Seattle Trip 2022 Part 2

Part 2 of 2: Days 5-8 

We are still having a blast checking out a lot of touristy stuff.

Day 5: Wednesday

We did some more fun touristy things again today. We did the Seattle Underground Tour. Did some shopping, had lunch in one of the oldest standing bars in Seattle. Then we did the Elliott Bay Harbor Boat Tour, which I was really nervous about but decided I need to do at least one thing that sounds neat but scares me. So I did that, and well, I freaking loved it! It was amazing, and offered some incredible views of the absolutely massive Seattle skyline. Between both tours we did, we learned about how early Seattle had a lot of try and failure, but somehow blazed forward. Then some more shopping and we finished the day with dinner at the Chieftain which ended up being pretty good. We are packing a lot more into this trip than I anticipated, but I am having a blast!

Tall building disappearing into the morning fog. We have been having amazing weather this trip. A little foggy in the mornings, and then sunny days!

There are a couple garden beds in front of the house we rented and we noticed some carrots while we waiting for our Uber to whisk us downtown.

Neat old church (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).

A weird looking 7-Eleven. They certain don’t look like this back home.

We did the Seattle Underground Tour, which was pretty cool! Click the link to see more of that.

Old building. Victorian interpretations of the Romanesque Revival as I understand it.

The Pioneer Square Pergola. More information on it from the underground tour.

Then we decided to have lunch at Merchants Café. Seattle’s oldest restaurant established in 1890.

Neat old fixture.

While we waited for our food, I got on their website and read some of the stories of hauntings the current owner has experienced. The first one was of this painting. She went to take a picture of it with her flash on and it came out terrible, so she turned his flash off and took another shot. The painting, as shown above has a black background, but her shot showed a background with shelves and curtains. You can see her shot on the website... if you use the QR Code from the menu. When I look up their website from my laptop it doesn't show as much info. Weird.

Ah! Found it in my history: Darcy's Stories (outside link)

This is a twofer story.

Apparently 2 kids died in the basement during the Great Fire. When the new owner was working one day some old dude showed up and said he had a doll for the girl in the basement. the owner asked if he would like to bring it down to her and he said no, she’ll come and get it. She asked how he had heard about the ghosts in the basement and turned to put the doll on the safe, when she turned around the old man was gone. She ran out to find him and looked on all directions with no signs of him.

The next story involves a ghost that protects the safe. When the wine rack was installed about 2 months later one day, all of the wine bottles were dropped to the floor, broken and spilling. The restaurant had not been broken into. She decided to place a shot of whiskey and (in her words) "since I was wearing a skirt I showed him my butt" and they haven't had any problems since. She does refill the whiskey when it all evaporates though.

Smith Tower.

Back alley.

Back in the café, after lunch I needed to use the restroom. The restrooms are in the basement. Supposedly the most haunted part of the place.

I don’t know if I got myself worked up from the stories or not but after this shot all the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I just went .. NOPE. and I hustled my as out of there.

Then we checked out Magic Mouse Toys. Meh it was a toy store.

The Pioneer Square Pergola again.

One of the old historic buildings. As well as the Pioneer Square Totem Pole.

One of the skylights that lights up the underground sidewalks. More on that in the Underground Tour we did previously.

Eventually we started to wander towards our next adventure.

We made it down to the waterfront.

Downtown.

I don’t know if there is an underground down here, but this sure looks like the skylights.

The city again.

Either this is a very, very short captain, or those are some gigantic seagulls.

Between piers.

City again.

Then we did the Seattle Harbor Cruise. It was incredible and offered the best views of the skyline. Definitely recommended.

A lot of the pigeons here on the waterfront seem to have an injured foot. I wonder what’s up with that.

One of the things on our “weird” list to do was Ye Olde Curiosity Shop. It was definitely weird, but still fun.

We finished out the day doing a little bit of souvenir shopping.

Neat ceramic tile mosaic.

Giant otter.

The city again.

Tree growing out of this building.

Eventually we got our Uber back home.

Where our spider friend was still hanging out.

We all kind of did our own thing for the rest of the night. Landis and I decided to have dinner at The Chieftain. It’s a college sports bar, but the food and beer was good so we enjoyed ourselves. Later Kumar came back from his Sushi dinner with some questionable shots and well, that was the end of the night.

Day 6: Thursday

Took things a little easier today and checked out some things up north. We started at Volunteer Park, then we did the Volunteer Park Conservatory. The we went to Lake View Cemetery and visited Bruce Lee and Brandon Lees graves. The the Louisa Boron Lookout. Then we wandered over to The Mas to grab some lunch that we ate at Gas Works Park which was a lovely view of the city skyline over Lake Union. We finished out our day visiting the Fremont Troll.

Our original friend moved further back, and we had a new friend. Fun fact, orb-weavers consume and re-spin their nests everyday. Which explains why they are generally free from detritus.

We started our day at Volunteer Park.

Which included the Volunteer Park Conservatory.

Then we went to Lake View Cemetery and visited Bruce and Brandon Lee’s graves.

Just across from the Cemetery is the Louisa Boron Lookout. Where there is this 1977 steel sculpture called Lookout by Lee Kelly.

The view from here is not bad. We can see Lake Washington, but it would be better after the leaves drop.

I bet the view is better when its not so smoky too.

With the lake again.

