Seattle WA

Bremerton, WA - Burien, WA  (Seattle)
5/Jun/24 - 10/Jun/24

Miles Traveled     60
Trip Total          5272
Travel Time       1:22

States visited: FL, GA, AL, MS, LA, TX, NM, AZ, UT, NV, CA, OR, Washington

Another quick and easy drive,  for the first time in several weeks we were back on an interstate.  When we first got on the interstate it felt good, that lasted for about 2 miles, then we hit traffic.  I think I prefer two lane highways over heavy traffic.

With the interstate and heavy traffic comes city life.  Burien Elks is located in downtown Burien and the rv parking is along their parking lot.  They have eight sites with full hookups, we arrived early in the day because the sites are first come first serve.  Fortunately when we arrived there was only one site taken, but most of the time we were there all eight sites were taken.  There are only a couple of campgrounds near Seattle, most of them are much further away, and average $100 per night, the Elks is only $30, what a bargain.  

We started our tour of Seattle by heading to the iconic Pike Place Market specifically we wanted to go the Fish Market .  Pike Place Market opened as a farmers market in 1907, currently it is home to a variety of shops and vendors, this includes antique dealers, comic book stores, art dealers, and small restaurants. The upper street level contains fishmongers, fresh produce stands and craft stalls operating in the covered arcades. There are also over 500 homes located within the market place. Originally they started as low income housing bu tnow they are much sought after housing and far from low income.  Finding the Fish Market on the map was much easier then finding it in person. 

Because the Market Place is built in the side of a hill, a vary steep hill, and it makes navigating very interesting.  Google maps would tell us we arrived,but our destination was no where to be found.  We were on the street and asked for directions to the Fish Market, and the person told us to follow them, we got in an elevator took it several floors up, and we were back on the street level.  How confusing!  Pikes Place Fish Market is where, when a customer orders fish they throw it from the display table to the counter to be wrapped, also all of the employees repeat what ever order is called out.  It is really quite a show, if no customers are ordering fish they will toss the fish around for tips. The other Iconic stop in Pikes Place Market is the Gum Wall.  The Gum Wall is a 50 foot stretch of wall adjacent to the Market Place Theatre, where theatre goers would stick their gum on the wall.  After several attempts to clean the wall, the Market Place Development Authority embraced the "Gum Wall" and now in some places the gum is over fifteen inches deep, in other places names are spelled out in gum.  While gross it is also very interesting.  

After exploring Pikes Market we heading to the Space Needle.  While the walk is only about one mile, it is the mile from hell.  I swear the entire walk was up VERY STEEP hills. Had we known how steep the walk was we would have found a better way to get there.  HOLY COW what an engineering marvel and an spectacular view of Seattle. The Space Needle was is a 605 tall observation tower built in for the 1962 Worlds Fair.  Construction took less than one year, much less time than it would take to get the building permits today.  

We arrived at the Space Needle to find out that we would had to wait ninety minutes before we could go up. (We should have bought the tickets online before we started walking over) It was absolutely worth the wait.  The view of the bay and the city was stunning to say the least.  We were very fortunate that we had a perfect day for going up in the Space Needle, there was not a cloud in the sky and there was not a bit of haze.  Mount Rainer is 58 miles from the Space Needle and we could see it like it was right next to us.  We could also watch the sea planes take off and land from the sea plane base on Union Lake. 

Friday we headed back to Seattle to take a boat tour from downtown Seattle to Union Lake.  Seattle and Elliot Bay are located on the central part of Puget Bay, Union Lake feeds into the bay and is separated from the bay by the Ballard Lock.  While cruising along the Seattle shore line and past the cruise ships was cool, Locking through Ballard lock into the lake was the highlight of the cruise.  The Ballard lock raises the incoming boat traffic 26 feet to the lake.  In addition to raising the boats, the lock also keeps the saltwater from entering the lake.  

While traveling the Great Loop, both Angel & I and Mark & Karen traveled through over 90 locks.  This was a very different perspective we had nothing to do but sit back and watch.  Another big difference was the clearance.  Several of the locks we were side by side with three or four other boats,  and as many as six boats deep in the lock.  The tour we were on filled the entire lock, there was less than six inches of clearance between the boat and the lock walls.   There is a second chamber at the Ballard Lock, but it is much larger and design for much larger vessels.

Leaving the lock and entering the lake, the shores were lined with fishing vessels, houses and every type of vessel you could imagine.  The two most notable vessels we saw were the 150 foot crab  boat  from the TV show The Deadliest Catch, next was the topside of the another crab boat, the 91 foot Northern American.  Just six weeks on ago May 14th the Northern American sank at the dock.  We could see the very topside of the boat and the containment booms surrounding it.  

After passing the comercial docks we came upon the floating homes. Seattle is home to 507 floating homes in four distinct "neighborhoods".  At one time the floating homes were the slums of Seattle, now the floating homes sell for as much as six million dollars.  

Saturday Angel & I headed back to Union Lake to check out the Center for Wooden Boats.  It is a non profit organization dedicated to restoring and persevering the wooden boats of the area.  While it was not the most interesting stop we did spend the day exploring the shores of Union Lake.  We could not get onto the docks to see the floating homes up close but it was still interesting to see them.  One of the problems we saw was the very limited parking.   Between the docks there were several access points that were loaded with people launching kayaks, paddle boards, canoes and anything else they could get out on the water with.  For us the 54 degree water was way to cold to play in!  In Lake Union everyone thought it was perfectly normal  to be playing in the water.  After checking out the floating homes we headed back to the Ballard Lock.  Our goal was to check out the Harbor Seals that like to play at the bottom of the lock's spillway.  Along side the spill way is a fish ladder that the salmon use to return to their spawning grounds, and the seals love a free meal.

Sunday at the recommendation of the guide on the tour boat, we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island.  The tour guide made it seem like the only way to the island was via the ferry, we latter found out you can get there by bridge but from Seattle it is a 3+ hour drive, the ferry is only 30 minutes.  It was worth the ride, but not we expected.  Bainbridge island is know for two things, up until the early 80's  they were one of the largest producers of creosote wood, and in 1965 Pickleball was invented on the island.

After almost a week exploring Seattle, Monday was spent running errands and getting ready to hit the road again. Our next stop is Enumclaw, WA it is only a little over an hour away but it is the gateway to Mt Rainer.