Pacific Northwest Trip May 2009 Day 10 Tuesday May 19

UPDATED: February 5, 2022

 

This is the tenth 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.

A bit later than usual getting up but that's okay because the focus of the day is in fact downtown and the immediate vicinity.

Had an interesting dream last night. I was attracted to some woman who had a psychotic domineering boyfriend.  The woman had two sisters.  For most of the first half of the dream that was the focus.   Then I touched one of the sisters and had a vision of a gravestone.  The woman I liked was familiar with me having visions and convinced her sister to take me seriously.  Later she killed her boyfriend in self defense I think.  I touched the sister again and she still died, but the psycho boyfriend was no longer a suspect.  Attempts to touch items she owned yielding no new info.  The frustrating thing, and the reason I mention this, is I woke up before the dream got to how I was supposed to prevent her death.  The dream was well structured though: it had an A-story and a B-story that became the new A-story when the old one ended.

I’ll be seeing a friend from Victoria and her husband today (waves to Vickie); they're returning from their own vacation.  This time I have a time and location so this visit should happen.  Have a great day everyone!

[NOW: The above was written in the morning; the rest I wrote in the evening. All buses this day King County Metro Transit.]

Sticking at or close to downtown today didn't stop the day from being very busy.

I started the day exploring Freeway Park before visiting the Columbia Center's 73rd story Observation Deck. It opens at 8:30 but because I got there before 9, I had to pay/sign in downstairs and get escorted up. The deck isn't 360 degrees but it is about 270 degrees so you can still see a lot. There's a booth there where reporters announce traffic conditions on the radio, at least the ones they catch: I noticed part of the freeway had been stopped by the police and asked a reporter when he left the booth, but he hadn't known about it until I pointed it out. I found the ferry terminal for Bainbridge by zooming my camera and finding the golden arches of the attached McDonald's.

 

[NOW: The McDonald's at Washington State Ferry Terminal is now closed.]

I visited Arundel Books, then saw my friend Vickie, returning home from her own vacation to Tennessee. We sat at a Starbucks near Qwest Field, then I took her to Waterfall Gardens.

We parted company and I noticed at the same stadium above photographers were taking pics of what were probably cheerleaders.

 

[NOW: Qwest Field became CenturyLink Field, or CLink for short but is now Lumen Field.]

I did the Underground Tour (lucked into joining a tour that was just about to start), then visited Newberry Books and Globe Bookstore before lunch at Quiznos.

 

[The full name of the tour is the Bill Speidel Underground Tour. Newberry Books and Globe Bookstore are now closed.]

I was going to do the International District but that day was starting to become Pioneer Square District themed so decided to move that to Thurs when I'd have time to do it justice. After a stop at Elliott Bay Book Company, I tried to visit Rialto Art but it was replaced by a more generic antique store that was closed anyway.

[NOW; Elliott Bay Book Company is now in the Capitol Hill Area.]

I visited the free Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park (actually a  museum), then the $3 Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum before going up Smith Tower (due to the Underground Tour I saved $1 doing it today). At Smith I took close-ups of buses and think I got the bus numbers in some shots. I also took pics of seagulls flying below the tower. As luck would have it I finished as the tower's deck (open air by the way) was being closed for a private event.

 

[NOW: The Police Museum is now closed.]

It was now raining so, sticking to the ride-free area, took a bus to Pike Place Market and took pics of various sections of shops; I visited Seattle Paperworks, Golden Age Collectibles, Lionheart Books (I think), BLMF Books, and Holy Cow Records (bought a cheap DVD).

[NOW; The Ride Free area no more.]

I used my final CityPass to visit the Aquarium, my favourite pics being of sea otters. Very cute animals as they otter be. After visiting there it hit me that the trip was finding down, as I had used my last CityPass and did most of the remaining "must do" things on my itinerary today.

I took more shots of the Pike Place Market including the "original" Starbucks (actually the second location of the first Starbucks), then visited Barnes & Noble, then had taco dinner at the hostel.

After dinner, it was raining a bit but I decided anyway to visit Seattle Center then Silver Platters. 

 

[NOW: The Barnes & Noble at Pacific Place is now closed. That branch of Silver Platters has moved to 1st Ave S.]

Unfortunately after 7 there's no ride-free zone. Midway I thought I saw a camera flash from someone else, but then I heard a very loud thunderclap. It started pouring. I merely passed Seattle Center and went straight to Silver Platters, where I found another cheap DVD. I ran back to the hostel as fast as possible, taking only a minimum of pics.

I put my wet clothes in my dorm room's sink so hopefully they'll dry a bit by tomorrow, esepecially the coat and long sleeved pants.

Tomorrow I visit Issaquah but that town's star attraction, Cougar Mountain Zoological Park (the reason I decided to visit there) will be weather depending (both on my part and also the park's part). But what the heck, I'll go there regardless just for something different, as well as to save me the trouble of coming up with a day's plans from scratch,

[NOW: There's an interesting story there but I'll leave that for the blog covering that day. Cougar Mountain Zoological Park is now simply Cougar Mountain Zoo.]