Friday in Seattle

We had an amazing day today! What an awesome city. There is so much within walking distance that it made things really easy. We were up and on our way to the waterfront by 9:00. We parked in an all day lot for $7 between Pike Place Market and the waterfront.

We headed up to Pike Place Market first and found a little coffee shop that had a pancake and egg breakfast special.

After we ate, we walked down first street about 9 blocks to Pioneer Square, which is a Historic District; one the oldest parts of the city. We signed up for the Underground Tour at eleven, but we still had a half an hour, so we walked arond Pioneer Square and up to a neat little waterfall garden that is sort of hidden. It was cool. We also checked out the underground bus terminal.

The Underground Tour was very cool. Apparently, when they first built Seattle, they bult it write on the ground, which was a problem since the entire area was a huge mud flat backed to basically a cliff...the hill grade was like 45%. Being at sea level on such swampy ground caused all sorts of problems, particularly with sewage, especially when the tide came in.

In the late 1800's a fire burnt down a large section of down town Seattle (like, 3 by nine blocks or something). So they had to rebuild the town. Business owners began rebuilding immediatly at seal level, so they could open their buildings. City planners, however, had a different idea. In a large section of the down town area, the lined the streets (just past the side walk) with large, thick walls one story tall. They filled in the streets between the walls with dirt from the hills and rebuilt the street on top, 12 feet above the original street. Using steal I beams and brick arches, they created new sidewalks as well. Business Owners who had rebuilt already found their main, street level entrances on the second floor of their businesses. (The knew this was coming, so they purposly designed the second floor doors much more ornate then the "first floor." For many years, the underground sidewalks were still in use, creating arcades for shoppers to use in inclement weather. Eventually they became abandoned. Bill Speidal discovered them and created a tour to try to bring so noteriety to the historic Pioneer Square (which had become the slummy part of town....the phrase "skid row" was coined here, as the main logging area where lumber was "skidded" down the hill was located in this area, which was full of salloons and "entertainment houses" and was for other reasons as well, becoming very undesireable. Anyway, Speidel's tour become so popular that it continues today...39 years later....you get to go uunderground and see the old tunnels, and learn all of this fascinating stuff. It really was VERY cool and VERY interesting.

Do to Pioneer Square being named a national historical district, and through the work of dedicated people, Pioneer Square is becoming a better neighborhood. Lots of shops and resteraunts are opened now. Some are even renovating their "basements" (orininal first floors) and are using them for offices, storage space, or even customer areas. Its very neat.

While we were on the tour, we walked by Longhorn's BBQ, and it smelled so good we ended up having lunch there. Yummy very good.

Then we walked back to the underground bus stationand took it for a few stops. Its almost like a subway...subway tunnels, for sure, but busses drive through them.

We walked back to Pike Place Market and checked out the produce and fish stalls. Very neat, very crowded...would be great if we lived close by so we could take advantage of the fresh food!!!!

We went next down to the wateer front and bought our city pass from Pier 55. We also got reservations for the 2:45 harbour tour. We had like 30 minutes to kill so we decided to go to the Aquarium. We did the beginning of the Aquarium and then went back to do the harbour tour. Even though it was over cast and drizzly at times, you could see well, and we learned a lot of interesting things from our very enthusiastic (read, somewhat annoying at times) tour guide.

After our boat ride we went back to the aquarium and finished that. The sea otters were so cute! But they made me miss Belle. Also, there wsere people walking dogs everywhere! Even in Pike Place Market!

After the Aquarium, we headed down to Pier 50 and took a commuter ferry back and forth to Vashon, 25 miuntes each way.

When we got back to Seattle, we stopped at one of the fish resteraunts and got some clam chowder to share. We went to visit Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe (we saw it on "Road Trip" on the Travel Channel so we ducked inside.) There are actual Shrunken Heads and 2 mummified bodies!

Finally, we went to the dome IMAX and saw the Imax movie "The Eruption of Mt. Saint Helens," at 7:00. We got back to our car at 7:35, exactly 10 hours after we had parked (10 hours maximum parking...so we got back right when our ticket expired!

We're back at the hotel now, chillin. Resting our feetsies.

So far so good. We are really enjoying Seattle. Grant and I are such good travel partners! (o: