Our time was mostly spent with family – see part one.
One of the days we met up with friends, Bonnie and Ron, for lunch.
We met them five years ago when we were visiting here and Mount Rainer and then saw them again in Yuma about two years ago. It was great to get caught up and hopefully we will see them again this winter.
Another one of the days, we played tourist in Seattle. Our first adventure was a ride on the “Ducks”
The “Duck” is a WWII amphibious vehicle and the tour took us around downtown Seattle and out on Lake Union. More information can be found here:
http://www.ridetheducksofseattle.com/about/
The “Duck”:
Our tour guide was wonderful – funny, interesting, and kept the tour exciting.
The Space Needle in the distance:
We were stopped at a red light and our tour guide was playing music so this guy decided to get up and dance. His shirt says “Sugar Mama Needed” – how funny.
Many areas of Seattle have different forms of art displayed:
Into the water for the boat portion of the tour: Ducks in the water
We went past house boats:
And homes on the water:
Past the gas works that is now a park:
“This 20 acre point on Lake Union was cleared in 1906 to construct a plant to manufacture gas from coal - later converted to crude oil. Import of natural gas in the 1950's made the plant obsolete. The city acquired the site for a park in 1962. The park was opened to the public in 1975. The boiler house has been converted to a picnic shelter with tables, fire grills and an open area. The former exhauster-compressor building, now a children's play barn, features a maze of brightly painted machinery.”
More information can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_Works_Park
The Seattle Skyline from the water:
The “The Sleepless in Seattle” Houseboat, which just sold for 2.2 million:
More homes:
Many float planes:
And even more art:
Check out this store – Kilts for Men:
This woman was really grooving to the music too:
What a cool tour and I highly recommend it if you are in this area.
Downtown Seattle:
From there we met up with Chuck and Deana – Mike’s sister and brother in law and had lunch at the famous Ivar’s Fish Bar on the waterfront – Yum!
Our next adventure was to the Seattle Big Wheel - http://seattlegreatwheel.com/
Where we loaded up on a gondola and away we went. Scenes from our ride:
What a beautiful day for a ride.
This building has a great history – the gold rush fever of 1897 started here when the S.S. Portland arrived with over a ton of gold from the Klondike. Some info here and on the internet: http://www.minerslanding.com/history
Our last stop was to be the Pike’s Place Market. As we made our way there from the waterfront, we went through Post Alley:
Where we saw this:
Cool! But what is it? It is known as the Market Theater Gum Wall.
“The Market Theater Gum Wall is a local landmark in downtown Seattle, in Post Alley under Pike Place Market. Similar to Bubblegum Alley in San Luis Obispo, California, the Market Theater Gum Wall is a brick alleyway wall now covered in used chewing gum. Parts of the wall are covered several inches thick, 15 feet high for 50 feet.
The wall is by the box office for the Market Theater, and the tradition began around 1993 when patrons of Unexpected Productions' Seattle Theatresports stuck gum to the wall and placed coins in the gum blobs. Theater workers scraped the gum away twice, but eventually gave up after market officials deemed the gum wall a tourist attraction around 1999. Some people create small works of art out of gum.
It was named one of the top 5 germiest tourist attractions in 2009, second to the Blarney Stone.”
Think about it – USED gum – oh my.
The wall is right by the market. This is the famous fish flying place but we did not see any flying. The workers though have this cute little routine. Fun to see.
Very interesting to walk thru.
What an enjoyable day –
Thank you Mike and Sandy for the fun time here.
Tomorrow we continue our travels so stay tuned and enjoy today.
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