Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Clay was raring to go this morning and I was moving at my
normal early morning pace. It was raining all morning, we had the curtains open
and I don’t know where he thought he was going so early. We had stopped last night
on the walk home after dinner at an IGA and Clay had bought 2 drinks and I
bought 2 Brown Cow Maple yogurts. I thought they and the tub of cheese curds
were for our breakfasts. I made myself a cup of coffee and a glass of ice water
and had a cheese curd and a tub of yogurt. (The Red Lion Inn Keurig provided coffee was suitably enough, Starbucks Pike Place Roast and it was very good.) Clay sat in the desk chair and
glowered at me. Then I unpacked and repacked my backpack for the rain today.
Then I showered again to wash my hair for today. Then I brushed my teeth and
did some other bathroom business. We talked about what the plan was for the day
and the first places we wanted to go didn’t open until 10am.
Clay wanted to walk back down to Pike Place Market for a
cinnamon bun. Bob wanted to see Rachel the Pig! We noticed a shop on the way down called
KuKuRaZu. It was closed, and it had nothing but gourmet popcorn!
We stopped at the Hard Rock Café gift shop. Clay got his cinnamon roll and we
walked back to the same park with no pot smokers this morning. We sat on a
bench overlooking the waterfront under a big totem pole. Then we walked to SoMuch Yarn on Elliott. I did not find anything to buy. It was too rich for me!
We walked on to the Seattle Space Needle and this was our
longest walk of the day and none too scenic either! There was a lot of street
and sidewalk closure due to loud heavy construction work and we probably didn’t
choose a scenic path which is another problem with GPS vs. a tourist map. Anyway,
it was only about 15 to 20 minutes. We saw the Frank Gehry building that houses
the EMP Museum but didn’t go there. (I will note that we debated whether to
ride the monorail roundtrip, or just one way. Clay argued for walking and so we
did, but in hindsight we should have walked back up to the monorail station from
Elliott St. and taken the monorail to the Space Needle for $2 each way. Because
you want to be at the front of the front car heading to the Space Needle
because the monorail goes right through the middle of the Gehry building before
letting you off behind the Space Needle and that would have been awesome to
behold. But, we didn’t know that before we rode it back this afternoon.)
We paid $36 each for a ticket to both the observation level
of the Space Needle and the Chihuly Garden and Glass. The most impressive thing
we saw all day was the Chihuly Exhibit! But, first we went up the Space Needle.
There is a full restaurant up there at the top and we checked the menu before
we bought tickets and I didn’t see anything I would eat and it was very
expensive to boot. On the Observation level, we shared a Kobe beef hot dog with
chili with beans on it while sitting inside. It was such a mess we had to use knives and
forks. It cost about $7.50. I watched a seaplane take off and fly up to and
past the Space Needle while Clay was getting the hot dog. That was pretty
incredible. Clay walked away from his string pack here after we finished eating
and fortunately when he realized it later after we had walked all the way
around the outside, it was still there on the floor under the table. Clay said
my forgetfulness must be catching. I say we are just too old and loopy! We had
complimentary photos taken at both spots today. We emailed them to ourselves
and hopefully I’ll be able to post them here after we get home.
We came back down and went to the Chihuly next. It was
amazing and just beautiful. We loved it! This was our favorite thing of the
day. Clay doesn’t think this was here when he was in Seattle previously. We
went to their café for a little more to eat. We had very small plates of fried
Beecher’s cheese curds (delicious!) and gnocchi (so-so) and then shared a big
good dessert of brownies, bananas and caramel ice cream with salted caramel and
chocolate sauce. There were toffee bits scattered over the dish with peanuts,
but the toffee bits were not well cooked and nearly pulled our teeth out. Ouch.
Clay also had a beer and I had a root beer. We were full enough with 2 very
small lunches, dessert and drinks after the chili dog. I like it when
restaurants have a choice of size for each dish. Dessert was huge.
We bought $2 one way tickets and took the monorail back over
to Westlake Station. We crossed the street and went underground at Nordstrom’s
to take another $2pp ride over to Pioneer Square. I wanted to go on the
Underground Tour and I had downloaded a 2nd walking tour from Frommer’s for Pioneer Square. We wound up taking too long and Clay wanted to
get to Elliott’s for dinner at 5pm since we didn’t have any reservations, so we
didn’t ever actually take the Underground Tour. Something to do if we ever come
back here. The most amazing building we saw all day was right in front of us
when we came up from the Link station at Pioneer Square (which is just the name
of an area of Seattle). There was a building that housed The Arctic Club and
all around the 2nd floor were carved statues of walrus heads with
big tusks. There must have been dozens of them. I figured that building had to
be at least a hundred years old since no one since that time would have
ornamented such a purpose-built building like that! It made me laugh out loud. It turns out that it is now a hotel! How did I miss that? Neither of us thought the location was quite as convenient as the Red Lion Inn though.
