EXPERIENCING SEATTLE

This is the last part of my Seattle Adventure with a few more photos and stories about what I saw and did on my two-day visit there.

Seattle Washington is a neighbour city of Vancouver but although I've often passed through, sometimes spent a few hours browsing or shopping, I've never actually stayed any length of time. I went down on a Friday evening on the Greyhound and returned on the Sunday evening so it gave me a fair amount of time to sight-see.  My main purpose had been to see the King Tut Exhibit at the Pacific Science Center and also to browse around the Pike's Market.  It turned out my lovely five star hotel was centrally located so I could walk to many of the places I'd come to see and a short cab ride to others.

Seattle is a major coastal seaport located on Puget Sound. The name, "Seattle" comes from an Indian chief whose people once occupied that territory.  The city has around 620,778 residents (as of 2011) and is the largest city on the West Coast north of San Francisco.  Metropolitan Seattle has over 3.5 million population.  Back in the early days it was a logging town but by the late 19th century it was a commercial and shipbuilding center and a gateway to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush.

By the early 1900's the city was booming and it was one of the largest cities in the country. In 1913 firearm and typewriter magnate Lyman Cornelius Smith built a 489 ft. tower, at the time the tallest building west of the Mississippi. The thirty-eight storey building remained the tallest building on the West Coast until the Space Needle was built in 1962.


I enjoyed a tour through the Seattle Underground and the historic area around Pioneer Square where there's many heritage buildings. You'll see the old along with the new in Seattle making it an interesting city-scape.


That night there was a Blues band, Gin Creek, playing � four guys and a woman vocalist.  I took in a couple of sets then meandered back to my hotel.  There'd be lots more adventures the next day.