Monday, September 16, 2013

Seattle: Aug 19...Vancouver? Um...No...wait...

There is nothing like getting up in the morning with plans in your head totally enthused about the day that loomed before you with all its possibilities and then an attack of 'lazy' comes and embraces you so tight that instead of jumping out of bed at 9am sharp (which you absolutely intend to do in the first place, really, honestly!) instead you punch the 'off' of your alarm clock and go right back to sleep. 

Something like this may have happened to me that bright Monday morning.  I did get up thinking Vancouver but another long drive suddenly seemed unappetizing.  Also, I think all the traveling about had finally caught up with me because my stomach wasn't feeling happy at all.  Sitting cross-legged on the big comfy bed, I sipped seltzer water and watched the news.  Actually I was watching the weather.  Rain was nowhere in the vicinity and I had to wonder if I was truly in Seattle at all.  Not in the mood to wander too far from the erm...facilities, I stayed put till my annoyingly restless nature shoved me out the door. 

Since the rest of the week was now pretty much solidified with unchangeable plans, the only option I had was to finally do the whole touristy downtown Seattle thing.  Since I had been there as recent as Saturday night I was fairly confident regarding where I was going.  Busting out the backpack, I shoved two bottles of water, my camera and wallet as well as cell, gum, lip gloss and shades.  I was all prepared.  My stomach still wasn't thrilled but I told it to shut up because the day waited. 

It was indeed as beautiful a day as the weatherman promies as I drove into the city, a short 15 minute drive as the GPS guided me toward the Seattle Space Needle.  What is this you ask?  Here you go:


 
After parking, I hoofed it to the desk to purchase a ticket and then zipped up several feet to the observation tower.  What I saw was breathtaking and although I had to battle plenty of people to get a good spot in order to take pictures, I indeed won (with a few gentle pushes and equally gentle nudges with my elbow...all accompanied with respectful 'oh excuse me' and a smile).  Here are some of what I saw.  I can't necessarily tell you what it was I was precisely gazing at but still lovely:








That big house you see?  My summer home, of course.  Nice, right?  Ahem.  And of course the last picture is the ferry, oh how well I know it.  Naturally I took about two million pictures all of which now look exactly alike thus I have decided to prudently not post all of them here however my FB friends will not be so lucky since I have every intention of uploading a flurry of pictures that will make them either groan in frustration or wonder if they aren't seeing the same thing 10,000 times. 

Moving on...so after enjoying a drink while almost wistfully watching groups of people taking pictures, laughing and sharing the spectacular view together, I had to push away the longing for my family and friends while soldiering on bravely.  Even though I had already spent many days alone, I thus far never felt quite so isolated as I did that day.  Independence is well and good but togetherness is so much better, lesson learned.

Back on land...okay on the ground floor, I took these pictures of the museum next door which boasted amazing blown glass sculptures.  I didn't actually go inside; there was a garden outside so that's where these pics were shot:
 


 
Yes, these are blown glass.  I was in awe.  Not so much awe that I would spend the bucks to actually go inside but awe nonetheless.  By that time it was about 3 and I realized I hadn't had anything other than seltzer water.  My stomach grumbled in protest yet once again  but I told it to shut up simply because I didn't have much time on my hands to do all that I wanted to do, namely find out where the hop on/hop off tour buses were located.  In the meantime here is a band I stood to listen to for a bit, tapping my feet in the process.


 


And as you can see I found the bus kiosk also therefore I was set.  Armed with another ticket, I found the stop and waited patiently in rather sweltering heat.  In case you have no clue as to what these buses are all about, let me tell you quickly.  Basically they offer routes.  You can get on and off at will, however many times your sightseeing heart wishes and for as long as you wish (of course you best catch the last bus back to wherever it is your car is parked).  The pimply bored kid at the ticket counter took pity on me seeing the late hour and gave me a half-pricer so that wasn't a bad deal. I'd like to think it was my winning nature that compelled him to give me the discount but I suspected that it was probably that he wanted me to get the hell away and leave him alone. 

Typically in the past, when in Rome (no, literally, the city Rome), Barcelona, Nice, P and I had quickly realized that these buses were the optimum way of seeing a city fast with limited time on hand, no matter how dorky and touristy we may have appeared.  Hey, if I need to use a bus like this, the fact is I am a tourist.  Why be ashamed of it? 

Usually we would stay put in the bus, doing one large circuit and then go back to wherever we were interested in seeing for longer than 2 seconds as we zoomed by.  Since I was already late in my exploring that day, I picked Pike Place to stop and really have a long stroll figuring that after this if I wanted to see anything else I would do so, time permitting. 