So, we went to the top of Smith Tower and that was
fascinating. Smith Tower was an early skyscraper. When it was built in 1914 it
was the tallest building west of the Mississippi and that stayed true for over
50 years! You take an original Otis elevator to the Chinese room on the 35th
floor where there is a public observation deck. Smith of Smith-Corona
typewriter built the building and the last Empress of China gave him the money
to build the room after he visited her in China with gifts. It was all
impressive. We still couldn’t see Mt. Rainier. I asked the woman who sold us
our $7.50pp tickets up there where it was and she pointed out where it would be
if it were clear. I would like to point out that I was actually sunburnt by
this point. It had stopped raining by the time we set out this morning and the
morning’s puddles had dried up well before noon and the sun shone all day long!
But, evidently it was either cloudy on Mt. Rainier or between here and there
because although we looked for it all day, we never saw it. The top 3-4 stories
of the pyramid atop the building are a private apartment on a long term lease
and they have to take stairs up there past the 35th floor. They have
access to the big glass ball atop the building. How amazing would that be?
We walked through the Foster/White Gallery since they sell
Chihuly glass work. There was a better selection at the Chihuly Gift Shop, but
they were very friendly and welcoming. I will say that was almost uniformly
true of people working here and asking us about where we were from and how our
stay was etc. It was like Ireland all over again in the warm and friendly,
welcoming environment for tourists. From there we walked to the Waterfall Garden Park, which was nice but inexplicable. What is it doing there? Why? And
why wasn’t it thronged with homeless people and pot smokers like every other
park we saw? It was a strange calm cool dark oasis. The roar of the probably
2-story tall waterfall drowned out all city noise. Mysteries.
Then we went to the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park which was really just a building housing an exhibit. Admission was free.
It was well done and air conditioned so we sat through a 25-minute black
and white film that well explained the 1897-98 gold rush instead of going on
the Underground Tour. It was good. We walked through another park to see totem
poles and the fallen firefighter’s memorial statues.
We stopped at Cow Chip Cookies for Clay to get his breakfast
for tomorrow and walked through an art glass studio and shop. Then we walked about
6 blocks to Elliott’s for dinner. Elliott’s had just opened when we got
there and we were seated inside with no waiting. Clay had a local draft beer and a flight of
raw oysters. Six in all, 2 each of Peale Bay, Shigoku and Stellar Bay. They went
from saltiest to sweetest. Clay liked the saltiest best because they tasted
most like New Orleans to him. Then he had the biggest fried oysters he had ever
seen for dinner. He was in oyster heaven! I had a glass of OR Riesling for $6
followed by a $26 pork chop with gnocchi and apples. We both were well
satisfied by the end of dinner. We both thought it was a great setting out
there on the pier with the boats and ships and ferries coming and going. The
portions were large and while we spent more money for more food and the setting
and views, the prices seemed much more reasonable than last night’s. Then we
got the dessert menus and had some more to be pleased about. For dessert we
shared another salted caramel sundae thing with a house made chocolate covered
caramel with it. Salted caramel seems to be the flavor of the day here right
now! It was much better than lunch’s which was smaller and more expensive!
We
left there stuffed for the walk back uphill. Clay found a small booklet-like case
for sale at Ye Olde Curiosity Shop to hold all the smashed souvenir coins he
has been collecting not just here in Seattle but for a few years now. We took the nearby Harbor Steps (106!) on the way back
uphill. We stopped at KuKuRaZu and got a small bag of salted Hawaiian caramel
popcorn for a snack on the plane tomorrow. Then back to our room at the Red
Lion Inn on Fifth and showers. Clay drank one of his sodas and I typed up our
notes.
Our flight tomorrow is at noon. We plan to leave the hotel
for the trip back and through security at 9am in the morning. We will go back
the same way we came and should have plenty of time. Next 2 nights are at the
Shee Atika Totem Square Inn in Sitka, Alaska. When we booked this hotel last October, it was tribally owned and recommended by Alaskan Dream Cruises. It has since apparently been sold, but ADC seems to still be working closely with them. We did not realize there had been a change of ownership, I should note. Only when I went looking for their website and found the news story did we know about it. Our rate for a corner waterview room for the 2 nights was $410.36.
Photos
Photos
