This is the seventh 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.
I had to get help last night because my electric razor cord
wouldn't unplug. I asked for some better
Band-Aids while at it as the ones I bought seem to be no-stick, which kind of
defeats the purpose.
It sounded like there was some sort of festivities last
night, though I was too sleepy to get up and investigate. I do know that the entrance to Pike Place
Market was blocked off last night though (there were also things happening at
Seattle Center yesterday but think that was a concert).
I grabbed my backup copy of my itinerary/location list as my
old one's disintegrating. I noticed I
can't count: counting the day I return, my trip's 13 days, not 12. Counting the hours of sleep I'm probably now
at the half way mark but wasn't last night.
[NOW: The above was written in the morning; the rest I wrote
in the evening. Buses this day were King County Metro Transit as was the King County Water Taxi.]
Okay, well, this wasn't one of the better days.
Oh, it started out okay.
Killing time because the Museum of Flight opened at 10, I visited
Occidental Park (no greenery) and Waterfall Park (not yet turned on), and Hing Hay Park, then tried to visit Amazon HQ.
That proved harder than I thought because a road was actually a bridge
accessed from another location. I
finally made it, then returned to Waterfall Park (now turned on), then visited
the Museum of Flight.
There was a new overpass for crossing the street to it and I
spent about an hour and a half there.
The bus to my next stop was late, so to kill time I tried removing the
wristband from the museum. Unfortunately
this caused my camera to fly out of my hand and break the zoom, rendering it inoperative.
I visited another location in the south and unsuccessfully
tried to find a camera place. I visited
a pawn shop (gone) got turned around and crossed a bridge I didn't need to,
then crossed back (in my emotional state I reacted to some homeless people who
were rude to me), then visited Fantagraphics Comics, while trying
unsuccessfully to find a camera place.
My next stop was California Ave, near Alki Beach in West Seattle so
after a hike where I ignored the same idiots (this time I did need to cross the
bridge), I caught a bus part way.
Unfortunately the bus driver had never heard of the road I was supposed
to get out at. Also, when I got off I
accidentally left my Saturday daypass on the bus.
[NOW: Metro Transit no longer offers Saturday daypasses, but you can get electronic daypasses any day of the week via Orca card. I should clarify that the Fantagraphics above is the
comic shop and not where Fantagraphics actually publishes their own comics.]
I finally reached my bus stop area and got a new pass, but
went the wrong direction and wound up downtown.
Incredibly crowded. After a few
false starts I found a place that had the same model camera and bought a new
one. I ate lunch around 3 at the
McDonald's at the main ferry terminal where the counter guy was a bit confused
about my order, then took a water taxi to West SeattleI finally made it to Alki beach a lot later than
planned. I visited the Statue of Liberty
(yes, the Statue of Liberty; newly remade; much smaller than the NY one) and
the Birthplace of Seattle monument.
Without all the craziness I would have spent a lot more time there, but
I got wanderlust and took the 37 to California Ave. In that area, I checked out Easy Street
Records (not to be confused with the Queen Anne branch, bought a DVD), Square
One Books, another pop machine with a mystery button at Safeway (this time I
got cola, thankfully not cherry), Pegasus Books, Leisure Books, and Arcane
Comics, the returned to Alki for a bit.
I missed West Seattle Books and skipped Blockbuster, but otherwise
actually managed to get to all the places I planned to, though again it cost me
a lot of time at Alki, not to mention a lot of money (though my camera was
already showing signs of wear even more the trip and may have broken down soon
enough anyway).
[NOW: The McDonald's at Washington State Ferry Terminal, Square One Books, West Seattle’s Arcane Comics, Leisure Books (renamed Merrywether Books) and Blockbuster
are now defunct. That Safeway no longer has the pop machine described above.]
I went to the International Fountain and relaxed there a little
bit, then bought a 40 oz. bottle of beer, retuened downtown, and got a meatball
sub at Subway for dinner; this Subway is right across the street from the
hostel.
[NOW: That branch of
Subway is now defunct.]
As I type this my laundry is in the dryer so I'll have
mostly clean clothes. I've a bit light
headed from drinking all that beer but I don't think it's affecting this
report, but you can report back if you've noticed anything off. Someone behind me just shook the candy
machine until they got what they paid for.
I think I'm going to change my itinerary tomorrow as I've
decided I'm not really interested in what I've scheduled for the second half of
the day tomorrow, and I think after today I decided a more relaxing schedule
tomorrow.
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