UPDATED: February 5, 2022
This
is the first of a series of posts dealing my fourth trip to Seattle and first
of two trips that year. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports. Also,
I’ve added additional thoughts with the hindsight of five years later or to add
further clarification; I use “NOW” to denote such cases.
At
Customs in Victoria I was a bit worried because the Customs officer kept typing
stuff on his computer and frowning without saying anything. Finally he wished me off. Someone on the Coho ferry was feeding a
seagull. When the seagull was on the
railing and not on the ground, it kept struggling with balance and had to use
its wings to stay put. Only a few
questions on the Port Angeles side.
[NOW: The Coho ferry is run by Black Ball Ferry Line.]
In
Port Angeles I visited Odyssey Bookshop, Port Book and News (where I found a
replacement copy of my map book that got stolen last year) and then ate at
China First Buffet. My fortune cookie at
China First said, "You could be invited to travel to a foreign
land." Hmm, could be.
[NOW: China First has since closed.]
Across
the street from China First Buffet was Swain's, which had a huge inflatable duck
with sunglasses outside. There was
another such duck outside Safeway. I
bought some DVDs at Blockbuster, including The King of Kong, a documentary on
hardcore Donkey Kong players I'd been wanting to see for a while.
[NOW:
That Blockbuster and even the video store that succeeded it are now defunct.]
Due
to the Hood Canal Bridge closure, I took a slightly different route than usual
from Port Angeles to Seattle: there was a free coach (very comfortable; it was
a real coach) from Port Angeles to Sequim to Southpoint, an area in the middle
of nowhere. I waited a while there for a
special water shuttle to Lofall; the shuttle proved to be a Victoria Express
ferry (the other one from Victoria to Port Angeles) on loan, and Lofall proved
to be another wait in the middle of nowhere, which I thought was Lofall, er,
awful. There was no place even for
refreshments at Southpoint or Lofall.
[NOW:
The Victoria Express no long runs from Victoria to Port Angeles and now simply
does tours from Port Angeles.]
From
Lofall another coach, even nicer than the first, went from Lofall to Poulsbo to
Bainbridge. There was an even longer
wait there, but I'd wanted to explore downtown Bainbridge (Winslow) for a
while, and this gave me the opportunity.
When I got back to Bainbridge, there was an Oscar Meyer van shaped like
a wiener on a bun in line. The ferry was
delayed slightly by a medical emergency, but finally I reached Seattle.
[NOW:
This trip was my final stay at the Green Tortoise Hostel.]
I'm
in a four-bed room and got the upper bunk.
I was told I could switch tomorrow if I wanted but I declined. Today was a free dinner day (tacos in this
instance). The meat was all gone except
for a few crumbs, but I had eaten quite well at China First, so shells,
lettuce, grated cheese, and a little onion was fine.
I
walked to Easy Street Records near Seattle Center, then Silver Platters, where
I bought three Troma DVDs. When I got
out it was dark, and on my way back I discovered that night shots of the Space
Needle are extremely camera-friendly. I
got some incredible shots.
[NOW:
Just to clarify, those were photos of the Space Needle. I didn’t actually go up it
that day. That branch of Easy Street Records has closed and that branch of Silver Platters has moved to 1st Ave S]
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