{"id":1203,"date":"2013-05-31T21:03:35","date_gmt":"2013-06-01T02:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/?p=1203"},"modified":"2013-05-31T21:09:49","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T02:09:49","slug":"special-guest-post-seattle-visit-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/?p=1203","title":{"rendered":"Special Guest Post – Seattle Visit Day 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday<\/span><\/p>\n

Before we begin our Saturday tour of Seattle, I want to list a few observations I made while there.\u00a0 As we go along, you can see if you get the same impressions I did.<\/p>\n

1. DOGS<\/span><\/p>\n

You will see an awful lot of dogs in Seattle; people walking them.\u00a0 Apparently, there are regular dogs and then Seattle dogs.\u00a0 None of the Seattle dogs bark.\u00a0 The dogs do not try to bite people or each other.\u00a0 The owners keep their dogs under control at all times and no dog is ever \u201coff leash\u201d.\u00a0 I did not see dogs on the buses, but many cafes have a dog leashing area in front of the door and provided water bowls.\u00a0 Will did not say anything, but I\u2019m thinking if he did say something, being the cat lover he is and always had been, it would be something like, \u201cHaving dogs in the workplace is not one of my favorite things about working at Amazon.” – Editor’s note: My boss’s dogs are really boney, so they’re not fun to pet.\u00a0 Other peoples’ dogs are OK.<\/em><\/p>\n

2. ELDERLY AND CHILDREN<\/span><\/p>\n

I do not know where the city has these two groups of people locked up but I think it is high time someone investigates!\u00a0 I saw no nursing homes or playground equipment.\u00a0 Rarely did I see someone as old as I am and rarely did I see a child under the age of 10.\u00a0 98% of the people were ages 20-40.\u00a0 Take note of that in the pictures.\u00a0 And Seattle does not know the meaning of \u201chandicap accessible\u201d.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t MN have laws that all federal or state or city buildings have to be accessible?\u00a0 Seattle has neither people movers nor escalators.\u00a0 As you may know, the streets are hills and it\u2019s layered like terrace farming.\u00a0 So, in order to get up to the next level you either have to go up the inclined sidewalk or climb steps up.\u00a0 I did get a little help with that though.<\/p>\n

I am thinking Seattle has decided it is just a lot cheaper to ban those old people and whining children from the city rather than construct people moving stuff.\u00a0 Besides, the city is probably run by a bunch of 30 year olds.\u00a0 Their day will come!<\/p>\n

3. BIKES <\/span><\/p>\n

Half the bikes in the nation must be in Seattle!\u00a0 They have a big, long bike trail along the canal which many people use.\u00a0 They also use the streets but not the sidewalks.\u00a0 Every biker has the proper equipment \u2013lighted bike, lighted helmet, and of course a backpack.\u00a0 If you happen to be walking on the path, the bikers come up behind you and say, \u201con your left\u201d.\u00a0 That means move over to your right because the biker is going to pass you on your left side. \u00a0And that leads me to comment that all the folks in Seattle are really nice; lots of \u201cthank yous\u201d and \u201cpleases\u201d can be heard.\u00a0 They never push and shove to get on\/off the bus or in a line somewhere.\u00a0 The thought did occur to me that \u201cBoy, these people may have MN nice beat.\u201d<\/p>\n

But back to the bikes.\u00a0 Will said if the buses and bikes all broke down at once, the city would be at a standstill; it could not possibly operate if all those people decided to get into cars and drive around.\u00a0 Now that I think about it, I did not see all that many parking ramps.\u00a0 EVERYONE just uses the buses or rides their bikes.<\/p>\n

OK.\u00a0 Let\u2019s get on our tennis shoes\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.unless you have a nice pair of rain boots which you can wear to step in every puddle you see.\u00a0 One of our party had to be doing that \u2013walking \u00bd block out of the way just to step in a puddle.\u00a0 We were just happy she was not SPLASHING in the puddles.<\/p>\n

