Sunny Seattle Solo

I’ve now made it to Seattle, or as we joke, Loran’s second home. I’m not entirely sure about this rumor they’ve spread that it rains all. the. time. I think it rained overnight once because it was a little grey and there were a few sprinkles one morning. Otherwise, it was completely bluebird. Beautiful! With the hot and humid summer we’ve had, I was completely content to be wearing Capri pants and sometimes a light cardigan. Loved it. Beautiful views, salt water, fresh water, ships, snow capped mountains, a city skyline, friendly people, great fresh food…seriously, loved it.

I had a couple of days to venture around on my own. I covered miles upon miles upon blocks of the city. Not to mention the hills…Loran was busy during the day with his meetings with Amazon.com so I was armed with my camera, a vague built-in sense of direction, some guide books, and my phone’s GPS (just in case). I really didn’t set an agenda up for myself, I was very happy to just wander. I knew I wanted to see the water, see Pike’s Place Market, I was tasked with buying a bottle of wine at a specific wine shop and other than that…I went where the salty breeze led me.

These photos are from my time solo.

We stayed at the fantastic, historic Arctic Club, a DoubleTree property (yay cookies!), that used to be a Gentleman’s Club (no, not *that* kind of gentleman’s club) .

Like a moth to a flame, I’m drawn to this logo…Their City Target was opening July 29 (after my visit, probably for the best). Thursday morning, Loran dropped me off near Pike Place Market on his way to Amazon. Target was handing out free coffee in the little park nearby, so I got my cup, was filmed and photographed doing it (if only they knew…I thought about flashing my Red Card). I was a happy Minnesotan!

Fish Tossing

This photo is funny. Aside from the neat storefront, and their impressive collection of vintage magazines, books, stamps and coins, check out the boy. He was walking out of the store and in that rack happen to be some vintage Playboys. He walked by, put the brakes on, pivoted, glanced around and nearly strained his eyes due to the bugging out. So funny.

Olympic Sculpture Park. I was totally psyched to show the group this neat little beach *I* found…full of drift wood, picturesque, peaceful. I didn’t take into account the tide. When we arrived at sunset, there wasn’t much of a beach, and only the very top of this large piece of driftwood was sticking up out of the water. Oops! 

I was sure to get the requisite photo of the first Starbucks. I don’t even like Starbucks (Caribou!) but I’ve heard they don’t let you get back on the plane to leave if it’s your first visit to Seattle and you don’t have this photo.

As I was purchasing a bottle of wine from Pike and Western Wine Shop, I heard some mumblings about Will Ferrell. Then as I stood in line at Piroshky Piroshky to purchase an authentic Russian piroshky for lunch, I heard Will Ferrell was indeed nearby and serving up coffee at one of the coffee houses. It was easy to find. The lines were insane, in all directions, including up the hill a block and then around the corner a block. Unless it’s a local news anchor, I’m not too easily star struck, so I took my warm meat and cheese piroshky and headed for the bus.

The bus. *sigh* If you ever hear Loran say, “Christy loves public transportation” he’s saying it sarcastically. He’s not very good at being sarcastic, like me, so don’t believe him. I typically loathe public transportation. Except possibly airplanes, and the school bus I rode in high school (I know, a bus in high school! But, I’d been a walker my entire life. The idea of a bus taking me to school was blissful, I didn’t have my license until I was 17 and the school parking lot was a joke). I blame this loathing on living in the suburbs where public transportation was sparse and I got everywhere I needed to go in my mom’s Cutlass Ciera or my dad’s minivan. So to say I’m comfortable finding my own way on public transit is far from true. I’m an excellent map reader, but I just panic and freak out when I realize that reading the map wrong could land me in the Bronx…after midnight (been there…done that). Seriously, my first solo train ride in Connecticut, you’d think I’d walked on the moon, I was so proud of myself. Truth: I went ONE stop, where the train tracks literally ended. I couldn’t have messed it up. The conductor didn’t even charge me for my “ride”. So you can see where this his headed. The first evening we were there, I was to meet Loran near Amazon where we would meet up with his 3M co-worker, and a few of the Amazon guys. From our hotel, I had to catch a bus that was RIGHT OUT FRONT. Then transfer to a trolley. I even had directions on my phone GPS. It was during this venture that I learned the importance of those pesky little letters that sometimes accompany an address (N, S, E, W) apparently they mean the difference from getting to the address where you intended to go and ending up at the same address without the cardinal direction that happens to be where the Dumpsters are stored behind a hospital. Yeah…so, my first ride solo on a bus that wasn’t marked SCHOOL didn’t end so well. Loran saved my crying self and I kind of pulled it together to meet everyone. Kind of. However, I was not going to be bested by Seattle public transit. And in an act of courage that I can’t even explain myself, because it’s not typically like me, I decided I was going to take the bus again from Pike Place Market back to our hotel. I had to prove to myself that I could do it, even if it was just a few blocks on the same street, I had to best the bus. And I did! After spending hours exploring the city, I was safely back in my top rated hotel, piroshky in hand, enjoying cable television and relaxing for a bit before meeting up with Loran prior to dinner.

So, if you haven’t gathered already that I’m not the most confident of travellers, that would be because I’m not entirely confident out in the big world on my own. Parenting: more confident than I should be. In my house: very confident. In the Twin Cities: mostly confident. Outside of the 651/612/763 area code – yikes! (I’m not adding 952 because that is a mythical land where I don’t go often enough to know it exists). My favorite part of just roaming was the freedom and confidence I was feeling. I never felt unsafe, always knew where I was (having landmarks like water, Space Needle, and Columbia Tower helped) and I had a enough taxi money to get me out of a jam (Santiago anyone?). The pride I felt each night as I showed Loran my photos was immense. I was so eager to show him all of the places I’d been, by myself. While I’m a 32 year old who’s lived a highly sheltered life, I’m proud of my little adventures and accomplishments. I may not be as daring and brave as my sister, or really most people, sometimes it does feel nice to step out of my comfort zone.