Vancouver and Seattle

  It’s been a long time since I last updated my blog. I’ve been busy with visitors and work. So here we go, all the way back to Seattle which we did after Alaska. The cruise docked in Vancouver and we spend the day exploring. We took a trolley ride around and spent some time at the food markets – as you do.

Vancouver, Canada was pretty to drive around and the city was like most others. The one photo I did take was of the Gastown Steam Clock. Courtesy of wiki…..

Underneath Vancouver, there runs a series of steam pipes connected to a generating plant at Georgia and Beatty Streets. The system provides heat to most of the downtown core, and provides the steam for the whistles of the Gastown steam clock – it blows it’s steam whistle every 15 minutes. Despite seeming like a remnant of the Victorian era and being located in Vancouver’s “Gastown” (which was the original townsite from which Vancouver grew in the 1870s), the Steam Clock is actually from a hundred years later, built in 1977 by horologist Raymond Saunders and metalwork specialist Doug Smith. Saunders was hired by Gastown’s local merchants to build the clock as a monument. It also had an alternative purpose: Placed over a steam grate above one of the aforementioned pipes, it kept local homeless from sleeping on the warm spot. The clock is likely only the second steam clock ever constructed, the first having been built by Englishman John Inshaw in 1859, to draw customers to his tavern.

I’ve seen my sister’s photos of Vancouver and there are beautiful gardens and a suspension bridge that we could have seen but with only the half day, we just trolley’d around and took in the views.

Seattle. Seattle is in Washington State and is often confused with Washington DC. Thus why people often say DC and not Washington. We were both excited to see Seattle for several reasons. It was the home of Grey’s Anatomy (not that we are big fans but just that it’s home to that show), it’s also the home of Starbucks coffee, the Boeing factory and that big space needle tower. And of course, who could forget Sleepless in Seattle. It was a short flight from Vancouver to Seattle, less than an hour. In hindsight, we should have hired a car and drove there. Seattle is also home to a huge tech industry including Microsoft and Amazon. We met a friend for coffee who had recently moved from DC to Seattle to work with Amazon. She told us there were 20+ offices in Seattle for Amazon. Amazing.

We took a tour of the underground which we found really interesting and informative. It set the scene for our understanding of Seattle. To put this in a nutshell, there is a network of underground tunnels and basements in the old downtown area. The city used to be at this lower level back in the 1800’s. Like most earlier old cities, buildings were constructed of wood and fire was a common problem. Seattle suffered several bad fires. The city also flooded badly because it was built on tidal lands too close to the water edge and sewage backups were a problem when flooding occurred - I won't go into more detail on that.  So, after a destructive fire the city leaders decided to rebuild with stone or brick and the streets would be built 1-2 stories higher than the current street level. This helped with the new gravity flush toilet system and avoided the high tides flooding the streets. However, the old streets and city remained below but were used less over time. They remain today and have become a tourist attraction.

We could look above to see sections of street pavement made from thick skylight glass. It was a little eerie being below but I found it fascinating how this was all constructed. It was pretty rundown but quite safe to tour around. If you’re going to Seattle, it’s well worth taking the tour with Bill Speidel - check out the website.

Bill Speidel Underground Tour

We were up early the following day to do the Pikes Place food market tour. Again we thoroughly enjoyed this as it provided more history on Seattle. In hindsight, we get the feeling everything revolves around these markets. Most people think of the Space Needle Tower and markets when you mention Seattle. Our guide was excellent. We had unknowingly bought a coffee at the ‘original’ Starbucks on our way to start the tour. This was a great idea as later in the day the line was down the street. The coffee was still Starbucks but, it’s about saying you went to the original joint. We enjoyed samples around the markets from some food stalls and saw the famous fish mongers throwing the fish. They throw the fish because it’s quicker to get it weighed and priced rather than walk it around to behind the counter.

 

There was a donut vendor on the sample list. Very exciting as it was the traditional way we Aussies are used to donuts. But, to our horror, the free sample was bacon maple donuts !! Deb has become a non-pork eating person and my mouth does not water for such a clash of tastes. BUT, in good spirit, I gave it a go. Yep, my mouth still does not water for it. What the hell were people thinking when they created this combination.

We also found The Crumpet Shop. Yes, it was good old fashioned crumpets. Despite busting at the sides, we bought a hot crumpet with jam and it was good – real good. I also tried a cupcake at Cupcake Royal and no, it’s got nothing on Georgetown Cupcakes. And I found a place called Biscuit Bitch. What a classic name. It specialises in good southern comfort food. The website is worth reading as it explains the shop and namesake. We didn’t eat here but I had to check it out.

Biscuit Bitch

 

We did start a free walking tour but ditched it about half hour in because it was not giving us anything of interest despite walking and walking and walking. Given the other two tours were great, we decided to leave and explore on our own.

 

Rachel the Piggy Bank (on the left) is the mascot of Pike Place Market and is a huge fundraiser. She has been raising money for The Market Foundation since 1986, raising more than $200,000 and counting. The money supports social services of the market. As always, story goes that if you rub Rachel’s snout and make a donation, you’ll have good luck! Her cousin Billy the Piggy Bank (on the right) arrived to the market in 2011 and is around the back near the Hillclimb.

And a trip to Seattle must include a ride up the Space Needle. It gives a great view of Seattle of course. The restaurant at the top was being renovated so our views were a little interrupted but we got the general picture. The Space Needle was built in 1962 for the World Fair and is 184m high. Some interesting facts off wiki tell me that the 6.8 Mw Nisqually earthquake jolted the Needle enough in 2001 for water to slosh out of the toilets in the restrooms. The Space Needle will not sustain serious structural damage during earthquakes of magnitudes below 9.1. Also made to withstand Category 5 hurricane-force winds, the Space Needle sways only 1 inch per 10 mph (16 mm per 10 km/h) of wind speed.

And just to shatter any Grey’s Anatomy fans, the show is actually filmed mostly in Los Angeles. The hospital is based on a Seattle medical center, but it’s not used in the show.

Overall, I liked Seattle but Deb is on the fence. It seemed the markets were the talking attraction and while the Boeing factory is a favourite to visitors, I didn’t get to go there as time was short and tours didn’t align with our plans. I was disappointed but, I’ll just have to go back I guess.

We flew home to DC which took all day as the flight is 5 hours and we jump ahead 3 hours. The plane was also diverted to Baltimore (45mins away) due to a bad storm in DC. So we landed, refueled and took off after an hour. So we finally got home about 3 hours later than scheduled. I managed to chat with the pilots while on the ground in Baltimore and the first officer was a lovely lady, ex C-17 USAF pilot. Me being a nerdy student pilot enjoyed the exchange of career information and was both inspired and in awe of her achievements.

So that’s another 2 states ticked off our quest to get 50 states. There are some more random extra pics below from our Seattle adventures.