The last major trip Ruth took for work before she said good-bye to AT&T was to Seattle. Neither of us had ever been to Seattle so I tagged along for this business trip.
Pike Place Market
Our hotel was just a few blocks from Pike Place Market. This is still a true market with fresh seafood from the bay, vegetables and baked goods.
Pike Place Market is also the birthplace of Starbucks so we had to stop in to see where it all began:
Turns out, it’s just like every other Starbucks you’ve ever been in, but I guess that’s the point.
We ate at a seafood restaurant overlooking the harbor where we could see the ferris wheel.
The next day while Ruth was working, I walked around the Market to see it in the daytime.
At a cheese shop, I watched them making the cheese. Some small children were fascinated with the process as well. That’s a lot of cheese!
Here are more photos from the Pike Place Market.
Space Needle
Of course, no visit to Seattle would be complete without a visit to the Space Needle. Ruth and I had lunch at the top which provides a rotating 360 degree view of Seattle. TIP: Don’t sit backwards!
The Chihuly Museum and Gardens is right next to the Space Needle. The museum is dedicated to the colorful glass sculptures of Dale Chihuly.
Pioneer Square
The oldest section of Seattle is Pioneer Square. The original settlers of Seattle built their town at this location.
Building the town at this spot was actually a terrible idea. It was below sea level and would routinely flood and destroy the town. Eventually, the city built streets that were high above the ground and had to build stairs down to the entrances of the buildings because the buildings remained at sea level. That was also a terrible idea. People would routinely fall off the street to their deaths or things would fall from the street on to the people below and injure or kill them. Eventually, they paved over the open sections so that the second floor of every building became the first floor (which remains true today in Pioneer Square) but they didn’t seal the entrances to this underground Seattle. That was yet another terrible idea. It became a denizen for the lawless and depraved. There was gambling, drugs, prostitution–crime was rampant. Eventually, Seattle cleaned out all the riff-raff and sealed the entrances to the underground Seattle. The city has been all the better for it.
The city does allow tours of the underground area. There really isn’t much to see down there but the stories about what went on are fascinating and well worth the tour.
While in Seattle, we spent a couple evenings out on the town. Seattle has great restaurants. We ate sushi. We ate French food. We had wine tastings. We had beer tastings. We even had chocolate tastings!
Washington State Ferries – Bainbridge Island
On our last day in Seattle, we took a ferry across the bay to Bainbridge Island. We found a spot for lunch. We found a spot for wine tasting. And then we found a spot for fudge!
We had a great little trip to Seattle. If you get the chance, you should go!
Good-bye Seattle!
