And So It Starts…

2013 has started.   It’s around 12:30 am and we find out that there may not be much of a bus service to the Overlake Station where we left the Prius.  After waiting a bit we stick our hand out and a taxi materializes.  The driver is big and bubbly and has a Tom Petty CD blaring on the stereo.  Traffic leaving the city is pretty heavy and he tells us he won’t turn the meter on until we are on the freeway.  I’m liking him already.  Our cab fare will be around $40.  We are not sure of the exit and neither is he so we end up paying around $50 which he almost didn’t want to charge us ’cause he messed up.  An honest cab driver.  Guess the New Year has greeted us in a good way.  Baby Blue is alone except for another car in the parking lot at 2 am and is covered in a not so thin sheet of ice.  Yep, it’s cold.

As expected we rise late on January 1st 2013.  What is left of it will be spent on the computer and lazing around.  We decide to go out walking to dinner where there is a mall and Firenze, an italian restaurant that is open tonight.  Food was really good and service excellent.

The second day of the year was to be spent lunching with a friend  Ramon Shiloh which I haven’t seen in years since we were mentors for the Young Native American Playwrights Program.  He is a wonderful artist, illustrator, and storyteller.  He has a book published and one out soon: Listener.   Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to happen. We’ve been a bit under the weather and exhausted. Another day of lazing around it is.

The third day of the year finds us in our tourist mode.  It’s the first Thursday of the month and the Seattle Art Museum (among others) has free admission.  It’s close to where the Underground Tours are so as they say in my neck of the woods we are going to “matar dos pájaros de un tiro” (to kill two birds with one stone) Disclaimer: I am not advocating any violence against animals or anything of the like… it’s a saying that has existed for eons.

We drive to the Overlake Station   and go on the bus to downtown.

I like how the buses are accordion-like and bend in the middle. 

As we cross the bridge it looks like we are inches from the water.

   Wait a second, are we in San Francisco?  Some roads are steep!

I’m liking the architecture of this city.  

  The Smith Center, built in 1916, is a beauty.  It has an outdoor observation deck which we did not go up to.

It’s cold.  Somehow that fact is really diminishing my enjoyment of this city.  This city is grey even on sunny days!  It has earned its reputation as the Suicide Capital of the world. The cold and the rain and the lack of sunshine is conducive to depression but as this link  states it isn’t even on the top 10. It also debunks other myths about states and cities. Fun read.

The Underground Tour is about to start.  They have us congregated in this really old bar.  Solid wood, defying time to lessen its stance.  The guide, Gail, is funny but I concentrate on the floor.  Love the tiles.

We go outside and I look up.   We are going into the bowels of the city and I concentrate on what’s on top.  Just being a bit contrarian here. But I love old buildings.

I adjust my directional rebellion by looking across the street and liking the iron bus stop pavilion.  

And down we go. 

And my attention is grabbed by this sad seat, tattered and faded holding no vibrancy in its color or plushness in its seat.    I imagine it in the lobby of a theater surrounded  by rustling skirts, colors and overall excitement.

The floors are unleveled and sinking in parts.    We are given a lot of info on the building and rebuilding of the city and on its history, all in the context of a comedy routine that is a bit too much, but she is funny and makes it entertaining. We go back up before going back down but I’m so used to looking down that I spot another set of tiles   that I like in front of what professes to be the oldest restaurant in Seattle.

Steam Baths lower level… 

We are now under a skylight.   Glass made circa 1800’s – it turned purple with age. sk

We head back up.  

And here is a skylight from above.  

My stomach is grumbling as usual and we go to a Cajun restaurant close by.  A nice hot gumbo sounds just like the best antidote to the cold.  The place, Marcela’s Creole Cookery, is a hodgepodge of decorating.   But the gumbo does warm me up and I got some colorful beads as a send-off.

Before we go to the Art Museum we decide to stop at Seattle’s Central Library.  I’m glad we did.  The building is structurally stunning and massive.       

Today, surprise of surprises, it’s a grey day but on a sunny day it must be so stunning to see it from within with all the angles this place has.  And a really stormy rainy day probably creates quite a symphony in here.

The colors inside are pretty cool.             

Just in case you are wondering (as I did for a minute) if this really is a library, here is a librarian to go with it.

The world in books at your fingertips.  

Futuristic, eh?

    

I almost want to stay.  Cocoon myself with a book and let the hours pass without notice.  But I bid my farewell by taking a few more shots of its facade.           

Seattle Art Museum  is now at our feet. And above us, some flying Fords with lights coming out of every opening in an explosion exposure.  

I like that the museum has a large quantity of Native American and Aboriginal art, something my Australian was quite happy to see.      This is not one of it, by the way.

However, in some floors, periods and mediums are mixed in and somehow I am not drawn in.   What does, is this painting of a mother and child (his wife and daughter) by William Sergeant Kendall which brings my mom to mind.  In two days it will be three years since her passing.  

A lot of modern art.     

 

 

 

 

 

Then a statue of cupid.  I photograph its bum for I have the full intention of decorating my bathroom with photos of behinds taken all over the world.

We are not far from Pike’s Market so we decide to have dinner there.  End up at Etta’s.  Food was really good though I found it expensive for what it was. But it won me over (I had serious hesitation looking at the menu).  It starts pouring which gives me an excellent excuse to order a decadent dessert while we wait for the rain to turn into a drizzle.  I am just going to become a roly poly if I keep on eating like this so Seattle has to promise not to give me any more excuses for me to keep on eating!

