Another obligatory stop was Elliott Bay books – mind you, I did not need any books, nor did I really have room for any, but independent bookstores do have a way of drawing one in, and I ended up with a couple. Long live the independent bookstore! We then went to the Asian Art Museum. Notable is the Noguchi structure outside – the inspiration for the song, “Black Hole Sun.” My tour book noted that people take pictures of the Space Needle through the hole, so I took one too! We then went on to the Conservatory – it looks just like the one in Lincoln Park, which is kind of nice – but it was closed. I saw what I could through the glass!
We went for an early dinner by the water – I had delicious wild salmon. And then we went to an engineering major’s dream stop, the Ballard Locks. Always fun to watch boats go through locks! The main attraction here was watching the salmon going up the fish ladder. Such big fish! Watching them struggle, I felt just a tad sorry about the eating the one that hadn’t gotten away. In many locations during this trip, I was tempted to buy the book “Four Fish,” which had just come out – I finally bought it in Mystic. Things you don’t always think about, but you think about it here because it’s all around you.
Just before I came, there was an article in the local Seattle paper about over-60-year-olds who had served in the Peace Corps. Two people were interviewed for the story – and I am the only person to have served with them both! Linda is one and Beryl is the other. Beryl was another PCRV in the Philippines – I had seen her only twice there, but since then had spent almost a week with her in New Orleans. They had come across one another at Peace Corps functions, and now they regularly work functions together, but I am not sure they had talked much until we all got together for breakfast on Sunday morning! Linda then left us to spend a quiet afternoon alone, and Beryl and I went to Safeco Field, getting there early enough to walk around.
It’s a beautiful stadium; they did a great job. Edgar Martinez Drive! Ichiro in the outfield! My kind of game – Mariners 3, Royals 2, in a tidy 2:31 – though I was having such a great time I would have gladly stayed longer! The Blue Angels flew by. The retractable roof opened (the sides of the stadium are open-air, since it never gets too cold – a nice feature). We walked back to Pioneer Square – the stadium is in a good location, too – and went to Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park. There’s another branch of that park in Alaska, but much of Seattle’s original boom is connected with outfitting the gold rush, so it warranted an outpost. Beryl left, and I kept walking – along Elliott Bay, past Pike Place Market, to the downtown center, where I got on the monorail and went to the Space Needle. Not up it though – it was time to go back. Except – I spied a labyrinth, so I did some meditative walking there, and THEN I went back.
I took the light rail; Linda picked me up at the station and we went to Seward Park, a little peninsula sticking into Lake Washington that has some old growth forest, and we took a walk. And then we went to a hip, trendy neighborhood for hip, trendy pizza with her cousin, who I had met when she visited Linda in Morocco. What a delightful day!
No comments:
Post a Comment