Seattle, Before and After Orcas

Seattle, Washington, largest city in the Pacific Northwest, was named for a Native American chief of the Suquamish and Duwamish Indian tribes. He is known for a famous speech he gave in Seattle in the mid 1800's, in which he made a plea asking the white man to respect the Indian's values and particularly their connection with the natural environment. So we may consider him to be among the first to have spoken about giving proper care to Mother Earth.


We passed through Seattle twice on our way to and from Orcas Island. The first time, in mid-April, we spent two nights in Seattle. Unfortunately, we chose the two nights of the year that it snowed.


Brrr. This is a long way from the beaches of California and yes we seriously considered packing up and heading south again!



However, not only was Orcas calling us over, but Seattle has a strong attraction of its own because it is the home of my beautiful niece, Courtney, a student at the University of Washington. I call Courtney my practice grandchild because she arrived in our family between the time my children were young and when they had children of their own.


My first night in Seattle, Courtney took me to her favorite restaurant, Chiso's, with Japanese cuisine.


Here I am eating raw fish and brown rice and the honest truth is that it was very tasty.


Sunday morning we had breakfast at a charming little cafe with her friend John. It turned out to be a very popular place with a long enough wait that we could sit and watch the snow melt. Breakfast was wonderful. Over the years I have joked that the secret of being known as a good cook is to keep your guests waiting long enough that they are REALLY hungry, then everything tastes marvelous. The food here would have tasted great even without the wait!


The next morning, I wanted to go to Pike's Market, so we ventured down to the waterfront and the crowds. Even though it was a chilly Sunday morning, there were lots of people out enjoying the sunshine after the snow.


I wondered if his hands would stay warm enough to play for long. He did seem to be having a good time, and was not the only street musician we saw.


Across the street from Pike's Market is the world'sfirst Starbucks. If you have been following my travels, you know that I am always thrilled to find a Starbucks and I will confess that I have never had a day without a ready-to-use Starbucks card in my pocket. Although I claim to no longer drink caffeine, those decaf latte's have my number!


Well, I skipped the latte at the original Starbucks because the line was incredibly long. I can say, Been there, Didn't do that, to having coffee at the original Starbucks.


We went instead to a great little coffee shop in the University District where kids actually hang out to study and use their computers. It was called Zoka.


A highlight of the afternoon was spending a couple of hours at the University of Washington bookstore. I adore bookstores and college bookstores are the very best. I am a great browser so I walked out with as much money in my pocket as I walked in with, but I was shocked to see the prices on college textbooks. Some of them cost more than my first quarter's tuition when I started college back in ... well, way back when.


Coming through Seattle after leaving Orcas, I got a few shots of Puget Sound and West Seattle.

My niece was my tour guide once more and this time we went to Green Lake to sun ourselves in the warmer day.


At one time, Green Lake was a popular swimming area and now is used by crew teams for practice and races and has a great walking/jogging/skating track around the perimeter.

You can see the Space Needle off in the distance.


And of course it has the requisite wild life of any decent park. Chorro spent the afternoon napping in the RV, and I didn't have the heart to tell him we were stalked by this squirrel.

Even Chorro knows that tomorrow is a new day.