-The Space Needle.
-Fresh vegetables for sale at Pikes Place Market.
-Seafood, yum!
-The citie of Seattle. This direction is facing both the Seahawks and Mariners Stadiums which are right next to each other.
-Seattle wildlife.
-I think we need some raptors here to control Seattles large pigeon population.
I had to check out of my room by 11:00 a.m., luckily the Green Tortoise Inn had an area where I could store my bags until I left for the Amtrak station. My train didn't leave until 4:45 so I had all afternoon to continue my exploration. This time I headed in the opposite direction of the Space Needle and found myself in the Seattle Underground area of town. I had no idea what the Seattle Underground was but had heard allot of visitor at the Raptor Center talk about how interesting it made their visit to Seattle. I found my way to a Seattle information stand where the man pointed me in the right direction of the S.U. tour building. The attraction sound pretty cool so I decided to do it.
-Where I stayed in Seattle.
-I just love the walrus crest on this building.
-What was the artist who carved this thinking?
I'm going to describe The Seattle Underground the best I can. So back when the people of Seattle first built the town they made the mistake of constructing all of the buildings on tide flats. As a result the town was constantly being flooded. They began to move and build up earth onto the tide flats to try to stop the town from being washed away. They continually did this with the idea of building up the ground level. Then one day I believe a carpenter left a pot of glue on the stove unattended which stared a fire and burned down the entire town! The people of Seattle now had to decide whether to rebuild the town or build up the ground level and then rebuild. The shop owners were pretty concerned about getting their businesses up and running right away. So it was decide to rebuild the town and then build up the earth around the building after the construction was completed. They piled the earth so high in the town that it covered the first two stories of the buildings.
So the tour of Seattle Underground was a journey two stories below the cities surface. To begin our tour we entered a random gated door on the bustling streets of historical Seattle. Once underground you could actually see the front doors and windows of the once first stories. Old signs, furniture and other artifacts littered the tunnels and walkways. Two of my favorite stops on this 90 min tour was the old bank vault and the opportunity to stand underneath the street skylights. I'm very happy to have gone on this tour. I learned allot about the towns history in a rather short period of time and would recommend anyone visiting Seattle to check it out.
-Tour intro. That guy was awesome!
-In the Underground.
-The group moving onto the next location.
-Street Skylight. You could see the shadows of the people walking above.
-In the Bank Vault.
-After the tour I grabbed a cup of coffie at the underground coffie shop/bookstore that inspired the set on the television sitcom Frasier.
-Walking back to the hostel on the Waterfront.
After returning to the hostel I called a cab and was on my way to the train station. I was so excited for the trip home it was ridiculous. The Amtrak station was absolutely beautiful and I couldn't help but to wonder around with my mouth hanging open. Everyone from the Amtrak employees to the people boarding the train were so nice, helpful and talkative. This experience was much different from the airport where people are rude, pushy and uptight. I over heard many stories of people's travels and adventures while standing inline to board the train.
-Dosen't this lady look like Adrian from Rocky?
-At the train station. She that guy in the far left corner? I later ate next to him on the train.
-Kaiser Street?
One lady I remember in particular was in her 60's . She had bought a unlimited train pass where she could ride around for two weeks. She had purchased this as a birthday gift to herself and was making her way around the United States in twelve days. She was quite a trooper, ridding coach with nothing but a hiking backpack.
-You can see the lady I'm talking about here with the backpack and the snow white hair.
Once on the train I found a seat next to a plug in, which was rare. I quickly covered up the outlet with my belongings as other people scurried around peeking in between seats to locate one. I was lucky and had no one sitting next to me for the first few hours. That changed as the time past but as stops were made people hoped off and shortly after the lady next to me found her own two seats. I sprawled out that night and watching the world pass by until darkness fell.
-The view out of my window leaving Washington.
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