Here's what my peepers peeped (only but a few) as the trolley (yea so I've been saying bus but actually it was a trolley) zipped along:








As I mentioned before, on Saturday more than 90% of the vendors had already closed shop therefore I wasn't able to see much or get the full experience.  That Monday afternoon as I scrambled off the loud clanking creaking vehicle at Pike Place, I was practically slapped in the face with the whole loud, colorful, smelly wonderfulness of this outdoor/indoor market.  My senses were overwhelmed almost immediately as the powerful stench of seafood engulfed me.  I hate using the word 'stench' because it was far from disgusting, just...fishy!

First stop was this place:


As you see its "World Famous" so It must be when so prominently proclaimed on the banner, right?  But all kidding aside, in fact this place is well known, recommended to visit on nearly every tourist pamphlet or even by word of mouth and as I approached I saw a vast crowd standing about in anticipation.  Of what you wonder?  Why the fish flinging of course!  Yes, you didn't read that wrong.  Apparently, when someone orders a fish (a whole one, not cutlets or steaks), with a mighty unified war cry the guys behind the counter (and the ones in the front) scream the fish type and let fly.  See the pic above?  You get the idea?  Did I get to see this happen?  Well yes, however I hadn't expected it and the fishy fish flew before I could put camera to eye.  Bad, bad photographer.  Pity though.  They rarely, if ever, miss or so I have heard.  And if you're brave and not adverse to getting fish goo on your hands, I believe they'll let spectators also throw around a few salmon.  It's odd I confess, to see a whole bunch of folks just standing around hoping that seafood will go flying but hey I wasn't going to miss out so I joined them.  In the process I caught these pics also:
 






Seriously, don't ask me who any of these folks are.  I don't know them. 

By this time, my stomach was pretty pissed off at me and was retaliating by giving me the shakes.  It was late and I had yet to eat a darn thing, not even trail mix *gasp*.  I found a stall, bought some shrimp tempura, stood by like a homeless waif and wolfed them down with a bottle of Izze Orange.  I barely tasted what I was eating simply because the interest wasn't there but I do recall it being quite good.  I was ready for some more wandering and here are a few more pics (of course):



 


Oh, oh the selection!  The smells!  The colors!  It was all so absolutely beautiful.  I didn't mind the bumping and dodging of humanity since the happiness of being there was enough.  I tried to figure out whether I could reasonably cart one of the gorgeous bouquets of flowers (which were dirt cheap) back to the hotel with me but rejected that idea as silly.  After all I had a lot more gawking and taking of pictures to do so I reluctantly walked on.   What amazed me was that in this space you could find anything from baby’s bibs to cheesy t-shirts to stunning jewelry all scattered amongst the fish mongers and jams/jelly sellers.  What to see?  Where to go?  It was so much that surely I could take more than a day to go hither and yon yet still not see it all.  And, later, I discovered there was even a second floor to the darn place.
 
Moving through that half covered (half) indoor market, I came to the outside part where more vendors were set up hawking their wares and smiling in such a friendly fashion that you couldn't help but grin back.  I gave everything a good look see but walked on to the park where I sat and called P while eyeing the vista.  Here are a few pictures of this part of my wandering: 




Plonked on a bench out in the blazing sun, I could feel the spirit of these beatnik folks all around and laughed a bit self-consciously.  I realized just how un-cool and non-beatnik I truly was.  Still I sat and listened to the sounds of life around me, this time though instead of waves crashing on the shore and gulls flying by overhead, it was the laughter of happy folks, the strumming of guitars, the soft singing of someone in the distance, the exhilaration of cars and the rumble of trucks not far away. 
 
I told P what I was looking at and he sighed a long drawn out breath, expressing to me (again) how he wished he were with me experiencing all that I was.  I totally got it. 
 
Soon though my mind went to coffee, which made sense seeing as where I was but more importantly, I wanted Starbucks.  Why Starbucks specifically?  Well hello, in case you didn't know, the first SB opened up right at that spot in 1971.  I was however praying that the lines, which had been literally out the door and down the street all day long, wouldn't be as bad at that time of day.  To my vast relief it wasn't, at least not when I stepped into the queue but within minutes sure enough behind me was a snake of human coffee lovers that went at least 30 long.  "Sucks to be them," I thought to myself with glee. 



 
After nearly a half hour of waiting, ordering, waiting, scoring, waiting while they fixed the drink that they had gotten wrong, then leaving, I ended with what you see here in the pic above, a peppermint mocha Frappuccino (yum yum).  It totally hit the spot.
 
On I went, sipping the cold frosty drink while the condensation rolled down my arm but I didn't mind since it was hot outside, even then while I eyed more stalls, more goodies.  At one point I came across a French bakery where I had to buy myself some fresh made macaroons.  Don't be too jealous while I flash you.
 

