Seattle Revisited

We were not successful in reserving a spot for our rig in any area in Seattle or even near it.  Next time we are here we are going to have to do that months ahead of time, especially during the summertime.  Consequently we had to settle for Fall City, which is about 25 miles north of Seattle.  In 2010 I wrote a post about a visit we made to Snoqualmie Falls, that place is located about 3 miles from where we are presently parked.  We have been in this park now for several days and I am thankful that we could not get into any other place!  Our home is surrounded by tall pines, large-leafed maples and  ferns which offer lots of shade and keep us cool.  There is little grass on the ground because it is mostly covered with moss.  Across from us is an empty lot and its borders are lined with many blackberry bushes.  The bushes are heavily laden with the ripe sweet fruit, which we have already indulged in rather frequently.   Today our nephew Andy and his son Ben visited us, and, while returning from the pool, we saw three pileated woodpeckers.   Maybe you can understand why we love it here.

Yesterday we made arrangements to visit John's cousin Gretchen and her husband Tom who live on Bainbridge Island.  After getting together for lunch with them at a restaurant on Seattle' waterfront, John and I headed out on our own to see some of the sights of Seattle.  Our first stop was Pike Place Market.  We had been there in the past, but could not pass up another chance to look at fresh seafood, beautiful cut flowers, yummy pastries- well, maybe you get the picture. This time we found a back alley which took us into one of the entrances of the market.  And YUCK, a wall of already been chewed gum greeted us!

Hope it does not gross you out to see a close-up of the mess.  The gum surrounds a ticket window for a comedy improv theater.  For some reason John wanted to ride the Seattle Center Monorail.  It had been built in 1962 for the Seattle World's Fair.  It whisked us from the Westlake Shopping Center to the Seattle Center in about a minute and one-half.   At the Seattle Center area variety of museums, the Space Needle and Chihuly Glass Garden and Glass Exhibition.  I will write more on that in my next posting.

Our final stop for the day was at the Olympic Sculpture Park.  It is a 9-acre sculpture park designed for visitors to experience sculpture outside in an urban setting.  On display are primarily contemporary works.  The main path zigzags 2,200 feet down past a miniature meadow and forest grove to the waterfront.  Another path brought us back to the concrete and steel reality of city life.  In case you are wondering, one of the sculptures is in the foreground.

It was good to spend a day in the hustle and bustle of a big city, but we were quite happy to return home to our motor home sitting in some very quiet deep dark woods!