Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Seattle: Day 3

Today was the first day that I finally got into the "real" city of Seattle. I don't have a rental car, so all of my travels are either by foot or by public transit. So far, the bus system has been easy to use, and my decision to find a hotel near a transit center ended up being one of the best decisions I've made for this trip.

I'd never been to Seattle before, so today's itinerary centered around a few "important" places downtown: the waterfront, Pioneer Square District, Pike Place Market, and of course, the original Starbucks.

I was amazed that the public market was much smaller than I had imagined. Perhaps I was thinking of something on the scale of Pier 39 or Ghirardelli Square in SF, or even Cannery Row in Monterey. It wasn't as big as any of those. But it was still an interest site to visit. Managed to not buy anything, either.


Saw some fish-throwing, but the camera on my phone is too slow to catch the action. Had to settle for a pic showing all the non-customer tourists gathered around the shop awaiting a flying fish.


Yeah, seriously, this is the original Starbucks. It isn't very big or impressive, but it feels almost like a shrine with the number of customers filling the store. But I did wait in line, and ordered my venti green tea lemonade with 5 splendas in place of the sweetener. I may not drink coffee, but I'm capable of my own Starbucks addictions.


The store has the semi-original logo on its wall. This is, of course, the "re-introduced" logo that has generated recent controversy because it shows the mermaid's breasts.


My bus route back to my hotel took me past Boeing Field and the Museum of Flight. This is the (apparently rebuilt) building where Boeing got its start. Unfortunately, my bus route also took me along a LOT more city streets than the route I took downtown. So I spent almost 2 hours on the ride to the hotel. Praise God for the iPod!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Thom and I just got back from Seattle. Autumn Adams got married up there. What I loved about Pikes place was the beautiful flowers for such a great price. We also didn't purchase anything except some wonderful clam chowder and mini donuts. The fish throwing was also a little bit of a disappointment due to the fact that I had watched the motivational movie on them and then it wasn't that great very touristy. Make sure you go to the Seattle center. The science museum is interesting from what I remember as a kid and they have laser shows and IMAX. There is a monorail from Seattle center to pikes place. Have a great time. Tammy W.

Rob Cunningham said...

thanks, tammy. yeah i failed to mention all the flowers. very odd blend of smells: flowers and fresh fish. can't remember encountering that particular blend before! today's itinerary focuses on seattle center and space needle and all that good stuff :)

Geneva said...

I haven't been to Seattle since Marc & Amy got married in 1998. Your pictures brought back memories of how truly the NW is.

I'm glad you are having a great time!

G