The bike tour hit the Pacific Northwest this past week in search of...more biking! And to see what is exactly out there in the top left corner of our great country; and both were everything I expected and more. Along with me on the trip was Ms. Vicki who needed a break from getting her tonsils out earlier this summer which isn't exactly the "yay, we get to each lots of ice cream!!" experience everyone portrays it to be. From what I've heard, it's quite painful for quite some time and even more painful post-kiddy age.
We arrived late Sunday and settled in with a...you guessed it, beer, at a local establishment called the The 5 Point Cafe (pictured at bottom). Think of it as the Gusoline Alley of Seattle as it had some history, some character and a great jukebox. As a bonus, the menu had a choice of chicken fried bacon. Was I in heaven? I have a shot of it below and tried it the following day, however, it looked better on paper as you just can't get the bacon crisp enough. The Manny's Pale Ale (local product) washing it down was quite delicious so all was well.
The following morning we put on our tourist hats and hit the Pike Place Market. Think of Eastern Market with a huge ass lake behind it. This video
http://youtu.be/L-LiLzCM4nU is the guys throwing the fish and yucking it up. We even got to add to the famed "gum wall" at the market. It's an alley that has millions of pieces of ABC (already been chewed) gum. Cool scene.
We then got on the bicycles and hit the loop around Puget Sound, up over the Ballard Locks, along the water up to Golden Gardens Park which looks off to the Olympic Mountains, down through the neighborhoods of Ballard and Fremont (cool area), stopped at Gas Works Park which looks off onto the city from the other side ("Sleepless in Seattle" houseboat near there), over to the University of Washington and back downtown after the University Bridge. The guys at the bike shop said it comes out to about 15-20 miles total on the loop with surprisingly little hills. They gave us a good map and the trail was well marked. It was a mix of park-like to industrial to bar crawl areas on the path. Vicki gets the trooper award as a curb unfortunately grabbed her tire and took her down. Let's just say she left a piece of herself in Seattle. She pedaled on though; and soon purchased some Neosporin. Bike falls aside, two bloody thumbs up on the bike angle.
Tuesday we went back into tourist mode and hit the aquarium which was quite impressive; even with the screaming kids... One of the otters (seals?) did a dance for the cameras in the video here
http://youtu.be/wkX3etXAsYE.
For lunch we took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island; about a 35 minute ride. The ferry was only $8 round trip and had some great views. Doc's Marina Grill on the island served it's purpose in filling my belly with good food and cold beverages.
Wednesday we hit a spy exhibit at the Pacific Science Center near the Space Needle. The exhibit was everything spies, from the creation of the intelligence agencies and all their gadgets to profiles of some of the best. Some incredible artifacts. It was like a "Get Smart" exhibit.
We couldn't (well, we could have) leave Seattle without going on the duck tour (
http://youtu.be/glzrcMdMBhc); part land, part sea, all in one vehicle!!! It had all the elements of cheesy and quite a few screaming kids to boot but all in all, I had a great time on it.
Another must see was the Hard Rock Cafe and the pictures on display from the city's vast music history did not disappoint.
We concluded the trip Wednesday afternoon with an elevator ride to the top of the Space Needle (
http://youtu.be/IfCs5j0InxQ). Mt. Rainier was visible in the distance. That is one large mass.
While walking back to the hotel, we came upon this skateboard park near Key Arena (
http://youtu.be/OheaZd6Cy9k). I was going to ask to try but wisely just spectated.
For all I hear about how its always raining in Seattle (and I did pack my umbrella), we got lucky I guess. Sun every day. I'm sure we missed seeing something but we covered quite a lot of territory via foot, bike and boat.
Great city.
Trail Head
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| Pike Place Market |
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| Pike Place Market |
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| great bike paths around the city |
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| Golden Gardens Park |
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| view from Burke-Gilman bike path |
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| Burke-Gilman bike path |
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| Gas Works Park |
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| Gas Works Park |
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| underpass art - Fremont neighborhood in Seattle |
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| Husky Stadium - U of W |
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| had to get a picture of this sign |
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| gum wall - Pike Place Market |
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| gum wall - Pike Place Market |
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| gum wall (Vicki making an addition) - Pike Place Market |
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| gum wall - Pike Place Market |
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| Bainbridge Island ferry |
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| Bainbridge Island ferry |
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| Seattle Aquarium |
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| Bainbridge Island ferry |
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| football/baseball stadiums |
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| Bainbridge Island ferry |
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| Bainbridge Island ferry |
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| Bainbridge Island ferry |
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| Bainbridge Island ferry |
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| Bainbridge Island ferry |
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| spy exhibit - Pacific Science Center (that is me in the picture with my computer generated disguise - ha) |
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| spy exhibit - Pacific Science Center |
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| Tourism 101 at its best - fun ride |
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| houseboat from Sleepless in Seattle |
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| elevator up Space Needle |
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| view of Mt. Rainier from the Space Needle |
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| Seattle Aquarium |
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| chicken fried bacon (looked good on paper, but...) |
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| cool bar |
While my mission playing in the alumni basketball game today at MHS was to not land in the hospital (mission accomplished), I didn't realize I would be the lone Redskin of the bunch. A little background is needed for that statement. Playing time at the alumni game is assigned based on graduate year; oldest goes first. Kind of like the Masters golf tournament when Arnold Palmer and Sam Snead would trot out there first and the youngsters would say, "who is that?" Well, today I was the one trotting out first as nobody was older than the class of '85. Heck, most of my teammates today weren't even born when I was getting chewed out by Coach Palmer back in the day. 
