Sunday, June 3, 2018

Pacific Northwest Trip 2017 Day 15 Sunday July 30: Seattle: Ballard, Fremont, Wallingford

UPDATED: February 12, 2021

This is the 15th 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 forgot to mention: at one point in the parade the overexposure problem ceased. However that was probably a matter of available light because it was back today.

I walked along the parade route to get aftermath shots, then walked to Seattle Center and the international Fountain, which wasn't yet running. Lots of mess at the center but that could partly be a due to a free outdoor movie and not just the parade. I returned to the hostel for breakfast.

[NOW: The hostel was City Hostel Seattle.]

I visited the nearby Regrade park, an off leash park. At a nearby bus stop I overheard a couple of women who were puzzled that Trump got elected. I walked to the Downtown Transit Tunnel at Westlake Station just to have my Orca Card read so I could find out how much money I had left. I crossed through the Washington Convention Center up some escalators to Freeway Park; this time the fountains were running. I walked to Seattle Ferry  Terminal to find out if the Subway there would be open for breakfast when I needed to leave; probably not.

I visited Waterfall Garden Park, a small enclosure with artificial fountains, then Klondike Gold Rush National Park, actually a gold rush  themed free museum;  There are drawers you can open to see a few additional hidden exhibits.  I walked to Pacific place to see the scrap metal penguin again. I also visited Barnes & Noble. There were three Oz book sets of five for $8 each. Was very tempted but didn't think I had the space, plus being 700 page hardcovers they'd be added weight. I walked to Pike Place Market. I visited First & Pike News there and snapped a couple quick shots of Rachel the pig through the crowds. I also visited Lamplight Books.
 
[NOW: The penguin is one. That Barnes & Noble and First & Pike News have closed.]

I visited the Subway from last night to let them know to keep an eye on the switched sandwiches issues then had lunch to go at McDonald’s. I ate it at the International Fountain. I was going to cut through Key Arena at Seattle Center to get to the bus stop but there was a truck there and a guy reported getting yelled at when he tried that route, so I made it to the bus stop via a different route.

Using the free pass from last night, I took a D Rapidride bus (all buses today King County Metro Transit) to Ballard. I walked to Sonic Boom Records, this time finding their DVDs; I bought a Russian movie I later realized I already had, but it was cheap, and this copy was an actual Russian copy, not a North American licensed copy. I walked to the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks and crossed to the far end to visit the Fish Ladder.

[NOW: Ballard and other regions visited this day are part of Seattle.]

For people wondering when today the trip was going to so seriously wrong as it's been doing, here it is: I got over 1,000 shots, then about ¾ of the screen turned black. At Visitor info at the Locks a guy mentioned a camera place nearby that he wasn't sure was open on Sunday. It wasn't. I took a 40 bus a few blocks to OfficeMax. They didn't have any cameras but suggested a Fred Meyer nearby. Fred Meyer only had a few. I gave up taking terrible quality photos and turned my camera off. After a while, in the Fremont district, I reflexively turned by camera back on and it was working again barring the earlier issue of overexposure at right when not on sports mode. I revisited the plant dinosaurs, Fremont Rocket, Lenin statue, Center of the Universe, Jive Time Records, and Ophelia Books. This time I found the store cat Claudia resting in her cardboard box bed. I visited the Waiting for the Interurban statue. The J.P. Patches statue had a tour group so I visited the Fremont Troll and then doubled back. I  crossed over to Wallingford and visited Gas Works park for a bit. I went up the Wallingford Steps (I went down a week ago; zodiac art) and got a 32 bus back to near Seattle Center.

[NOW The full name of the J.P. Patches statue is J.P. Patches & Gertrude: Late for the Interurban.]

I went to Queen Anne to get photos of Kerry Park but en route the ¾ blackout issue arose again. I half-heartedly took some photos; due to the issue I couldn't get Mt Rainer in focus with the Space Needle very well.  I gave up taking photos again for the most part and returned to Seattle Canter. I got a few photos of the international Fountain and then had dinner at Mod Pizza. There the camera started to work again. I rested a little bit at the International Fountain when I realized I had left my backpack at Mod Pizza. I ran back and grabbed it. On the way back to the fountain, the camera issue resumed. I rested there a little bit but then gave up. I returned to the hostel to pack. The camera started working again but I decided to leave it alone so that I might get some okay shots of the trip back tomorrow. I "donated" some free duplicate papers/bus schedules etc. to the reading area of the hostel. I did a good job of packing. Since the last few days I had only been getting one or a few DVDs I was able to cram things it so it's just one of the backpack and two large suitcases; the other bags/pack are in the larger suitcase.

No comments: