Two wonderful days in downtown Seattle! Weather started clearing on Friday, and by Saturday was gorgeous. The last weekend of summer here – the sun and atmosphere acted like they knew these were their final days to flourish and do their best to show off Seattle’s perfect Northwest summers!
We spent these days meandering around the hilly streets downtown, soaking up the colorful, vibrant, eclectic atmosphere of this city. We loved the blending of the new, sleek, and modern with the old and historic.
We loved the wonderfully attractive, inviting,
soothing public spaces – waterfalls tucked away in secret, unobtrusive pockets
as well as in the midst of the hustle and bustle.
And of course we loved the people-watching.
We spent unhurried time in both some of the landmarks of the city, as well as in lesser known, hidden gems. Among the former was of course the Pike Street Public Market.
Colorful street performers matched the colorful foods, flowers, and other wares!
Among the latter was the Visitors Center at
the Seattle branch of the Klondike National Historical Park. This is a much smaller branch of the same
historical site up in Skagway, Alaska, in which we really immersed ourselves
last year. We thoroughly enjoyed learning about Seattle’s early history here at
this site, especially the role it played in the 1898-99 Klondike Gold Rush in
the Yukon. About 70% of the hopeful
prospectors who were struck with “Klondike fever” began their journey here in
Seattle. They came from all around the
world, literally, and booked passage on steamers sailing from here which would
take them through the Alaskan Inland Passage to the terminus at Skagway, where
the story continues. This was a huge
boon to Seattle’s economy, which had been pretty much devastated at that time
by both the nationwide depression and also by its own local fire in 1889 which
totally destroyed its fledgling downtown.
But due largely to the efforts of one Seattle newspaper editor, who mailed
out hundreds of flyers to virtually every newspaper in the U.S., as well as
abroad, promoting Seattle as the “only place” to outfit for the
goldfields, the city’s economy soared,
and ensured Seattle’s position as a regional trade center from then on.
Hundreds of Seattle residents joined the
stampede, but the vast majority came home empty handed. A couple of local men did find some gold,
though. One, whose name was John Nordstrom,
who had been trying to eke out a living by farming and logging here before the
fever struck, ended up with $13,000 after paying his expenses, which he
invested with a partner in a shoe store here after he returned from the
goldfields. The rest is Seattle history
– the dept. store chain continues to bear his name.
Pioneer
Square is the wonderfully picturesque historic district which contains the
Klondike Visitors Center as well as other historic buildings from that Gold
Rush era. Inside some of these old
architectural gems now are shops, galleries, restaurants, bookstores, and
antique dealers. A marvelous area to in
which to lose yourself while meandering about!
Pioneer Place:
We just did the Fish Bar take-out instead of their
restaurant next door. We saved $$, and
we got to eat outside where we could be entertained by the myriad bold seagulls
all around us. Over the years, they’ve become most adroit at
catching whatever morsels humans want to throw their way!
We spent
most of our time on Saturday up in the Smith Tower and on a Harbor Tour. The Smith Tower was built in 1914 and at that
time was the 4th tallest building in the world, at over 550
feet. It remained the tallest building
west of Chicago for almost 50 years! It
now is a multi-use building, with offices (most of them lawyers) on the 1st
34 floors, an observation deck on the 35th, and two floors of
penthouses above that.
We went up here
as a cheaper alternative to the Space Needle.
We had marvelous panoramic views of the city,
Football stadium in front, with baseball Mariner stadium
behind, both with retractable roofs which can be used when it rains:
the Cascade and Olympic Mountains,
Puget Sound,
Ivar's, where we ate last night, under the light blue awning:
and even glorious Mt. Rainier, which is relatively
uncommon, since we learned that Seattle is totally cloud-enveloped 200-220 days
a year. On sunny and clear days, locals exclaim,
“The Mountain is out!”
The floor which holds the Observation Deck is called
the Chinese Room, because Mr. Smith (of Smith-Wesson and Smith-Corona fame) had
a friendship with some high-ranking Chinese official, and received the
hand-carved ornate furniture in the room from him.
The
hour-long harbor cruise was wonderful!
Seeing Seattle’s beautiful & distinctive skyline from the water
gives a great perspective.
The narration was terrific – informative, without
being pedantic, humorous without being corny. We learned a lot of interesting
& fun trivia about the city, among which is the fact that, within a 5-mile
radius of the dock where we launched are 124 Starbucks locations. And half of that radius is water! No wonder it seemed as if there were a
Starbucks on virtually every corner . . . the city that originated it all is
saturated with them!
It was an absolutely perfect afternoon for
this tour – how can you go wrong with 78 degrees and clear skies?? And the Mountain was still out!
Decided
to save some $$ and come home to eat . . . we’ll find lots of ways to spend it
tomorrow!
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