In case you were wondering, these were indeed as scrumptious as they looked although it took me 2 days to eat 4 of them.  Okay enough torture, check out some other stuff I gawked at:






 
Gosh I did a lot of walking and just when I assumed there was nothing left to be seen, I discovered the 'basement' of the market, so down I went...


 
Eventually though it was time to go and after purchasing some cheesy trinkets for back home, I found my way back to the bus stand arriving just in time to catch the last that would take me to my car. 

This picture is a panoramic shot of the trolley from within.  Um, this was taken using my iPhone so I know it looks super disjointed but whatever, I'm not rich enough yet to buy me a lens that would do the same.  Meh.

 

The weather had cooled a bit by the time the trolley had reached its final destination, back at the Space Needle.  The clock read 6:50ish at which point I should have climbed into my lil Sonic to head back to the hotel but as usual nothing in my life happens as I actually plan hence I did not go home.  Instead this is what I did: 
 
 ***Wait before I show the next set of pictures, let me take a moment here to tell you how tiring this blog has been.  Good God it's ridiculously, obnoxiously long and I'm going cross eyed from all the writing and picture hunting.  Sigh, I apologize if you too have suffered significant vision loss due to all this.  I don't have a lotta cashola right now so don't bother sending me any bills from any doctors.  Read on at your own risk.  If you're bored mindless, stop now, this ain't gonna get better.  Moving on...***
 


 
 
Duck tours!!!!!  Yes indeed, a tour on an amphibious truck.  Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I absolutely love these goofy tours, I mean hugeeeeee fan.  When I see them puttering by in D.C. I have been known to screech out loud (no matter who I'm with) "ducksssssssssss".  Ahem, wow I am such a dork.  My love for this tour is so deep that I have taken one in San Fran subsequently dragging my buddy with me who was horrified yet couldn't deny it was a blast.  The tours start on land, drive right into the water, motor around for a bit and then back onto land leaving a trail of water behind.  And the quacking, oh my goodness the quacking!
 
The only thing that I didn't like about this particular tour (the only thing) was that since I was alone and also because it was so late in the day, I was the only one (or so I thought) scheduled for the 7:20 departure.  As I sat in the bus/car thing alone feeling super conspicuous, a tour that was ending pulled up absolutely full of laughing folks next to mine and the driver was going through his final farewells to his guests when he spied me and using a microphone, yes because just quietly calling over to me wouldn't have been embarrassing enough, the dude says "hey sweetie, all alone?" :|  What the hell!  His bus occupants started to snicker, giggle and even a few LOL's.  I blushed beet red, shrugged nonchalantly as if I had no interest in being with anyone else anyhow, sank into the busted up leather seat and tried to appear as if I were texting someone, that I too had another human soul in the world who cared for me...a friend.  Damn.  This is that jerk acting like a total spaz:

 
Thank goodness though that about 9 other people joined my tour eventually, everyone was able to have their own row.  The driver was a crazy guy who made us laugh, put on goofy hats with every song he played, demanded that we sing as well as dance along with him and kept us thoroughly entertained.  He was in essence, a riot.  Oh, did I mention the quacking?  See that plastic beak above?  Most of the people with me had bought one and were happily quacking away as we drove through the streets of Seattle.  When people waved at us the quacks became louder, when people abjectly ignored us the quacking reached levels of obnoxious loudness to the point where I was fairly positive someone clear across the country could hear us. 
 
I got some gorgeous pictures from this trip:
 



















 
 
Y'all a lil jealous, right? 
 
Anyhow, by the end of that day I felt as if I had done all that was humanly possible to do in the span of a few hours.  I think I closely resembled a bunny hopped up on speed and caffeine zooming around here, there and everywhere but no regrets.  Although my feet were really pissed off at me that was alright also since I must have lost like 4 bazillion calories from all the hoofing about I had done. 
 
Back at the hotel (sigh, I'm ashamed to admit that my GPS threw me for another loop) and after depositing all the crap I had with me, hunger pangs forced me out into the quiet night figuring I'd have a nice dinner somewhere, really treat myself to something that wasn't consumed while standing.  Finding a Thai place I got there just in time for the woman behind the counter to apologetically inform me that the dining room was closed but I could take to go.  Shrugging I ordered, waited outside while flipping through some outdoorsy magazine, collected the food and was back to the hotel within a few minutes.  It was a wee bit frustrating that nothing in Bellevue seemed open past 9:30pm but oh well, so it goes. 
 
The next day I was mentally preparing myself for Vancouver.  Let's see how that turns out, shall we?  Okay I already know but it's a mystery for you, now isn't it? 
 
Bye for now!



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