Saturday morning we headed over to Will\/Joni\u2019s for breakfast at 7:30am.\u00a0 We had been given clear directions (several times) to go to the end of the block, turn right, and walk down the street.\u00a0 So we walked to the end of the block, turned right, and the street split into a V with two streets going along.\u00a0 We decided we were lost so we got out the area map Joni had mailed to us before we left.\u00a0 We managed to stay on track and after about a block, we saw Will coming to meet us.\u00a0 We got to the apartment where Joni had a big egg and bacon breakfast for us.\u00a0 Then it was off to the Public Market.<\/p>\n

I was very surprised at this!\u00a0 The fish throwing people are actually only one store or stall in the market.\u00a0 I thought Pike\u2019s Fish Market was a separate, stand-alone place.\u00a0 And there were at least two other stalls selling fish.\u00a0 So we walked in and this is what I saw!<\/p>\n

\"01\"<\/a><\/p>\n

FLOWERS!\u00a0 Hundreds of bouquets of beautiful flowers! I wanted them all but did not want to have to carry them the rest of the day.\u00a0 I need to google if WA is the flower state, where they got all those flowers, and why they were there.<\/p>\n

The Public Market is like a roof with these vendors under it.<\/p>\n

\"02\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We did see the fish mongers and I saw one throw a fish to a guy behind the counter and he did catch it.<\/p>\n

\"03\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"04\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are several floors of shops below the ground level.\u00a0 For some reason they have a golden pig on the lower level.\u00a0 We looked through a few of the unique shops.<\/p>\n

\"05\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After the Public Market, we went just across the street where you could look through the window at people making cheese curds.\u00a0 I think WA is quite a dairy state too.\u00a0 We stepped inside, got a container of curds with dill to snack on, and they were delicious.\u00a0 Next door was the location of the very first Starbuck\u2019s coffee shop.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a long line of people waiting to get inside so they could say they had been inside the store and maybe purchased a coffee.<\/p>\n

\"06\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(There\u2019s a girl child.)<\/p>\n

\"08\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We started walking toward the Space needle.<\/p>\n

\"07\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As we got to the entrance, we spotted\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n

\"09\"<\/a><\/p>\n

THE DUCKS RIDE!\u00a0 That was really enjoyable.\u00a0 The driver was very funny putting on appropriate music for what we were seeing, putting on various hats, and we got to wave at everyone.\u00a0 Again with the WA nice, many of them waved back.<\/p>\n

Just as we departed, there were all kinds of police and stopped traffic due to a big Anti-Monsanto\/GMO demonstration coming down the street.\u00a0 Later I read that Mpls. had the same kind of protest at the Capitol that day.<\/p>\n

\"10\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"11\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(Those people getting off are not anyone we know.)<\/p>\n

We drove down into Union Lake and along all the great big yachts and houseboats.<\/p>\n

\"12\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is not a picture from the duck boat, but you can see the Aurora Bridge that goes over (and I mean OVER) Fremont.\u00a0 The guy drove that old swaying duck boat over that bridge at a breakneck 35mph.\u00a0 Earlier, I had said to the kids that it is surprising someone did not drive off that bridge every day falling 4,000\u2019 to their death!\u00a0 They said that does not usually happen, but occasionally people \u201cfall\u201d from the bridge to their death.<\/p>\n

\"13\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was getting on to 1:30pm by then so we crossed the street into Space Needle Park\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..or whatever it is called \u2013a big open space around the Space Needle.\u00a0 Lo and Behold!\u00a0 Look what we accidently happened upon!<\/p>\n

Oh\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.maybe we should take a break?\u00a0 It\u2019s been a busy, busy morning.\u00a0 We\u2019re tired and hungry.\u00a0 Yes, let\u2019s take a break and meet back here tomorrow for the Saturday afternoon activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday Before we begin our Saturday tour of Seattle, I want to list a few observations I made while there.\u00a0 As we go along, you can see if you get the same impressions I did. 1. DOGS You will see an awful lot of dogs in Seattle; people walking them.\u00a0 Apparently, there are regular dogs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1203"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1218,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203\/revisions\/1218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}