartenders (all female) were heavily tattooed; the decor was a cross between a Chucky movie and Halloween; there was an outside patio where you could catch some sun or shoot hoops; and the beer was cold. Perfect. All I can say is that all that pain I was feeling in my back disappeared after a couple of Manny’s.
Feeling like we were low on our step count, we decided to walk to the International District for dinner prior to our flight out. We walked the two miles down 5th Street slightly out pacing the bus which says something about downtown traffic in Seattle at 5pm.
We tried to eat at a trendy Japanese restaurant but were turned away because we lacked a reservation. The place was nearly empty but Dirk later indicated that sometimes they just will not seat you if you are not a regular local customer. OK.
Dirk recommended ‘Best of Seattle 2012’ chinese restaurant Shangai Garden around the corner, which we thought might be better than Magic Rice. It was getting late and we were starting to worry about having time for a meal prior to leaving. If you have kept up with our blog you know that we rarely miss an opportunity to try out the local cuisine, so we dashed in hoping that the service would be quick. We ordered Greenbarley dumplings, Moo Shu pork, and crispy beef and vegetables. I have had my share of chinese food and this was really good. We finished it off in no time, swung by the loft for our packs, and jumped on the light rail two blocks away for an easy ride to the SEATAC airport. Along the way we shared stories with a group of three ladies who had come from the Mariner’s baseball game that evening. They bought tickets for the nosebleed section, collected the Bobblehead promotional give-away at the gate, and went right back out through the turnstile before the first pitch was thrown. Now they were returning on the rapid light rail to watch the game on their big screen at home where the coverage was much better but you don’t get collectable Bobblehead.
Fortunately the lines at the ubiquitous security check points were fairly short, and before we knew it we were waiting at gate B14 for a Boeing 737 redeye flight to BWI.
Location:S Jackson St,Seattle,United States