Seeing Seattle

After all my international trips, I took some time to explore a little closer to home. Filling in time between my return from Malta and my next adventure in Europe, I headed for the Left Coast. Two pet/house sitting events, one in Tacoma and the other in Sammamish, outside of Seattle, occupied most of my time. I started doing these pet sits last year, and it has been a great way to go places, thanks to Trusted Housesitters. They have a community of pet owners and sitters around the world, and it benefits both the pet parents and the sitters. I also get the joy of pets, since I can’t have one until I settle down in one place again.

In between my two pet sits (one with dogs, one with kitties) I had a few days on my own. I decided to be a tourist and see the Seattle sights. I’ve lived in Seattle briefly (a lifetime ago,) and have visited many times for both work and family events. In some ways this visit was a walk down memory lane.

I spent one semester of high school in Seattle in 1962, the year of the Seattle World’s Fair. The official name was Century 21, with many companies trying to show how their progress would change our lives. Interestingly, Ma Bell, as ATT was known at the time, demonstrated only that touch-tone phones would make our lives easier by streamlining the dialing process. Not one word about having a telephone in our pocket that would also replace the encyclopedia! I spent my 16th birthday with a group of girlfriends at the Fair. I shared a birthday with a friend who was in a wheelchair, and we all took turns steering her along with the gaggle of girls. We giggled as a group of sailors paid attention to us, and won us all stuffed animals at the midway.

My friend’s Dad treated us all to lunch at the top of the Space Needle (with cake, of course), and we shamelessly took advantage of having the wheelchair get us priority into the elevators to the top.

I’m so glad that Seattle has preserved the site of the World’s Fair, and turned it into museums and a science center and other venues. Some of the iconic architecture has been preserved, and it brought back memories.

This is a typical view from the top of the Space Needle, given the amount of rain Seattle gets every year. Hey, that’s why the call it the Emerald City! The top of the Needle has been refurbished recently, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Taking the elevator to the top, you get a view from the glass walls as you rise. As you step out, you have a 360 degree walkway around the top. You can go outside, but it isn’t covered and it was raining. And chilly. I opted to catch the view from inside. There’s a bar and a snack bar, with seating so you can sit and enjoy the view. The hand-held pies in the snack bar are great. And I now have a pink stain on my tan pants from the huckleberries.

Then you go down one flight to the revolving floor. There’s a restaurant there, which usually requires a reservation. I did check it out, but their menu is clearly set up for groups of people, and I was traveling on my own. However, the revolving floor is interesting. It’s glass. Look down, and you see all the way down the 500+ feet to the ground. I admit it took me some time to convince myself to step on the floor so I could look out the windows. I found the glass floor just unnerving, and the only way I could finally step out was by looking straight ahead. I kept thinking of Indiana Jones following the steps to find the chalice in The Last Crusade. You just have to take the step of faith.

Next to the Space Needle, the Chihuli Gardens and Glass was my next stop. There are no words. Only pictures. Other than to mention that I was so happy I did a glass blowing class the previous day (see below), giving my a greater appreciation and understanding of the process.

This glass flower made me think of Seymour in “Little Shop of Horrors”!

I also made the requisite trek to Pike Place Market. It was easy to get lost wandering around the main building, as well as the surrounding neighborhood. There are food vendors, several great fish mongers, craft vendors and restaurants. If you park in the building, bring your wallet! It was ridiculously expensive. It brought to mind my old boss at Citibank, who called the people who charged us $16 to park in downtown Los Angeles (in 1994) “gold merchants.”

The original Starbuck’s store is here, and the line waiting to get into the store required a wait on the sidewalk as an employee controlled the number of people who could enter the building. Everybody wants to go to the coffee temple.

If you go to Seattle, bring a raincoat. Maybe an umbrella. And take time to enjoy how amazing the rain makes the area look.

As I mentioned above, on my first day in Seattle I took a glass blowing class. I found the studio through my Airbnb, and they were great! Motoko and Joshua of Kobo Art Garden have a small studio in a garage behind their home, and the entire experience was set up to help me understand the process and be successful. They were helpful while also allowing me to actually do my project, helping me learn the skills needed. I did three pieces: a paperweight, an ornament (my first attempt as actually blowing glass), and finally a glass. I would highly recommend this activity if you go to Seattle. It’s very personal, and at no point did I feel treated as “just another tourist.” If I wasn’t moving into an apartment, I’d probably want to get more involved with this amazing craft. When I mentioned I was planning to go to the Chihuly Glass Garden the next day, Joshua told me he worked for Chihuli before starting his own business.

Next I head back to Montana, and I’m excited to finally move into an apartment. I’ve been without a permanent address for nearly a year, and while it has been exciting and fascinating, I’m ready to stop living out of a suitcase and a storage unit.

Thanks for following my travels Dear Reader. While they are winding down they are not at an end. I’ll only have six days to accomplish the move before heading to Europe for a river cruise and then a tour of Ireland. And then there’s the month in Jersey in December. That’s the one in the UK, not the state in the USA. Stay tuned.