Thursday 11th May: Walking Tour & Bainbridge Island
I’m not sure who is smiling down on us but we woke to glorious sunshine, a clear blue sky and a forecast maximum for the day of 22oC. In fact, we had a bit of a chuckle when we noted the weather app on our phone had a warning of an Excessive Heat Watch period for Seattle; the warning being that it may reach up to 90oF, approximately 32oC.
The only activity we had booked for the day was a 2 hr walking tour at 11 am. This was very welcome as it allowed us to have a slow morning; the full days we’d been having had been wonderful but they’re were taking a toll on our older bodies.
It was a 17 minute walk to pick up our tour but we first headed back to Pike Place Market to try and get a better understanding of the place. It’s huge and sprawling, stretching across 9 acres, and on different levels making for a bit of confusion. The Market is also the location of the original Starbucks, opened in March 1971, so we took the obligatory photo.
Our walking tour with Seattle Free Walking Tours was great and I’d highly recommend them for anyone visiting Seattle. Whereas yesterday’s underground tour focused more on the 19th century origins of Seattle city, this tour covered a wide range of topics of historical and contemporary note. Our guide, Joe, mentioned that Seattle is the fastest growing city in the USA, which sounded a bit odd to me given the number of empty office buildings. When I asked him about this he replied that most of the growth is coming from tech-related work where traditional office space is not required; hence the empty buildings. He noted that Seattle is HQ for Amazon, T-mobile, Microsoft, Boeing and Expedia as just some. After I had asked this question about office space, a guy came up to me and introduced himself as Jake, who happened to be the founder of the tour company we were with, and explained that Seattle officials had embarked on an endeavor to transition the CBD into a living city with a shift to including more condominiums but this was just as Covid hit and so the transition has been slowed. It is why, though, you won’t find too many restaurants, outside of within the major hotels and the tourist strip, in Seattle; locals tend to dine out where they live, and, this tends to be outside the CBD.
One stop along the tour was to point out the 30 minute Ferry to Bainbridge Island which our guide recommended as an activity that was better than taking a 1 hr conventional Harbour cruise. The ferry ticket cost $9.50 whereas the Harbour tour was $32. Also, there is quite a lot to see on the Island and so we took the guide’s advice and headed there after the walking tour and after our lunch. Our initial plan for after the walking tour was to visit the Museum of History and Industry but, given it was such a magnificent sunny day, we opted for enjoying the glorious weather while it lasted. We will do the museum tomorrow.
Our lunch stop was also a recommendation of the guide and this was a great spot as well; Ivar’s Acres of Clam’s. Ivar Haglund was a significant Seattle figure and his restaurant is a huge old-world style clam restaurant on Pier 54 and it was right near Pier 50 where we needed to pick up the Bainbridge ferry. We had a lovely, but somewhat rushed, lunch before heading over to Bainsbridge. The village of Winslow is just to the east of the Bainsbridge ferry terminal and that was where we headed once off the ferry. It was a delightful little town and a bit of a cross between an upmarket Mogo, of south coast NSW fame, and Bright in Victoria. There were loads of rather desirable gift and home-wares shops that I would have loved to have poked around in if I had been with a more enthusiastic companion. ‘We’ opted for the short trail walk and a beer at the local brewery instead. Yes, this small village runs to a brewery and a local wine tasting room, housed right next to each other, and a number of lovely cafes and restaurants. This part of Seattle was just magical and Mark lamented that we weren’t staying here instead of in the city. So, should you ever be planning to visit this part of the world then maybe plan to allow a night and full day for a stay on this delightful island.
Our return ferry docked back in Seattle at around 5.30 pm so we wandered home after that for a bit of a rest before heading back out for Mark to have a bite to eat. The choice was a tiny pizza cafe on the corner of our block that had a lovely vibe with several locals watching the Seattle versus Dallas ice hockey. It only offered a limited menu of four different pizzas by the slice, and served on a paper plate, but it ran to six beers on tap including some craft IPAs to Mark’s joy. We both thought we’d love some small places like this back at home!
Friday 12th May: Museum of Flight and Museum of History & Industry
The beautiful weather continued for our stay so Mark set out early for his one and only Seattle bike ride. He only got lost a few times so wasn’t too late back to the hotel.
Our first activity for the day was a visit to the Museum of Flight. This was a 35 ~ 45 minute bus trip journey or an expensive 15 minute Uber ride and I eventually persuaded Mark to give the bus a go, thinking it might be a way for us to see a bit more of the local area. We ended up getting day tickets of travel on the bus for a combined total of $2; much better than the forecast $80+ we would’ve had to pay in Ubers.
The Museum of Flight was a most impressive exhibition covering from the beginning of flight, through the two world wars and up to contemporary space flight. We particularly enjoyed walking through the Air Force One that had carried President Nixon on his flight to China; the first time, a US president had visited the leader of the Chinese Communist Party. The test aircraft for the Boeing 747 even had the original spiral staircase and we also walked through the third ever Dreamliner 787 that had been built. One of their prized exhibits is the test aircraft for the space shuttle which you are able to walk through.
We spent about 2 1/2 hours looking around and then had a bite to eat before hopping back on the bus. Would I recommend a visit to the Museum of Flight? The answer is yes, if you only pay a $2 or similar bus fare or have free transport. I’m not sure it’s worth the ticket entry price plus an $80 USD cab / Uber fare there and back; unless you’re a real plane / flight history fanatic that is.
Mark and I came to the realisation that Seattle is not a very attractive city. Mark didn’t find much on his ride through north Seattle to celebrate and our bus journey south was actually a bit depressing; a far cry from yesterday on Bainbridge Island. Our journey from the Museum of Flight to The Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) took about an hour and the short walk from the bus to MOHAI was rather pretty as it was along the waters edge of Lake Union. We spent about 2 hours at the MOHAI and followed a path that traced from the history of indigenous settlement, European occupation, the Great Fire of 1889, and subsequent rebuild of the city, through to contemporary time with the achievements of Microsoft and Amazon. We both thought the history coverage was great and there were a number of impressive audiovisual and interactive displays that supported the narrative. So, do we think this Museum is worth a visit? Yes, especially as it is within walking distance of the CBD.
It was about 4.30 pm by the time we got back to the hotel leaving Mark an hour to pack up his bike before we headed out for dinner. We celebrated our last night in Seattle with a nice steak meal at Ruth’s Chris. We had an early departure the next day for Victoria; our 3 hr ferry departs at 8 am.
