9.13.2006

Seattle sightseeing

So the remainder of my trip north from Foster City, CA to Seattle was uneventful unless you count major traffic in Tacoma as an event. So I checked in Friday afternoon with a third leasing manager on this property. Luckily she was the best one yet. She was even more careful with my move in damage inspection than I was. After that was all done, I decided we deserved to spend the rest of the weekend doing minimal move in work and, instead, enjoying the beautiful weather. I decided that, even though I'm not all that familiar with Seattle, I'd use my Internet research skills to play tour guide for the weekend. All in all I'd have to say I did a pretty good job.

That night we headed to the pier and discovered that the highly recommended Crab Pot had no wait. I knew it'd be good because I'd heard all about it from friends. We got in, they put bibs on us, rolled out a sheet of paper on the table and brought us mallets. Before long the waiter came with a huge pot of crab, mussels, clams, corn, shrimp and dumped it on the table. And yup we finished the whole thing. It was AWESOME. We spent the rest of the night roaming Bell Town and the shopping area downtown before heading home to crash. Saturday I took Simon around Green Lake, drove through Fremont and Wallingford, and then stopped at the Ballard Locks to watch the salmon jump out of the water and swim upstream. After that we had to head back home to help my roomate's sister move in some of her stuff. The stolen shopping carts in our garage sure made that an easy task. Still, we celebrated that feat with yet another huge pot of seafood, this time at The Fisherman's Restaurant. After having tried both restaurants, I'd have to say the Crab Pot was the clear winner.

Sunday was a lot of fun. We started with drive to Capitol Hill to visit Bruce Lee's grave then headed over to Pioneer Square to go on the $11 90-minute Underground Tour. Most city tours I know are kinda corny and stupid but this one came highly recommended and I have to say it was one of the best city tours I've gone on. It starts out with a comedic, yet thorough, 25 minute history lesson followed by a tour of the buildings still left under Seattle's streets. If you want to know why there's a city below the streets you'll have to take the tour. I don't want to spoil it. After the tour finished, we headed over to Alki Beach (good suggestion Egan) which is pronounced alk-eye, not alkee as I learned on my last visit. It was nice and toasty in the sun so we sat on a park bench and watched folks play football and volleyball in the sand. We even saw one crazy guy jump into the frigid Puget Sound waters for a swim. We dined at Coyote's on Alki that night. They forgot to bring Simon's drink even after one reminder, the food was mediocre, and service was very very slow. They never did bring out Simon's drink. Oh well, whatever.

So Monday was errand day. Picked up a lamp and some stuff from a Craigslist seller, visited the Telenav Seattle office, went to IKEA, had dinner with a friend, and spent the rest of the evening putting together furniture. Since then I've been constructing furniture and shopping for household stuff non-stop. Rest of the week will be spent getting this apartment furnished and orderly so I can start focussing on school.

Alrighty, time to get back to unpacking. Sorry I have no photos to show. My card reader went missing in the process of moving :(

7 comments:

egan said...

I've heard great things about the Underground Tour as well. I've never done it as a native, but perhaps I should. I do know why there are storefronts underground though, but I won't spoil it for out of town guests.

I'm glad you had fun on Alki. It's a nice place to people watch. The restaurants are so-so over there with one exception. Try the Alki Cafe next time. It's a great place, really good breakfast/lunch menu.

Note: you haven't said it yet, but keep in mind it's Pike Place Market, not Pikes (with an S) Place. You will sound more educated.

Fumbling said...

People really say that? That's almost as annoying as New WestminIster instead of New Westminster.

Anonymous said...

Cool, you can be my tour guide when we come visit seattle.

Ben said...

Wow, you really toured a ton of Seattle! The Underground Tour was pretty awesome when I went ... before 2000, so I imagine it's just as good now. Very interesting stuff.

I loved Seattle, and unfortunately never had much chance (when I was spending half of each week working there) to really tour much of the city and surrounding areas. The Seattle view from Queen Anne is absolutely striking, though.

Robyn said...

ooh, i think i know why the stuff is underground. i want to do that tour next time i am over there.

btw, what program are you in? and you're at UW? my sister goes there. but she is just a wee sophomore.

Fumbling said...

I'm in Communication. http://www.com.washington.edu/Program/Grad/profilesad.html

Robyn said...

ok apparently i didn't know what it was, but thanks to the Internet now I know. i thought it had to do with Chinese immigrants.