Seattle

July 18

We flew to Seattle from Oakland Airport, and it took two hours to get to Diana's in Ballard, humping our stuff through the light rail and bus system, but this is part of getting to know a place. The view from the bus windows was not encouraging.

Diana's place had a crew of very nice cats and kittens and some mildly fussy hens in a big ramshackle garden. It was great to land there in the evening and rise there in the morning-- a good anchor.

Seattle is beautifully sited: it is a water town, with Mount Ranier in the distance: almost like a movie set, with snow on the peaks glowing in the evening light. But overall, Seattle seemed a bit down at the heels, but maybe the gems were a block away from wherever I was: I know this is possible. Also, it is a living city. But even on the sunny and lovely days we had, it lacked appeal for me. We s the saw the standard tourist things; Pike's Place Market did have produce and fish, but it was nothing compared to a market in a smaller place like Bayonne or San Sebastian, or anyplace in Europe; and it was a tourist thing. At 9:00 am it was nearly deserted, just starting to gear up. But we did stumble across the Penzey's store and I got some very nice cinnamon, different and more lush and smooth than what I had at home.

The international center had a huge Japanese store with groceries and housewares: I bought a novel garlic press, metal and shaped like a banana peel, with holes punched in the belly: you rock it over the garlic to mince it. Elegant design! And oriental seeds to give the squirrels and deer a greater level of sophistication than they now possess, next summer. There were all kinds of wonderful silicone objects-- little molds for rice cakes and sandwich cutters, cups, spoons and scrapers, and quite a variety of inscrutable instruments. There were many unusual veggies and large masses of ground meat molded to look like cats or other things that were dreadful, considering. But there was not the street scene or feeling of vitality that such neighborhoods in toher cities have. Were we missing something, or slipped into some other dimension?

We took the monorail to the space needle. This gave a nice overhead view of the city and landed us at a station in the middle of a park, with the space needle, a science fiction/music museum, The Chihuli glass museum, which had amazing glass sculptures and objects, a sort of midway selling snacks like in Chapultapec Park, various other features. But the museums were $20+/person and for a very focused exhibit range like glass sculpture, or Spock's costume, it was a bit much: many exhibits were closed. But the science museum was clad in magenta mirror tiles, which certainly had a dramatic effect.

Peter and I, reflected

 Chittenden Locks had underground windows on the locks which enabled one to see salmon (as big as your arm!) migrating, working up the steam to jump the steps. It was implausible that such big fish culd move through so little water, upstream.Adjacent was a small but lovely arboretum with winding paths enabling one to be instantly out of sight. Garden spaces are the balm of cities. Discovery Park was a place I know we didn't begin to explore, but the bus ride would on through residential areas for a long time, so we got a feel for how houses and neighborhoods look, similar and different to Charlottesville's.

We spent a lot of time on the train up and down between downtown and the place we were staying, watching the changing aspects of the city. But I felt either like a tourist in the pretend Seattle or  a person in a place that was unrelated and meaningless to me-- a city that lived and breathed in some other dimension somehow.

This seems . . . not very interesting. Maybe Vancouver would have been a better choice after all..

Soon enough, we picked up our car and hit the road for the Olympic peninsula.