Pacific Northwest Trip Summer 2010 Day 7 Sunday August 1

UPDATED: January 27, 2021

Definitely my body's adjusting to the hostel, making me glad I planned most of my busy days for the first half, though Mon and Wed will be fairly busy as well, and of course on Fri will have to get up very early.

Got woken up by person in bunk above me because his cell phone dropped into my area.  Can't really cast stones because the same thing happened to me last year with my glasses, and you can't always guarantee the other person will be gone by the time you really need the item.

Today it's check out any remaining parade clean up, then head north a bit but still in Seattle.  My itinerary then says another visit to Alki but if it's still cloudy might go off itinerary at that point.  

Oh, and I did not get a daypass yesterday (not enough trips to warrant it) but today for sure.  Paying by cash even if the ORCA card allows a daypass because I want the souvenir and in this case it'll be faster to just show the pass everywhere.

[NOW: The above was written in the morning; the rest I wrote in the evening. King County Metro Transit, the source of all buses this day no longer offers paper daypasses but you can get electronic passes via Orca Card.]

Well, most of the litter from the parade, and there was quite a bit of it, was in the Belltown area (walked down then to Seattle Center then to hostel for breakfast).  After breakfast I took a bus to Discovery Park.  Due to overly confusing roads and paths took a while to get in and out but did get a lot of pics of the beach area

Walked to the fish ladder at the Ballard Locks and got some incredible shots of fish heading to spawn; one of the two highlights of the day.

[NOW: The full name of the Ballard Locks is the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks.]

Crossed the rest of the locks and made it to the shopping area.  Seafoodfest was apparently last week.  Bought DVDs at Moviecycle, then visited Sonic Boom Records and Arcane Comics, then lunch at Ballard's Burger King before going off itinerary and heading to Woodland Park Zoo

[NOW: Seafoodfest is apparently now held separately from Seafair. Moviecycle and that Burger KLing are now closed. Arcane Comics has moved to Shoreline.]

Took me longer than I'd hoped there, in part because a raptor show I didn't have time to watch prevented me from getting the quick pics I wanted of the raptors.  Did get various nice animal pics though. Zoos + kids + humidity = bad mix.

After a quick visit to Video Isle, a car claiming to below to JP Patches passed me; unfortunately tinted windows prevented me from confirming it was the actor who played him.

[NOW: Video Isle is now closed. I later determined that someone else owned the car by then. Chris Wedes, who played J.P. Patches died July 22, 2012.]

Visited Jive Time Records, Ophelia's Books, the Center of the Universe marker, Fremont Book Company, the Rocket display, the Lenin statue all before buying too many DVDs at Rain City Video.

[NOW: Rain City Video was having a closing out sale. At the time they weren’t certain when they were actually closing but they were gone by the next visit. Fremont Book Company is also now gone.]

Then in short order the plant dinosaurs, another quick look at Center and Lenin, the Waiting for the Interurban statue, Rapunzel on the Fremont Bridge, more Waiting, the JP Patches & Gertrude statue, then the Fremont Troll.  Having taken care of Fremont, visited Gas Works Park via the Wallingford Steps; people were dancing (ballroom?) at the circle in the middle of these steps (circle has zodiac signs).

Feeling tired due to the humidity I still made it to the park, which is an industrial complex converted to a family park.  A wedding was being held there.  Then things got really surreal: people with animal masks ran to this one area and back, then the group stripped to swimsuits and slit down a set of two mats that they apparently kept greasing with lots of olive oil.  This went on for a very long time.

I finally got a bus to near Seattle Center.  I quick trip to the International Fountain (now mostly off for the day) then the Subway near my place.