Seattle

Date: November 16, 2018 – November 19, 2018
Location: Seattle, Washington

After Nashville, we flew to Seattle to visit our friends Pete and Jen. They are the couple who visited us in Spain for the Galicia Region, Madrid and Sevilla trips. We stayed with them, their son and their dog Benny for the weekend. 

Pete and Jen are part owners of Outer Planet Brewing. We visited the brewery the night we arrived.

During our visit, we also made it to Pike Place Market and had a nice view out over the bay.

The market has several bronze pigs that are piggy banks. This is Billie the Piggy Bank. The money collected is used for market social services. 

At the southern end of Post Alley is the gum wall.

The gum was stuck to the brick by people standing in line for a ticket office in the 1990s.

After Pike Place Market we walked to see the Amazon Spheres.

Our friend, Joshua, was showing us the area around Amazon, and he took us into an Amazon Go store. At the Amazon Go stores, you scan the app as you walk in, and then can grab any items you want and walk out. There are no checkout registers or cashiers. Your purchases are paid for through the app and a summary of your trip is emailed to you. Thank you for the Amazon goodies, Josh!

The Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle has underground tunnels. We took a tour that went into some of the underground walkways. The city had a drainage problem and after the fire in 1889 the city reshaped the landscape. Shops quickly rebuilt and once the roads were put in the second floor of the shops became the 1st floor.

The underground walkways don’t cross underneath any streets, so before the sidewalks were put in, people would climb up ladders, cross the street and climb down a ladder to go to the shops across the street.

When the sidewalks were installed some small clear glass was put in place to allow light into the underground. This picture is taken from under the sidewalk looking up at the skylight.

On November 19, 2018, we hiked up to Kerry Park to look out over the city.

We then walked to the Space Needle.

In the same area as the Space Needle is the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum. All of the items are made by artist Dale Chihuly.

This is the main piece in the Sealife Room. It is 20 feet high.

This is Mille Fiori, which means ‘a thousand flowers’ in Italian. 

This is the Ikebana and Float Boat.

The glasshouse has a sculpture that is 100 feet long.

All the glass looks so amazing!

On the way to the airport we were able to see Mount Rainier.

Seattle was enjoyable and were happy that we were able to fit the stop in during our brief travels throughout the US. Thanks to Pete and Jen for hosting us, and to Joshua for showing us around!