Seattle: the City

Seattle and Rainer

In the days, before the trip up Rainer, we did some exploring through Seattle and the nearby towns. We stayed in Ben’s friend Egor’s house, located in the suburb of Magnolia. Here we set up our base of operations and cruised around the town, seeing all that one could in a couple of days.

The first day, we took a tour of the area around Magnolia. One of the main sites to see there is the Chittenden Boat Locks, and the Salmon Ladder. We were lucky enough to time our arrival with one of the salmon runs. So we got to see all the salmon trying to make it around the dam. This lock was a major thruway to the lake behind Seattle, and all the little feeder streams. Also on the other side of lock was the Carl English Botanical Gardens. After siteseeing for a bit we continued on are way along the north side of the locks to Fremont.

Fremont is definitely a quirky town along with bars that serve alcoholic drinks whose main ingredient was bacon. Ranging from eclectic shops and signs along the streets. One particular site that caught our attention was a 25-30ft bronze Lenin Statue posed in a stern stance. We immediately noticed a similarity between Ben and Lenin. So it was necessary for little Fidel to stand beside his mentor Lenin. Continuing down the street a bit, we saw a sign that points to many different locations across the world and their distances from Fremont – apparently Fremont is the center of the universe. Then a couple more blocks we found a statue dedicated to Ben’s own kind. We had found the Fremont-Bridge Troll. Again this statue had the same appearance and stature of Ben. It seemed like he was truly home, then I caught a glance of Ben shedding a single tear of happiness. Then the troll came to life and seemingly crushed me for teasing Ben.

After shaking off the assault of the troll, we climbed to the top of the bridge, and get some stoic views of Mount Rainer and the city. From there we continue back to the Egor’s to rest for the mountain trip.

Right before and after the trip up the mountain, we made some trips to the Public Market Center (Pike Place Market). This was a quirky shopping mall/open market. It was truly awesome. There was so much, I could not describe it accurately, but there were apple as big as your face and raspberries the size of small fist. My favorite part had to be walking among all the fresh fish on ice. Huge slabs of salmon, racks of dungenous crab, pancake sized scallops, it was a seafood smorgasbord come true. We even got to see the famous fish throwers of Pike’s Market. If you buy a fish, they’ll through it across the stop to be wrapped up and put on ice. There also was monkfish that was still alive, and would shake and snap as little kids would try to pet it. Also, just outside of the fresh market was the birth place of the most corporate, all consuming coffee empire ever inspired, STARBUCKS. They still have the original signage, but they are no less corporate and evil. Good coffee though.

Pike’s Market was about 3-4 stories, and the fresh market was on top, each level below, continued to get weirder and weirder. There were lots of strange Indian shops that offered many strange trinkets. There also was a magic shop were you buy a variety of tricks and performances. On the lower levels, my favorite shop had to be classic publications shop. Here you could buy magazines and concerts poster from days long ago. There were numerous pearl jam and nirvana posters and some classic WW2 art. But the main attraction had to be the classic Playboy section. This was located directly in front of the entrance to deter youngen’s from browsing this adult classic literature. I, for one, appreciate Playboys well written articles, which contain enjoyably poignant banter.

Then the last Saturday before we left, we were lucky enough to stumble upon the “Ballard Seafood Festival.” This was a great time and my goal for the festival was to eat 7 different types of seafood species during my visit. The festival had lots to offer and was a good bit of local fun. Egor took control of the live reptile showing and demanded to be able to pet the large snakes and alligators. They had two separate alcohol coralls for the drunken people, one wine the other beer. The wine area had nice chairs to sit down in with a small piece of rope separating the area. The beer area was guarded by a 6ft tall chain link fence that was continuously sprayed with water. During the festival, I only consumed a couple species, BBQ Salmon, mouth melting cheesy dungenous crab, and some seafood gumbo from Egor, which I had no clue how many species where in there. However the seafood had the last laugh and I was consumed by a giant steal salmon.

We did some more exploring and saw the dock of Seattle (here we found “lost” camera case, which contained a pouch of mary jane, we let sleeping dogs lie for the terrible choice of a drug drop spot) and the University of Washington. The docks offered some great views of the city and UW was impressive with large common areas and classic architecture.

Verdict: Seattle is a sweet city, great food, and not too terribly scenester, like I hear Portland is.