Pacific Northwest Trip Summer 2010 Day 9 Tuesday August 3

UPDATED: January 27, 2021

This is the ninth of a series of posts dealing my seventh trip to Seattle as an adult 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 two years later or to add further clarification. 

Last night was laundry night so I turned in a little later and "slept in" to 7.  Also helped another traveller in my room with Seattle suggestions.

ORCA card has gone missing.  I'm pretty sure I registered it though so in theory I should only have to pay the replacement fee.  I'll go for a short walk, have breakfast at the hostel, then so if the transit office in the downtown transit tunnel is open.  If not will use cash for my bus trips and fix the matter upon my return. Today I'm scheduled to visit the University District, Warren Magnusson Park, and Capitol Hill, but since the latter, for me at least, is within walking distance, I might head downtown after the park and use Capitol Hill to replace my older Thurs plans, which I pretty much already did on Sun.   I'm feeling a bit tired so this will allow me a quieter day before tomorrow's busier day.

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

Crap, still a little less than three days to go.  I'm sorry, I've tried my best to enjoy this trip but between the scare I had yesterday and way, way, way too many photos of white skies due to fog, I am officially sick of this trip; I don't want to see any more fog for a very long time.  But I shall soldier on.

I walked to the International Fountain and back mainly because it was about the only thing I had time to do before breakfast (at least I probably made it to the fountain; honestly can't recall now), then breakfast at the hostel, then a walk to the downtown transit tunnel where I took a bus to the University of Washington.

I tried walking around from memory but that was a bit hard due to lots of construction on campus.  Happily the fountain was on, which isn't often the case when I arrive in the morning.  Basically imagine a large circle full of water with a decent spout in the centre.  It's no International Fountain but it's still pretty impressive.   It took me a while to find the Husky Union Building, which has a small book store.  Finally realized I'd missed it because it was entirely enclosed by construction.

[NOW: The construction is still happening, though it doesn’t take up as much space as it did summer 2010; in the meantime the book store is in another building.]

 I next went to a shopping area in the northeast of the University District, called University Village.  Again the construction resulted in a bit of the scenic route, but I did see more of the sports field than I normally do (football).  Now pretty much walking on auto-pilot I walked around the very quaint looking village, went to Barnes & Nobles, then Blockbuster across the street from the village, then back to the village, taking pics of a Stonehenge-shaped fountain.

[NOW: University Village’s Barnes & Noble and the Blockbuster across from it are now gone.]

Having finally found the proper route to 45th Ave (a bridge in that area) I was disappointed that it was also closed due to construction.  I trudged through the campus again and got to the main shopping area, where i visited University Book Store, Book Kennel, Bulldog News; skipped the Wall of Death to save time; visited Twice Sold Tales (couldn't find the cat), Half Price Books (bought some comics), Cinema Books, Scarecrow Video, Neptune Records, Zanadu Comics, Al's Music, and The Dreaming.

[NOW: Book Kennel, University District’s Half Price Books, Cinema Books, and The Dreamning are now gone. University District’s Twice Sold Tales closed for a time before reopening in Ballard. University District’s Zanadu Comics became a Comic Stop before closing.]

I took a bus to Warren G. Magnusson Park but first went through a government security station to visit the Sound Garden, whose name inspired a rock band.  Last time there was access to the park from there, but that access was currently closed, to I walked back the way I came, bought a Slurpee at 7-11, then went back in the direction I just came from again on the other side of the govt complex, i.e. on the park side.  Saw lots of dogs on the off leash area, then walked towards the main beach area, passing a guy whose swimsuit...let's just say it was good for all concerned that he wasn't too happy.

[NOW: Normally nowadays to same time I just photograph the Sound Garden through the fence at Magnusson Park.]

I swam more briefly than intended, partly because the rocks were painful to walk on, and partly because due to rules and due to a lack of other people swimming I'd have to wait for a lifeguard for each swim I did (another guy swam the first time I did, but I couldn't count on that to keep happening)

I took a bus downtown (or rather the International District) and made the mistake of heading to lost and found re: the ORCA card, rather than just getting a card from an earlier stop. So, I visited King Street Station and was told that Pierce County handles cards left on busses from Pierce County locations, only their lost and found was closed for the day, so I had to visit another place nearby for the replacement card.  That place had a much bigger line than I'd likely have gotten at the other card replacement place.  Finally resolved the card matter and made the mistake of thinking it was faster to use the Downtown Transit Tunnel to get to near the trolley that I wanted to ride.

[NOW: After getting the replacement card the hostel, which previously said they didn't have the card, later said a card had turned up. By then though I'd already paid for the replacement card and couldn't reverse it.]

15 minutes later I realized I couldn't really use my transfer anymore so I decided that streetcar would have to wait for tomorrow. I walked to Seattle Center and bought a burger and two large strawberry Juliuses there (they had a two for one deal; in hindsight probably too much of a good thing).

[NOW: Orange Julius has since been evicted from the Seattle Center Armory, which was Center House in 2010.]

I went back downtown and found that the Borders closed earlier than their webpage claimed.  Across from that was a fountain that hasn't been on any time I visited this trip, but there was ballroom dancing and giant chess happening outside in that area so it wasn't a complete lost. 

[NOW: Borders is now defunct.]

I went to Pacific Place and took pics from an overhead bridge to Nordstrom, plus the scrap metal penguin before visiting Barnes & Nobles in that mall.

[NOW: I think the bridge was actually to the now closed Macy's.]

Heading back north I visited Easy Street Records, passed a dog who sniffed me and probably moved away before I could pet it (can't even catch a break from the doggies), bought a DVD at Silver Platters and then cut through Seattle Center on the way back to the hostel.

[NOW: That Easy Street Records is now closed. That Silver Platters moved to 1st Ave S.]

So not a total loss day but the fog morning after morning has caused some depression.  The next few days will determine whether I deem this trip a bad one or an okay one.  It did start out great but now I'll settle for "okay".

[NOW: My recollection is the trip did indeed land on “okay”.]