Pacific Northwest Trip Summer 2011 Day 6 Saturday July 30

UPDATED: February 1, 2021

This is the sixth of a series of posts dealing my eighth trip to Seattle as an adult. 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.  

I got up and took photos of the Torchlight Parade set-up.  The VIP stand on 4th and Pine was les set up at around 7:30 am than it usually is.  I then had breakfast and then... remember yesterday I mentioned that idiot at the water ride who told me the one ride was water safe when there's actually a place where it was guaranteed to be wet?  Well, after breakfast my camera wouldn't work anymore.  I took more shots of the parade set-up with my spare camera that isn't quite as good, stopping off at Walgreen’s for more batteries for it.  I then went to Office Depot and, sigh, bought one more version of the wrecked camera.  I would have liked to have gotten a different model at this stage, but with the amount of photos I take, getting a new camera which takes a different type of battery would have racked up my credit card bill before going through Customs even more than getting a new camera.  Had I been in Canada I might have opted for a new type of camera, and will once it happens again (note, not if).  More set-up photos, then a bit of time at the International Fountain. 

[NOW: This particular camera is now in use but it has a scratch and the zoom doesn’t work.  A subsequent camera of the same type quit on the first day of my next Seattle trip. This particular camera is no longer being sold anywhere. That Office Depot has closed.]

I then hiked up to Kerry Park Viewpoint to see if I could see parade set-up from there.  I couldn't, but that's okay. I was going to visit there anyway this trip.  I found a shortcut heading down.  A meowing cat came up to me and was very affectionate but wouldn't stop meowing, so I had to finally give up trying to figure out what it was trying to convey.  My next stop was West Seattle and I got on the first one that came my way, 56, even though it didn't go all the way to my first destination there, figuring I could connect to another bus quickly or do a quick hike.  Along the way, outside of Safeco field was Seattle Mariner player Ichiro (I looked him up, not knowing anything about current baseball players, and he's Ichiro Suzuki).  The bus got stuck for a while due to a train, so any time I gained taking a bus around 11:25 instead of a better bus at 12 got lost, particularly since the hike took longer than I recalled and no bus came in the meantime.
 

[NOW: The 56 bus is King County Metro Transit. Ichiro Suzuki has since been traded.]

In West Seattle's main shopping area (Arcane Comics and Square One Books being defunct; no going back to Square One this time) I visited Pegasus Books, Leisure Books, West Seattle's Easy Street Records, and Rubato Records.  I visited the Safeway but it no longer had the pop machine with the mystery button.

[NOW: Rubato Records and Leisure Books, later Merrywether Books are now gone.]

I then took a 55 bus and then a 713 bus to Alki Beach.  Saw the Birthplace of Seattle Marker, the miniature Statue of Liberty (Lady Liberty was wearing a Seafair cape this time), the Bath House which is not used for baths, and various stands (didn't seem like the Alki Art Fair but could be; if so, more scattered on the beach than it used to be).  I bought lunch from Pepperdock Hamburgers.
 

[NOW: Both buses are King County Metro Transit. It almost for sure wasn’t the Art Fair.]

I took another 56 back downtown, where I visited Swerve, Pike Place Market (Rachel the Pig, fishmongers, BLMF book store, Holy Cow Records, Lionheart Books, First and Pike News), Zanadu Comics, then back to parade set-up.  I got a Slurpee at the 7-11 closest to Seattle Center, then back to International Fountain, then Orange Julius for early dinner, then fountain again, then back to 7-11 for souvenir cup (quite the line up due to people having free Slurpee coupons; the cup I bought was in the shape of Thor's foe Destroyer).  More parade set-up pics, during which time people could start finding places on the road (it was neat being able to cross streets and not worrying about lights), then back to Seattle Center's Center House (I was worried about a possible bathroom line, but people were actually lining up for the water fountain), then back to 7-11, then off to pick my spot. I took a while but found one where I could get decent shots of the Space Needle (in the meantime I got some photos of the runners).  I grabbed some pop from the 7-11 across the street before the parade began).
 

[NOW:  That 56 bus was King County Metro Transit. Swerve, First and Pike News, and Zanadu Comics are closed. Center House is now the Seattle Center Armory; they’ve evicted Orange Julius.]

For the most part I got a decent spot, on Denny Way just off of 4th.  Only problems were the police bikers didn't perform there as much as later areas in the route as it was right at the beginning (I got enough good photos of them at the Greenwood Parade) and people occasionally blocked each other's views.  All the usual suspects described in the Greenwood Parade so I won't list them all off again.  There were two big celebrities, one much easier than the other to see and get photos of.  Early in the parade there was Drew Carey.  He stood up on a convertible and lingered, so there's no question I got good shots of him.  Much later in the parade, after it got dark and before I repositioned myself to my final spot, taking advantage of people leaving) was Tom Skerritt. He was struggling with a sign that didn't want to stay on the car.  I stayed in the car and didn't linger enough for me to zoom in, so while I got photos of him, I'm not sure they're recognizable as being him, or even if the sign was clear enough.
 

[NOW: The same issue with the motorcycle cops happened next year as well, marring an otherwise excellent place to view the parade. Drew Carey of course was the main actor in the Drew Carey  Show and is the current host of The Price is Right. Tom Skerritt was Dallas in Alien and Sheriff Jimmy Brock iin Picket Fences.]

After the parade ended I got photos of litter people left behind (more of that tomorrow, but wanted to get some immediate shots as some might be cleaned up by morning. I bought cheese puffed corn from a nearby store before heading back to the hostel.