Pacific Northwest Trip 2017 Day 9 Monday July 24: Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, Clyde Hill

UPDATED: February 12, 2021

This is the 9^th of a series of posts dealing with my 2017 trip to Portland, Seattle, and vicinity. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports (typos, bits I don’t feel like making public). Also, I’ve added additional thoughts with the hindsight of two years later or to add further clarification.  These are indicated by “NOW”.

I got up closer to 6 this time; got a decent night's sleep in. I walked to Olympic Sculpture Park (pretty self-explanatory). The two sculptress that stand out for me are one at the entrance called Father and son, a fountain with a naked man and boy facing each other (I've long suspected that the sculpture name disguises the art piece's true intention) and Love & Loss, with its rotating ampersand on a pole. I visited Myrtle Edwards Park beside it before returning to the Sculpture Park. It does appear that it was Typewriter Eraser, Scale X I saw at Seattle Center as it was gone from this park. I walked along the waterfront to Seattle Ferry Terminal, then walked to Pike Place Market and saw Rachel the Pig. I couldn't find my itinerary so partly retraced my steps. Back at the hostel trying to find my backup copy I found my original.

[NOW: The hostel I stayed at was City Hostel Seattle.]

I took a 212 bus (King County Metro Transit) to Eastgate Park & Ride in Bellevue. I just missed a connecting bus (ironically had I gotten off two stops earlier I could have beaten my bus there and grabbed the connecting bus). I briefly got on another 245 that was going the wrong way. I quickly returned and caught the right 245 bus (King Country Metro Transit) to Crossroads shopping Centre where I visited Half Price Books. A B Rapidride bus (King County Metro Transit) took me to Redmond where I got some DVDs at another Half Price Books. At Redmond Town Center I found a new bookstore.

[NOW: The bookstore was Brick & Mortar Books. I also visited the Comic Stop. In the original edit this appears to have accidentally deleted after typing. The start of the next paragraph should begin “I took a 545 bus…”]

(Sound Transit) to a freeway stop at or near Clyde Hill. My new shoes were  giving me blisters so I wasn't pleased that I had to go up and down a hill to reach my next destination in Bellevue. After getting a drink at a QFC in the same area, I bought DVDs at the Silver Platters that used to be in Crossroads. Returning to Clyde Hill and back to the freeway stop. I took a 542 bus (Sound Transit) to the U District in Seattle. A bit behind schedule (mostly due to the hills)  and not wanting to  spend much more than I  had a week ago, at the U District I limited my spending to lunch at Jack in the Box. Front counter lady was a bit rude, dealing with me and a drive through customer at the same time or close to it.

[NOW: The freeway stop is State Route 520 & Clyde Hill/Yarrow Pt Station a.k.a. Yarrow Point Freeway Station in Yarrow Point, though it’s true that I crossed over to Clyde Hill very soon after leaving the station.]

I took a 71 bus (King County Metro Transit) to near Warren G. Magnusson Park. You can see A Sound Garden that the rock band Sound Garden named itself after through wire fence. You can see it more directly but it's in a government complex to easier to just enjoy through the park fence. I crossed through the off least area to Lake Washington. I did a short swim and Lake Washington which further helped me pinpoint where my blisters are. I showed and dried off, then used a couple of Band-Aid equivalents that I had the foresight to back on the worst of the blisters.

I took a 75-becoming-32 bus (King County Metro Transit) to the University of Washington where I  decided to visit the nearby University Village, which has a Stonehenge fountain and some animal fountains like Water Break and Water Frolic (latter "spitting"  turtles).  Part of the reason for going there was morbid curiosity of the new amazon brick and mortar bookstore. The deal I made with myself was to just go in, not buy anything. The biggest difference from a regular bookstore is that many books (all?)  have a review from an Amazon customer.

Back at the University of Washington I took a 78 bus (I think; King County Metro Transit) a little ways and revisited Drumheller Fountain. A duck, maybe the same one as last week was watching the fountain. I took a Link train (Sound Transit) from University of Washington Station to SoDo Station) and visited Seattle’s Silver Platters (got more DVDs). I took a 221-becoming-5 bus (King County Metro Transit) to near Seattle Center. I had dinner at the McDonald’s across from it then visited the center. As expected the International Fountain is closed.  It's usually closed for cleaning the Monday to Wednesday before the Torchlight Parade.

[NOW: Looking at my photo notes the first bus was indeed a 78. The Central Link train is now Line 1.]

I returned to the hostel and put my clothes in the wash; $2.50  US to wash and dry; ouch at current exchange rate. Had trouble connecting earlier, maybe due to AVG, so had to turn my computer off and on.