Seattle
July 15, 2005
We slept in late today, at least late for us on this trip (about 8AM). We ate breakfast at the hotel (a free breakfast buffet, that is pretty good, is a nice feature at Holiday Inn Express hotels, especially for a family of 5), and then walked a few blocks to the Seattle Center to catch the monorail to the downtown area. The monorail takes about 2 minutes to travel the distance between the Seattle Center to the Westlake Center Mall, its only two stops. Seattle is also planning a new, expanded monorail system.
From the Westlake Center Mall it is only a short walk to Pike Place Market, a semi-open air farmer's market. One of our first stops was the originalStarbucks location, where we all enjoyed a beverage. The flowers, fruit, vegetables, and seafood were particularly impressive (both in quality, and in some cases, price) at the market. As an example, for only $5 you could purchase an extremely attractive bouquet of flowers that would probably cost you 3-4 times as much in Northeast Ohio. We purchased some huge (nearly softball size) peaches in the market, which we ate later for dinner. They were very sweet and juicy.
After having some fantastic clam chowder for lunch, we walked to the waterfront and caught a trolley to Pier 69. At Pier 69 we picked up our boarding passes for our cruise tomorrow to the San Juan islands, where we'll also, hopefully, see some whales. We hopped on the trolley again and rode it to the Pioneer Square area of downtown Seattle. An interesting site in Pioneer Square is one of the few (only?) indoor National Parks, the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. The exhibits in this building tell the story of the Klondike gold rush that took place in the late 1800s in the Yukon territory of Canada. Seattle was a major staging area for the men heading off to seek their fortune, and the gold rush became a major economic impetus to the growth of the city.
After walking around Pioneer Square, including visiting the Waterfall Garden, we once again boarded the trolley and rode back to Pike Place Market. We visited a few shops, picking up some bread, cheese, salami and wine (a very nice 2003 Columbia Valley Syrah) for dinner. We decided to walk back to our hotel, which gave us an opportunity to see the Belltown area of the city. Tonight we are staying in and plan to get a good night's sleep. We have to be at the boat by 7AM!
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A selection of photos from our trip can be viewed at Flickr. You might like to watch them as a slideshow. Send us an email by clicking HERE.
We slept in late today, at least late for us on this trip (about 8AM). We ate breakfast at the hotel (a free breakfast buffet, that is pretty good, is a nice feature at Holiday Inn Express hotels, especially for a family of 5), and then walked a few blocks to the Seattle Center to catch the monorail to the downtown area. The monorail takes about 2 minutes to travel the distance between the Seattle Center to the Westlake Center Mall, its only two stops. Seattle is also planning a new, expanded monorail system.
From the Westlake Center Mall it is only a short walk to Pike Place Market, a semi-open air farmer's market. One of our first stops was the originalStarbucks location, where we all enjoyed a beverage. The flowers, fruit, vegetables, and seafood were particularly impressive (both in quality, and in some cases, price) at the market. As an example, for only $5 you could purchase an extremely attractive bouquet of flowers that would probably cost you 3-4 times as much in Northeast Ohio. We purchased some huge (nearly softball size) peaches in the market, which we ate later for dinner. They were very sweet and juicy.
After having some fantastic clam chowder for lunch, we walked to the waterfront and caught a trolley to Pier 69. At Pier 69 we picked up our boarding passes for our cruise tomorrow to the San Juan islands, where we'll also, hopefully, see some whales. We hopped on the trolley again and rode it to the Pioneer Square area of downtown Seattle. An interesting site in Pioneer Square is one of the few (only?) indoor National Parks, the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. The exhibits in this building tell the story of the Klondike gold rush that took place in the late 1800s in the Yukon territory of Canada. Seattle was a major staging area for the men heading off to seek their fortune, and the gold rush became a major economic impetus to the growth of the city.
After walking around Pioneer Square, including visiting the Waterfall Garden, we once again boarded the trolley and rode back to Pike Place Market. We visited a few shops, picking up some bread, cheese, salami and wine (a very nice 2003 Columbia Valley Syrah) for dinner. We decided to walk back to our hotel, which gave us an opportunity to see the Belltown area of the city. Tonight we are staying in and plan to get a good night's sleep. We have to be at the boat by 7AM!
-----
A selection of photos from our trip can be viewed at Flickr. You might like to watch them as a slideshow. Send us an email by clicking HERE.
posted by Bill Bauer at 12:58 AM
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