Aside from our plans to eat a lot, we didn't have much else planned. This "going with the flow" style of trip is largely new to us. We usually have a pretty specific itinerary planned whenever we go somewhere, so that we can maximize our time by hitting up everything (or close to everything) we want to see. I think knowing that Seattle is so close and the fact that we didn't have to fly there took a lot of the pressure off.
Vancouver is about 2.5 hours away from Seattle (half an hour less if you drive fast and don't make any stops). On the way there, we made 3 pit stops - one for food, one for gas ... but really all three for me and my borderline overactive bladder (TMI?).
We managed to snag an awesome hotel deal on Hotwire the night before for a four star hotel right next to the Safeco Field - Silver Cloud - Stadium, Seattle.
Trip tip: book last minute if the circumstances allow for it because hotels often offer rooms for up to 60% off their original price.
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| A baseball fan being a baseball fan. |
Unfortunately for us, the last tour that day was at 12:30 pm (we got there around 1:30 pm) and no tours were running on Sunday because of Easter. After wallowing in a bit (a lot) of disappointment, we accepted it and moved on to check out the famous Pike Place Market. Our hotel offered a complimentary shuttle service that dropped us off right across the market, which was SUPER convenient. This was a plus because I had no idea they even offered this service when we first booked the hotel. It saved us a lot of time and probably frustration that would've ensued if we had to navigate our car through the crowded streets surrounding the marketplace.
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| Yes, it was very crowded indeed. |
Our next stop was on Post Alley for some yummy chowder at Pike Place Chowder (click to read about what we ordered and what we thought!).
A belly full of chowder later, we wandered over to the Market Theater Gum Wall to make our mark. The wall was closed down this past November for a total cleaning for the first time in 20 years. Wikipedia tells me that it took a total of 130 hours to clean and over 2,350 pounds of gum was removed from the wall. Knowing that the wall was completely cleaned merely four months ago, I was shocked to see that the wall was entirely covered with gum already. Nevertheless, I loved all the colours! The whole thing is actually quite artistic :)
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| We made sure to keep a safe distance. |
Post-Gum Wall, we made our way back onto 1st Avenue to check out the schedule for the Underground Tours of the city. My sister visited Seattle last summer, and recommended that we go on the tour because she thought it was really eye-opening.
Going into it, we really didn't know what to expect. I knew close to nothing about the history of Seattle. Little did we know, the tour actually turned out to be the highlight of our trip! It was definitely eye-opening, informative, and actually helped us gain a new-found appreciation for the city.
A little bit a history lesson here ...
In 1889, Seattle experienced a huge fire that nearly took out all of its then downtown core. This fire has since been named the "Great Seattle Fire". The fire started out small and was caused accidentally by an assistant in a woodworking shop that was heating glue over a gas fire. The glue had boiled over the pot, caught fire, spread over the wooden floors of the building. The severity of the fire quickly escalated and became out of control as a result of contact with nearby explosives, major water supply issues, and the fact that all of Seattle's first buildings were made out of wood. The fire burned for 13 hours until it naturally died down. Approximately 120 acres, amounting to 25 blocks of the city, were destroyed as a result of the raging fire.
As an aftermath of the fire, the city leaders decided to make two major strategic changes: 1) all new buildings would be made out of stone or brick, instead of wood, to prevent a repeat of history; and 2) the existing streets would be regraded to stand at least one story higher than the existing street level.
I know the next part may be hard to imagine without an elaborate visual, but work with me.
Concrete walls that ranged from 12 to 30 feet in height were erected around the buildings, creating small borders around each building. There would be a wider gap between buildings that were across the street from each other, so that the street would be situated along the wide gap.
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| The arches on the right are part of the original exterior of a building. The wall on the left side is a concrete wall that was constructed to elevate the street onto the second story of the building. The space between the exterior of the building and the concrete wall is the "border" that ran around the outside of the building that would eventually be underground. |
Now, if you've pictured what I've described properly, then you'll likely be wondering how people got over the concrete walls to make it from one building to the next.
In order to allow citizens to make their way along the street from one building to another, ladders were placed along the sides of the concrete walls. As you can imagine, this made it exceptionally tedious and physically demanding for pedestrians to get from one place to the next. Further, it was bad for business from the perspective of merchants because the idea of having to climb an endless amount of ladders was a serious deterrent for ladies shopping in heels and petticoats. Eventually, the city came to an agreement with the building owners that they would pay for the construction of half of the sidewalk if the owner of the building would pay for the construction of the other half. Even with this 50/50 split, there was still a gap between the two sides of the sidewalk that was later turned into skylights for the underground pathway. Although the city has since removed a lot of these skylights, several still remain (as can be seen below).
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| The skylights are made up of squared glass prisms. |
Prior to going on the tour, I recalled stepping over these squares when we were strolling along the sidewalk. I thought the squares were just tiles that the city had put in for decoration. It was really cool to be able to see it from underground because it was an entirely new perspective.
This is what the squares look like from above, on street level:
The tour also talked about Seattle's underground "red light district" that the city leaders were well-aware of. This was first discovered by a census of the city that uncovered over 2,000 women prostitutes who were self-acclaimed "seamstresses". The puzzling part was that these seamstresses seemed to be carrying on business without ever owning a sewing machine. Soon after, the city leaders caught on and decided to go along with the euphemism - a $10/month "sewing machine tax" was imposed such that all the seamstresses had to pay the tax in order for them to carry on "business". This tax ended up generating a significant amount of money that greatly contributed to the city's improved economic status.
The tour was about an hour and 15 minutes. After all the walking, we were pretty famished. We headed back to Pike Place Market and stopped by The Pink Door on Post Alley (click to read about the best lasagna I've ever had!) for an early dinner. Luckily, we were seated right away and the eating ensued.
After dinner, we decided to check out how long the line was outside the original Starbucks. We had walked by earlier on in the day and didn't feel like lining up outside for 30 minutes for a coffee. By the time we got there, it was around 7:15 pm and the line was pretty short (we probably waited for 5 min).
I'm sure most of you already know this, but fun fact for those of you who don't - this is the location of the very first Starbucks that opened in 1971.
Sadly, I didn't quite feel like having a coffee ... because I just had beer. I did end up buying a pack of their Pike Place Special Reserve for my parents. Truthfully, I'm not a huge fan of Starbucks' Pike Place roast (I usually order their Veranda Blend blonde roast).
..... skip a bit to the next morning ....
(We basically went back to the hotel, made some friends from Portland who were chilling with us in the rooftop hot tub, ordered a couple of drinks at the bar downstairs - Jimmy's on First, had some microwavable KD, and called it a night.)
We were starving and desperately wanted to find a place with some solid brunch food. Our initial plan was to try Portage Bay Cafe. We called and found out that it was closed for Easter Sunday. After doing a bit of research, we decided on Tilikum Place Cafe (click to read my full review!).
Our trip to Seattle was short, but sweet - the perfect place to go for one night over the weekend! I definitely can't wait to go back to try out more restaurants, watch a Mariners (vs. Blue Jays) game, and finally do the Safeco Field tour.
