Monday, April 18, 2016

Five Days in Seattle


Wednesday, April 13, 2016:

We were up bright and early as Laurie graciously drove me to LAX for a flight up to Seattle that over the course of five days would see me visit old friends, speak about life in EuroBall to Seniors at the University of Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran University, attend the University of Washington's annual Football Coaches Clinic and partake of much of the fine dining that the Queen City of the Pacific Northwest has to offer.

It would also be a bit of a nostalgia trip for me as I first arrived at the UW campus as a sophomore JC transfer in the month of August, 1966 . . . that's almost FIFTY years ago now!?!?!?

Recently, in an attempt to further improve the Seattle mass transit scene, the existing light rail system was extended all the way to having a stop at the University of Washington's Husky Stadium. This particular line starts at the SeaTac Airport so I decided to give it a shot.

The time it took to walk from the airplane to the SeaTac light rail station was only 12 minutes. Trains leave every ten minutes and the ride from SeaTac to the University of Washington stop only took 34 minutes.

 Fourteen stops from SeaTac
to the U of W

Nice Clean Car

After all, I have to get back into a mass transit frame of mind for my upcoming stay in Stockholm, Sweden.

 If that is Husky Stadium in the
background, then this must be . . .

. . . my stop

From the light rail station, it was only an easy ten minute walk to our friend Mark Johnson's home on the Montlake Cut that would serve as my base of operations.

Mark's first surprise for me was lunch at a great spot near his home called The Ram. The real surprise was that we were joined by another great UW friend, Jon Kadletz.

We had so much fun reminiscing that I completely forgot to get the waitress to take a picture of us.

 At the local QFC Market,
Spain is REY!

Mark had a business meeting in the afternoon, so I asked him to drop me off downtown to do a bit of exploring.

The Pike Place Market is
a Seattle MUST!

Inviting Brewery but . . .

. . . I opted for a coffee instead

Of course they have this in the
Pike Place Market

I have been led to believe that they serve other worldly grilled cheese sandwiches

Pete Rosé?

Our grandson Jacob tends
to be Bohemian

I opted to walk South along First Street towards Seattle's original neighborhood, Pioneer Square, and to the two stadiums that house the NFL Seahawks and MLB Mariners.

And more coffee was needed

This was a wonderful tour
when we took it in 1969

Strong looking building

Havana Cigars?
Five cents?

And they have a view!

 Smart cars, smart phones, smart
bombs and now a smart building

Century Link Field Reflection

 Our granddaughter Mary
is nicknamed Beba

 Not today . . .

For dinner we drove through Seattle's Fremont District on our way to the Ballard district for dinner.

Yes, the Fremont district has
a statue of Vladimir Lenin

Doesn't your city?

BURGERS!

Why here you ask?

 Well, that mound of BACON
next to the grill swayed us

Their blue cheese-bacon burger was COLOSSAL!!!

I will soon have further tales on the remaining four days of this trip posted to this blog. I need to do this to keep Paul Sabolic blogpost hungry.

Reading Is FUNdamental


Another author recommended to me by Mike D'Antuono, this book covered the 1963 JFK assassination in . . . Chicago.

Mike has hooked me yet again on another series of historical novels it appears. 

Fascinating read.

No comments: