Pacific Northwest Trip July 2009 Day 9 Wednesday July 29

UPDATED: February 5, 2022

 

This is the ninth of a series of posts dealing my fifth trip to Seattle and second of two trips that year. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports. Also, I’ve added additional thoughts with the hindsight of three years later or to add further clarification. 

Be careful what you wish for.  Last trip with all the rain/overcast days I wished for nicer weather.  Yesterday was the hottest recorded day here.  Today broke yesterday's record.

 This morning I visited the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks/Fish Ladder.  There were more large fish this time.  I realized I was too late for a bus I wanted, but I jogged a few extra blocks and took an express bus downtown so I was able to make a connection I wanted.  I got some ice tea at Walgreen's, then dashed to a bus stop which was closed, then dashed to another bus stop where I connected with a bus to Issaquah.

[NOW: The bus downtown was Metro Transit. The bus to Issaquah was the 554/Sound Transit.]

You'll recall that my last trip there in May was after a thunderstorm that basically wrecked a camera, so I wanted to redo the pics (more or less; I understandably wasn't going to retrace mistakes I made last time).

I got off at the Issaquah Transit Center and walked to Cougar Mountain Zoological Park.  In was interesting seeing how different animals dealt with the sun (A cougar was under a bench, for example).  i was going to leave at 10:45 but I learned that baby tigers (9-week old) would be out for half an hour around then, so I decided to modify my schedule a bit.  

 

[NOW: The park is apparently now called simply Issaquah Zoo.]

Soon after seeing the baby tigers, I walked to a Burger King and ate lunch there because it was air conditioned, then walked to Barnes & Noble.  I'd have probably skipped that this time, but there was a nice pond near the store. 

 

[NOW:  Issaquah's Barnes & Noble has closed.]

After getting a drink at a Shell, I walked to Issaquah Commons to visit Blockbuster and Soundsations, then downtown Issaquah, where I took a bus back to Seattle, connecting with a bus to Pawn X-Change in or near Columbia City (which is actually a district, not a city). 

[NOW: That Blockbuster and Soundsations are now closed. The bus to Seattle was also a 554/Sound Transit. The next bus was a King County Metro Transit one. If still there, the Pawn X-Change is now a Cash America.]

 

Then I took the bus right behind that one to Hollywood Video, then walked to Walgreen's (got more ice tea), Bookworms, L.E.M.S. (a new book store that proved to be new age), then Pathfinder's (gone).

[NOW: Hollywood Video is now defunct. Bookworm Exchange is now closed.] 

I then walked to a bus stop to Seward Park.  The first bus never showed or left early and the next one was late (I was actually starting to walk away when someone pointed out I'd dropped something, whereupon I noticed the bus was coming).  Ironically normally when I decide to just walk somewhere it proves to be uphill but this time when I decided to wait for the bus due to the heat, it would have be a downhill hike.

[NOW: That bus was also King County Metro Transit.] 

I swam at Lake Washington at a beach at Seward Park (there was a dock in the water like at Magnuson), then walked around the edge of the park, taking lots of pics of Mercer Island and also of some baby ducks on the south side.  There was poison oak at the park, thankfully well marked.  That said it was a very nice park and I'll try to slot it in again in 2010. 

I took a bus to near Seattle Center, then walked to OfficeMax and got another memory card (this was actually the closest I came to buying anything I'm taking home with me today).  Then I went to 7-11, bought a Slurpee and a sub, then walked to the International Fountain.

[NOW:  That bus was also King County Metro Transit, the 39 which becomes the 33.  The 39 might have been what I took to get there. NOW: That Office Max has closed.] 

The sub proved a bit spicy and I wasn't that hungry, so I just had half of it and will eat the other half tonight or tomorrow.  The same or another marching band played in the water.  There was also some sort of accident which I didn't notice until the medics arrived.

I waited for a 15 that was supposed to arrive at Seattle Center around 9:23, but it was late and the 18 arrived first (a better bus).

[NOW: Both the 15 and 18 are King County Metro Transit.] 

Back in Ballard I withdrew money from an ATM at 7-11 (I was using more cash than expected for drinks due to the heat, especially after my sickness on Friday), bought a drink there, and made it back to the hostel.

Given that I'm experiencing record-breaking heat here, I'm glad that tomorrow shouldn't be that rushed.