Episode #909
July 4, 2026
Amtrak Vacation – part 4 of 5
Seattle
An Uber took us to the Crowne Plaza Seattle Hotel.
People have said that we must see the Pike Place Market, so we walked there.
Founded in 1907 Pike Place was a direct from farmers to consumers solution to the Onion Outrage, where middlemen were scraping the profit from farmers’ pockets.
Urban Renewal threatened to tear down the market until Victor Steinbrueck stepped in to preserve the entire waterfront.
We found ourselves dead reconning through a dark, narrow brick-sided alley where the walls were covered with chewing gum wads.
“Very cool,” said I. “Gross,” cringed Paula.
And there, in a hole in the wall, was the Alibi bar.
Our exceedingly dry-witted waiter served us an amazing artisan pizza and a unique salad of greens.
In the market street, we ate ice cream and watched fishmongers throw fish.
The boardwalk was lush with flowering plants and graphic with murals.
On our walk back to the hotel, we climbed the 103 Hillclimb steps and caught a glimpse of the Amazon Spheres gardens.
The next day began with a 10 am city tour with the van picking us up at the hotel – only time for coffee.
Our guide was informative and funny, but the scenery whizzed by past limited visibility windows.
We saw the stadiums, arenas, and buildings of Seattle, many of which wore the fingerprints of Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.
The Fremont Troll guarded its bridge.
Fishermen’s Terminal is where the F/V Wizard fishing ship from “Deadliest Catch” berths in the off season.
It is also where the iMentor learned to pan UP to create a vertical panorama with an iPhone. So I photographed the 30-foot-tall Seattle Fishermen’s Memorial.
The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks and salmon fish ladder allow passage from Puget Sound (saltwater) to Lake Washington Ship Canal (freshwater).
At the locks viewing park, dozens of blue herons nest.
The neighborhoods we saw were upper-middle-class and above — no place for the working family to live.
Our driver dropped us off at the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP), designed by Frank Gehry.
MoPOP is said to look like Jimi Hendrix’s melted guitar, or maybe that is what it looked like to Jimi.
We walked around the MoPOP and looked inside to see the interior architecture – weird and beautiful.
The ride to the top of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair Century 21 Exposition Space Needle is fast.
At 630 feet tall, the Needle is the fourth-tallest structure in Seattle.
The Loupe Lounge (formerly the SkyCity Restaurant) rotates under the Space Needle observation deck at one rotation every 45 minutes – about 100,000 lifetime turns so far.
The floor of the SkyCity ring is clear glass – scary.
There is no better way to see Seattle than drinking a cocktail while watching the skyline roll by.
The Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum is adjacent to the Space Needle. It is filled with the imagination of glass artist Dale Chihuly, known for pushing glassmaking to the edge of possibilities.
The Seattle Center Monorail (also built for the World’s Fair) zipped us into the center of town.
Walking distance from Pike Place gave us an excuse to revisit the Market, where we had a delicious Chinese meal and saw the original Starbucks.
Grabbing a couple of sweet, flaky, delicious pastries at a Market shop, we walked back to our hotel.
All that walking made for a sound night’s sleep.
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