Early this morning, I got home from a jam-packed, long weekend in Seattle, visiting my friend Matt Sheehan, who was receiving some treatment there.
Some of my favorite experiences:
- Pike Place Market — The city’s very famous, very cool open-air market near to the. Going there during a weekday was key to seeing it live.
- Space Needle — As depicted above, I made sure to get to the top of the famed Space Needle.
- Halibut sandwich — With clam chowder and slaw for lunch, right in one of the stands at Pike Place. Photo here.
- Nirvana — Yes, man, I listened to the 1990s grunge metal heads who originated here as much as I could.
- Mass Transit— I rode the trolly — new one, not the old one — and the light rail line from the airport to the center city.
- Starbucks — The first product I ever bought at any Starbucks was a latte at the original location, near Pike Place.
- Great Alaskan Salmon sandwich — It might not look like much, but this meal, on a beautiful, little tourist island, was likely one of the best meals I ever had. The Salmon was so fresh, with so many tastes, and played so nicely with the slaw and a buttery ciabatti roll.
- Eat and drink generally — I had lots of local beer and all the fresh fish I could get my hands on.
- Iced Coffees — From lots of local places.
- Sports arenas — Like mass transit, something I am always interested in seeing when visiting other U.S. cities are their altars for sport.
- University of Washington — I walked the campus and ate on its main strip.
- Walking, walking walking — It’s what I love to do. I was blessed with beautiful weather!
A few lessons:
- While Bill Gates is the big, international name that came out of the founding of Microsoft, it’s his cohort Paul Allen who seemed to me to be everywhere in Seattle, from the condominium construction near where I was staying to the hospitals I visited.
- The residential neighborhoods just outside its center city and skyscraper district are very modern-condominium heavy, a type of density that reminded me to parts of Washington D.C. but much hillier.
I got my facts straight with the weather: it doesn’t necessarily accumulate more rain, it just rains more often:
“While Seattle is sometimes perceived as being perpetually rainy, the annual average rainfall of about 37 inches is actually less than the average rainfall of New York City, Atlanta or Washington, D.C. However, the average number of days with measurable precipitation per year (157) in Seattle is significantly higher than New York City’s 120.” [Source]
Check out a slideshow of 38 of my better photos from the trip below or see them all here.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.