Pacific Northwest Trip May 2009 Day 3 Tuesday May 12

UPDATED: February 5, 2022

This is the third 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.

Room is apparently co-ed, but with only four beds (two bunks) the chances of seeing something you shouldn't are pretty low.

Today is a free dinner night.  Despite this I'm going to risk possibly missing it by sticking to the itinerary's Day 3 plan, Everett & Lynnwood.  Partly it's that it's the day I'm most nervous about (more things can go wrong in terms of schedule; also Everett was a stop on my failed trip home from Portland last year) and thus want to get it out of the way, partly is that it'll slant most of the rest of the trip towards Seattle proper (yesterday was Bellevue and Redmond; only other trips outside of Seattle proper are Issaquah & Mercer Island - one day - and Tacoma).

[NOW: The above was written in the morning; the rest I wrote in the evening.]

Walked to Olympic Sculpture Park at the start of the day.  There's a controversial new statue of a nude man and boy facing each other, with small waterfall in between.  The statue is anatomically correct.  Not sure whether to blur the pics before posting on Facebook or not show them at all.  I won't show them intact even though it's a piece of art because people might complain.  The giant ampersand on a pole in the same park wasn't rotating this time.  Also quickly visited Myrtle Edwards Park next to Olympic Sculpture Park.  I dashed downtown and took a Sound Transit bus to Everett.

[NOW: The nude statue is Father and Son.  I didn’t post anything where you could see anything “naughty”.  The ampersand sculpture is called Love & Loss.]

In Everett I waited for a local bus to Everett Mall.  Everett Transit doesn't offer or accept transfers but it's only 50c a trip.  While waited I saw Greyhound busses at the exchange, reminding me I was there briefly on the Greyhound to Vancouver last year.

[NOW: Everett Transit fares are now on par with other transit systems.  Transfers to/from other systems now possible if you have an Orca card.]

I visited Best Buy just across from the mall proper, Borders (bought DVD), Comic Stop, Sam Goody’s (FYE under a different name; bought DVD), then Half Price Books across the street from the mall.  I returned to the mall and took an Everett express bus back  downtown.

[NOW: Borders, Comic Stop and Sam Goody’s are now gone, the former two being completely defunct.  The express bus is number 702 heading from the mall and 701 heading to the mall.]

I visited or tried to visit Bargain CDs, Diversified CDs (gone), Loaner (gone), Everett Comics, Sound Music (gone), then the info centre (picked up a few souvenirs).   

 

[NOW: Everett Comics has moved.]

I lucked out and intercepted a bus to Alderwood Mall, Lynnwood that I should have barely missed (a Snohomish Community bus); it connected to a street I was running downt to reach the transit exchange.  At Alderwood I walked around the outdoor Village, visited Borders and FYE (bought DVDs both places), at lunch at the food court (Quiznos),  Leaving the mall I visited a nearby Comic Stop, the crossed a highway overpass and visited Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, and an apparently recently closed down Circuit City. 

[NOW: The bus I took to Alderwood Mall was Community Transit’s 201 or 202; both are the same until the north end.  Again, Borders is now defunct. The Alderwood Mall branches of Quiznos and fye are also now closed, as is Comic Stop.]

 

By luck a minute later there was a bus that saved me 20 blocks' walk and my last transfer was still good. I walked the rest of the way to Psycho 5 (gone), Comic Cafe (now a dentist office), a store I can't recall the name of where I bought some vanilla Coke, Half Price Book (bought DVDs), Resend Books, Lynnwood Books (gone), Blockbuster (bought DVDs).  Part of Edmonds was on the same block, so I dipped into Edmonds, returned to Lynnwood, then took a couple more buses to a different section of Edmonds.

[NOW: The grocery store was a branch of Big Lots.  That Blockbuster is now gone. Resend Boos moved to Edmonds as Spangler Books before closing.] 

I visited Blockbuster,  Diversified CDs (or rather across the street from it since it was gone), World of Collections comics.  Having just missed a bus, I dashed done to near Aurora Village exchange, where I just missed an express bus back downtown Seattle.

[NOW: That Blockbuster is also now gone. The express bus was probably the 358.] 

However, another express came soon after (King County Metro Transit, so I was on all four transit services covering the north end today), dropped off some stuff at the hostel, then went to Pike Place Market.

The fishmongers were still there but I didn't see any tossing.  I did visit in the same complex Golden Age Collectables, the Giant Shoe Museum (not actually inside anything.  Basically a wall where you put in quarters and curtains open peep show style to reveal large shoes).  Before leaving the market, visited Holy Cow Records.

After a stop a Zanadu Comics, I looked for the Police are Communists guy.  I saw a showshine guy talking to someone; the shoeshine guy may or may not be the guy; will check back later. I visited FYE in Westlake (smelled of soap due to another shop), the Borders.

[NOW: The Police are Communists Guy is an eccentric local figure. Still haven’t seen me to my definite knowledge.  Zanadu Comics and that FYE are closed and Borders is, yes, defunct.] 

More good timing: I returned to the hostel, used the bathroom, and abruptly found myself second in line for the free dinner (spaghetti; can't speak for the veggie sauce but the meat sauce was really good).

I visited the International Fountain, along the way visited Belltown Video and the Chief Sealth statue at Tillikum Place.  I took a pic of myself with the statue in the background, careful to keep the homeless guy out of that shop.

[NOW: The Fountain is at Seattle Center. Belltown Video has closed.]

I spent over an hour relaxing at the International Fountain, my favourite place to be anywhere on that planet that I've been.  Got video of water shooting up higher than the Space Needle, as well as photos of plane/seagull activity.

[NOW: I no longer believe the water shoots higher than the Space Needle but it certainly creates the illusion it does.]

On the way back I saw flashing lights and my gut feeling told me to put my camera away; probably a good move as it was someone getting arrested.  Got more neon light pics on the way back.