The End… and Hopefully, a Lucky 13!

I wake up to two lovely little kitties.  A cup of tea. Relaxing morning.  A day of no hurries and hopefully no worries.

My co-guide is hard at work at surveying the possible places to go in the vicinity.  He finds Multnomah Falls in the Colville Indian Reservation.   It is a 30-40 each way side trip but I think it is going to be worth it.  Piper surveys our bags, we give her a last hug, pet Phineas as well and off we go.

Baby Blue is hesitant.  No more snow or ice, right? I hope not. And so we go. It is cold but not brutally so. The mountains and the falls are waiting.  I think I would have liked to have explored more of Portland but am looking forward to being in one place for a while.  As we get close to Multnomah there is a spot that many are parking.  It’s Wahkeena Falls   and if they are smaller than Multnomah Falls I really am looking forward to those!   We decide to hike up to see them close up.    Nature provides us with such beautiful intricate forms.  The sound from the falls is thunderous.   

Though it doesn’t need to scream for its power to be understood, it does so anyway.  We have zigzagged up quite high.  Dean stops for a photo, I continue on to a little side road that leads to nowhere but provides me with a sense of quietude which almost overpowers the coldness that has creeped inside my bones.

  Nature provides us with ice sculptures.

    

We could continue around but another 3 miles in unisom with the cold is a symphony I do not wish to play so back from where we came from it is.    There is a bench up ahead where I sit and think of sliding back down…   briefly… until I think of what a block of ice I would become.  I am most thankful that my heavy breathing (panting, really) is muffled by the sounds of gallons of water streaming down.      

We get to the car, put the heat on full blast and go the few minutes to Multnomah Falls.    The visitor center is really quite quaint and the falls are impressive indeed.

  Magnificently upright, 611 feet up. According to Native American lore, Multnomah Falls was created to win the heart of a young princes who wanted a hidden place to bathe.  Loving the bridge in the middle.  We walk up to it, cross it, get a bit wet, and head down once again.  Seattle -5 hours and 40 minutes away- is next.

We arrive in Seattle well into the night, tired but happy to be where we will set camp for 11 days.  We are technically not in Seattle.  We are in Bellevue, WA about 40 min. away by car.  A friend has so graciously and generously lent us her home while they are away.

I awake to Dec. 30 a day away from the end of the year and I can’t believe that a year has passed so fast. It has undoubtedly been one of the best I have had.  An assessment will follow.  Too much to ponder and be thankful for.  Enough for another blog in itself.   Today we go to an outlet mall.  We do some shopping but most stores are closed.  It’s Sunday and they have closed early.  I manage to be more flustered at the wheel than ever and miss more exits than I thought humanly possible.  We have dinner at Outback Steakhouse (definitely an Aussie theme these days) and go home and chill (though the chill is outside).

On the 31st there is no doubt that we are going to spend it around the Space Needle observing the fireworks.  We dress in layers.  Thermals, long sleeves, sweater and coats.  Oh, and gloves, scarves, beanies, and a small backpack to store layers that we put on and off. I know that I don’t want to drive so we go to Redmond -where the bus stop is and only 3 minutes away from us- smack in the middle of Microsoft “campus” as someone said. The 454 takes us to Pike and 5th St. and where it drops us is exactly where the monorail s that takes us to the Space Needle. We get there and go into the Armory at Seattle Center were I delight in a miniature train village set up in the middle of it all. Don’t think that there is a kid in us that is not fascinated by trains.  

Horses and Trains

Always Wanted a Tree House!

We then go into the lobby of the EMP Museum (Experience Music Project).   What caught my attention was the Frank Gehry building it is housed in.  Just incredibly unique and beautiful.        Today is a bit grey but in the sunshine this building must glisten.  The photos don’t really do it justice. It reflect the Space Needle, competes with it and distorts it.    

  It’s still relatively early and there are no crowds and since we are hungry we walk to Pikes Market.  On our way we pass Top Pot Doughnuts, an institution in Seattle.    We make a beeline towards it only to find that they have sold out on the doughnuts.

  We arrive at Pikes Market.  I love markets anywhere in the world.  This one is not so huge but bustling.  It’s a mix of arts/craft fair, fish market, vegetable, flower market waterside.     

There is lots to look at aside from the horizon.

Can you spot the real bird?  

Rings nature creates on wood. Carvings that man creates on wood.  

Bird surveying his territory.

The sun is setting and it is beautiful.          

We go inside and have our last meal of the year (or what we thought was going to be our last meal) at a cafe at waterside.  A salmon bisque, a clam chowder, crab cakes and a chocolate bundt cake.

  

Back on the monorail and the Seattle Center.  We first stop at the Skating Rink.   The Armory is filled.  The outside not so much.  It is cold, very cold.  Two Californians sitting next to us are saying how unused to this weather they are.  So am I.  But then the fireworks start and all is forgotten.  Here is a link to the video.  Here’s a link to the second part (with the finale) which is sideways, not because I laid down but because I had the brilliant idea of changing the camera angle thinking that I could fix it later… I couldn’t.

Happy New Year everyone!!!!!  Thank you for being an important part of mine!

May 2013 be the best yet!