Day 12 | Rainy Seattle
We have the Bob Spiegel Underground Seattle tour this morning at 11 ("please ensure you are there 15 mins early") so it was a bit of a surprise that we slept in until 10! Panic. Run around and showering we were out the door. Plenty of time, no problem. Half way there, “got the tickets?”, “Um”, run back and get them, run back, walk in the doors at 10:45, like the planned, composed version.
The underground Tour is a result of a decision to rebuild the CBD 10-30 feet higher after it was destroyed by fire. The road was raised and eventually the sidewalk/footpath was covered over. These underground sections are still open in some places and offer access to what was the original street-level frontages and boardwalks. Embellished by stories of old Seattle it was fun. Interesting facts included:
No one was directly killed in this huge fire
When the fire broke out it coincided with a comedy of coincidences, timber town, hardware shop full of paint and gunpowder and dynamite, crowds jeered the volunteer fire brigade who walked off, fire-break added to the fire.
Early Mayor sued Council, directed Council to settle (himself), twice
We were so glad that we got there in time. The only negative was that the tour was quite full, 30-40 people. After the tour we went off to a sandwich shop in Occidental Park. Afterwards in the walk back through town we got chocolate croissant and brioche from a French bakery.
Then we returned to the room at the Roosevelt. The plan was to go out to the Space Needle and the surrounding attractions and take the monorail there. However it had started raining once we got to the monorail. The Space Needle was pretty neat but decided due to the rain we would give it a miss. We had a quick look at the Chihuly glass showroom adjacent. Seattle glass art is famous so we had a quick look. There are a few more things up here to see but with the rain it was best to get going.
Walking out from the Space Needle complex the rain prevented us taking many photos but it wasn't a hard walk. We were going to Pier 66 to Anthony’s where we were meeting our friends from Marysville, the Mariers. We have been looking forward to this since we met at the Grand Canyon.
By the time that we got there we were pretty wet. Luckily it was warm and we sat in the bar with a magnificent view of the harbour. We got to the table and shortly after Kathy, Steve and Marcus arrived!
It was so fun chatting and getting to know each other some more. The weather had started to clear and we could see the Safeco Field baseball stadium that was playing the first Mariners game of the year, complete with fireworks and light show.
The Seattle Restaurant week Dinner at Anthony’s was great made extra special with our Washington friends. A special thank you to Kathy, Steve and Marcus for coming south to see us.
After dinner we got a ride back to the Roosevelt, again compliments of the Mariers, which was very welcome. We have done a lot of walking today.
Its our last full day in Seattle tomorrow so might just take an easy day (shopping me thinks).