The Lookout again.

I got up on the bench and that gave me a better view of the lake.

We all decided we were hungry, and we found a café that was less than a mile away that the website showed some decent brunch options. So, we went for a walk.

This is a cute neighborhood. It reminded us of our local neighborhood we call The Avenues, because the street names are all avenues, which coincides with this neighborhood.

We found a hummingbird! Back home I think I saw my last one about a week before we left.

Huge pumpkins!

Tree with ivy.

Nice.

Another pretty orb weaver. My friend who has lived out here for a few years informs me it is “spider season” right now. It certainly seems so!

When we got to the café, we learned that they have simplified their menu and pretty much offered avocado toast (holy shit that's really is a thing) and other similar simple things. We decided we wanted a little more than toast so we ordered our Uber to a café near our next destination: Gas Works Park.

Our Uber took us down a road through Interlaken Park which was quite pretty. I kind of wanted to stop and explore a bit, but we were all very hungry (PSP).

Cute little “castle” home (PSP).

Crossing the channel between Lake Washington and Lake Union (PSP).

We arrived as Mas Café, and were greeted by a very enthusiastic fan who told us she eats there twice a day everyday and everything is amazing! Well, she was not wrong, we all very much enjoyed we we ordered.

We ordered our food and walked the block and a half to Gas Works Park. We sure did a lot of walking on this trip!

View of the Space Needle from the restaurant.

We then visited Gas Works Park which offered this fantastic view.

Then the Fremont Troll.

Then we decided to head on back to our room.

Heading over the Ship Canal bridge on i5 (PSP). It’s a little higher than I like but I handled it just fine.

Random view of the Space Needle (PSP).

Our new spider friend caught a meal.

We all kind of all went our separate ways afterwards again. Elise and Kumar went to the concert that was the entire reason for the trip. We wandered around town to find food and booze, eventually we came back to the room and had leftovers.

Day 7: Friday

We decided to have more of a chill day today. I noticed on our map the Seattle Japanese Garden which sounded pretty cool, so we decided to check that out. Then we wandered around a bit in Washington Park Arboretum had lunch and came home. We plan to have some local friends over.

The lamp mount looks angry lol.

We spent most of the day at the Seattle Japanese Garden. It was spectacular.

Then we explored a little bit of the Seattle Botanical Garden, which the Japanese Garden is within.

After that short adventure we walked from the arboretum to a nearby strip mall that had a few options to eat.

We found another orb weaver or 2 along the way. They are everywhere up here. I am fascinated by them, but quite thankful I didn't inadvertently walk into one of them throughout our trip, because, everywhere.

We had lunch at a place called Teriyaki Bowl. It was delicious.

After that we had over a couple of old friend that used to live in Utah but have since moved to the Seattle area. I had a bit to much to drink. Luckily our flight was not too early.

Day 8: Saturday: Checkout Day.

Like I said our flight wasn’t too early, but we still had to check out by 11. I was waking up earlier and earlier each day. I’m not sure if it was the ocean air, or if maybe the bed was super comfortable, or I was just loving the city, or maybe all of the above but I found myself extremely well rested on this trip. So we got up early enough. I didn’t feel stressed about packing up and leaving, but some of the others did.

Eventually we were all packed and ready to get in our Uber.

The Seattle Airport is massive, and a little disorienting. Luckily, Landis seemed to know where he was going. I would have been completely lost without him.

I had a minor snafu with the TSA. I was drinking a Gatorade, the plan was to dump it out at some point and refill it with water, but suddenly we were in line. So, my bin totally got flagged and the TSA agent lifted the Gatorade and gave me the look. Oh crap, sorry. It can be tossed.

After having a beer we boarded our plane.

I took the anti anxiety gummies again, plus had a beer, so I was still feeling good about having the window seat.

Cramped plane.

Taxying.

Liftoff! It did not bother me as much as the first time. But the first time I didn’t know what to expect.

Horizon.

Fairly certain that is Mount Saint Helens.

Again.

Above the clouds. This is so weird that I am not completely freaking out.

My window was a little dirty, so depending on the lighting I mostly got terrible shots.

I think that might be the Columbia River. But I am not 100% sure.

First time in an airplane lavatory. Its uh tiny. 

Lunch. :-p

Again, I really am not 100% sure, but this is likely the Snake River.

Above the clouds.

Horizon.

Looks like we are hitting the salt flats.

My mountains!

I didn’t even mind the banking.

The Kennecott Smelter Stack. You can see that closer at the Great Salt Lake State Park.

Coming in for a landing.

Crossing i80. Neat to see the alternate perspective. I'm used to seeing planes fly overhead as I drive that.

Touchdown!

Taxying.

Downtown. Like I said, dirty window.

Our fancy new airport.

Hanging art.

We got rid of our spiral ramp garage and replaced it with a double spiral ramp.

Oh my mountains. How I have missed them (PSP).

We eventually discovered this is the Taylorville Temple that has been under construction for a while (PSP). Looks like it is coming along.

My mountains again (PSP).

Whew!! We packed a LOT into this trip! And our legs are definitely feeling it. I love all of the touristy stuff that we did, and some of the weird stuff we did as well. I definitely think we need to go back sometime. I would definitely like to spend some more time with my friends that live out that way. I sure miss them.

Well, that concludes our adventures. Thanks for following along.