Sunday, June 24, 2012

A DAY IN SEATTLE

Saturday, June 23 -- We rode the Ferry from Bremerton to Seattle this morning. We parked the car in Bremerton and walked on the ferry. This is no problem, because everything we wanted to see in Seattle was within walking distance of Pier 52. We caught the first ferry of the day…7:05 and had an hour ride. It is free to cross over from  Bremerton but cost $7.40/each to return.

Very different scenery than the ferry we took yesterday to Everett.
scenery

Approaching Seattle…wonder what the weather will be today. Can you guess?
approaching Seattle

We started our Seattle tour at the famous Pier Market Place. To get there we walked up many, many steps.

steps

public market sign

We wanted to see the famous Pike Place Fish Company. This was much smaller than we expected. It's just a booth in the large Pier Market Place. They are famous for throwing the fish through the air when ordered by a customer for weighing and wrapping. They were not doing much throwing at 8:15 in the morning. We did see a couple sail through the air when we went back in the afternoon but were unable to get a picture.

 Pike Place Fish Company

We then walked down inside and the street enjoying the many vendors and small stores.

inside market

fish for sale

We stopped for breakfast at Michou World Class Deli. We ordered on of their Bambaloni, Tunisian Beignets. We should have ordered a dozen. Boy was it delicious!

DSC06941

Our next destination was the first Starbuck store.

seal starbucks

We had already had a Starbucks on the ferry, so Marsha settled for getting her picture taken in front of the store. She wanted to make her friend, Pam, very jealous. Pam and John, Oh The Places We Go, LOVE Starbucks.

marsha in front of starbucks

Can you tell why we didn't get a coffee from the photo below. You should see the line out the door and around the sidewalk. This is at about 9:00 a.m.

inside starbuck

After enjoying more of the Market, we walked over to the Space Needle.

space needle

This observation tower was originally built for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. It is 605 feet tall with a revolving restaurant and an observation deck on top. This is Seattle's number one tourist attraction.

There was a marathon race going on in the city this morning. The park at the Space Needle was near the finish line. There were 1000's of runners roaming around the area.

Taken from a bridge.
marathon

While visiting the needle we did some people watching. Be aware, these two may be coming to your city VERY soon.

balloon head

guy dressed up

After mingling with the runners at the Space Needle, we walked over to Pioneer Square.

Pioneer Pergola
Pioneer Place and Pergola

This is the original downtown, dating back to 1852. It is also the location of the famous Seattle Underground. With only visiting Seattle for one day, we chose not to take the tour and instead roamed around this historical area. We saw the location of the first Seattle area settlement, Pergola Park.

Entering the park area.
entering the park area

Then is was over to Smith Tower, the tallest building in the world (outside Manhattan) in 1914, when it was built.

Smith Tower

The buildings are just lovely.
old town

We visited Occidental Square with its Native American totem poles. A local relief organization was feeding the homeless here, so it was unusually interesting. Nearby was the Fallen Firefighters' Memorial and one of Seattle's old fire stations.

fireman

We stopped briefly at the Waterfall Garden Park, the sight of the original United Parcel Service offices. This would be a nice cool place to relax on a hot summer day, but not today – it was cool and rainy.

Water Garden

There are lots of bikers in this city. The city is becoming very creative with their bike stands.

bike rack

bike rack

We were pretty tired by this time and headed back to the Pier 52 to catch our ferry home. Interestingly, we got on the wrong ferry boat by mistake. Things just didn't seem right, so Marsha asked the gate attendant…No it wasn't the Bremerton Ferry, but instead the Bainbridge Island Ferry. Opps, that would be a disaster!

There is the ferry we WERE on.
ferry

As we leave on the RIGHT ferry.
goodbye Seattle

Thankfully, we got off, just before sailing, and got aboard the correct boat. After our one-hour ferry ride, we were safely back in Bremerton and headed back to the motor home.

Luckily, the rain held off until we were on our way home on the ferry. The Bremerton Elks Lodge campground is a muddy mess due to all the rain. The place is packed too. There isn't an empty site around except an unusable tiny spot right next to us.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

14 comments:

  1. so glad that you enjoyed your day tour of downtown Seattle!..as for the rain?..normal west coast weather that is for sure!..

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  2. The underground tour is great but only if you have time to see everything you saw first. I love the ferries, Pike's Market and Seattle but I like it most when the rain isn't falling.

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  3. Thanks for the nice tour. I have been to Seattle a few times but have never made it to the Market. Glad you found the right ferry, although any ferry ride is a good ride!!

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  4. Loved those bike racks! Seattle was one of our favorite cities in the Northwest. Thanks for reminding us why!

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  5. I was in the Space Needle at the Worlds Fair in 1962 on one of my trips with my Grandmother. I was very young....hehe....

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  6. Once again you wore me out with the amount ground you covered, but you sure make it interesting. Thanks.

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  7. looks like we are finally going to get to see all the rain you have been talking about as we head west into the cascades today... we will be just south of you in the mountains near Randle, WA

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  8. I've been to Seattle a lot and I have to say you did a terrific job of covering the downtown area for this post.

    Great pictures of all my favourite places and it brought back a lot of great memories.

    I bought a coffee at the original Starbucks just to say I did it - taste the same as others though!

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  9. You sure covered a lot in a day...excellent pictures...

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  10. We have great memories of Seattle from when we lived in Tacoma in the early '80s. One memory that stands out is dinner at the revolving restaurant atop the Space Needle. Penniless youngsters that we were, we were able to go because the TV station I worked for gave me a gift certificate. Mui still says it was the only time he left a restaurant hungry.

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  11. I get worn out just reading about all of the touring that you all do. :)

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  12. Great tour... Love the space needle! Hope your weather improves out there...

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  13. We loved Seattle. . .can't wait to go back and workamp so we can explore every inch. . .great pics!

    Janice
    ReadyToGoFullTimeRVing.blogspot.com

    here's a post about Seattle. ..way back before our RV'ing days. . .

    http://evansescapades.blogspot.com/2009/08/back-in-dayseattle-wa.html

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