A Lockdown Virtual Journey (North America) Day 16 – 18
Days 16/17/18
Each day in Seattle started pretty much alike, shower, shave, dress, cup of tea for Chris then breakfast. We all settled into a routine of breakfast at about eight in the hotel. We had a quiet time together and then made a rough plan for the day. Which mostly consisted of a trip out, light lunch, another visit somewhere, hotel and then out for dinner and on one occasion we all went to the cinema before dinner.
We three needed to sort out a few things before heading off to Alaska. We had to garage the Harley and the Charger. Call our insurers to check that all we were doing would be OK with them. Slightly more complicated for Pete as we would be driving down through western Canada. Having checked via google the weather, we decided we needed clothing suitable for temperatures from around freezing at Prudhoe Bay (a possible/probable destination) to the current low twenties in Seattle. We also needed to check with our insurers that we would have valid health care.
We called and they took note and sent via email letters confirming our cover for both health and motor insurance would apply to our time in Alaska and Canada. Of course there was an extra charge.
There is no shortage of things to do or places to visit in Seattle. It has a reputation similar to Manchester England that it always rains. It does get a similar amount of rain. Manchester’s is spread out over the year but Seattle gets very little from June till October. While we were there I recall one shower and as the sun was shining before and after it soon dried up. It actually felt quite refreshing.
The parking of the Harley and the Charger turned out to be very easy. The hotel was happy to let us park up till we returned. Again there was a cost but the vehicles would be undercover and would be valeted before our return.
The next thing to sort out was our clothing. Jeans trainers and tee shirts would not be enough up near the arctic circle. Well not for me anyway! We used the hotel laundry to have our stuff washed and pressed. Then we went in search of a clothes shop. I’d had a Columbia light jacket years ago. I said that I thought it good quality stuff. We walked down the sea front to Pine Street turning left onto 3rd Avenue, There was a huge car park on the upper levels with shops on the ground floor. The Columbia store was among them. We each bought a waterproof plus a fleece jacket and a couple of hoodies. Pete and Chris went for boots and I bought a pair of walking shoes. We each picked up several pairs of thick woollen walking socks. A Beane each and we thought we would be warm enough. Not wanting to look like triplets we had chosen different colours to each other.
The trips out were interesting to most of us. It is difficult to find something that we would all enjoy but we were mostly accommodating of each other. ‘The Museum of Flight’ and ‘The Future of Aviation Centre’ Museums were of great interest interest to us three guys while maybe not so interesting to the ladies. The aquarium visit was enjoyed by five of us but again Pete just seemed to tolerate the visit.
‘The Great Wheel’ was an experience we all enjoyed as was the monorail. We all enjoyed ‘China Town’ Chris S and myself the food especially. Most of us enjoyed most of ‘The Seattle Art Museum’. I guess art really is in the eye of the beholder.
Pete especially enjoyed the ‘Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room.’ All except me enjoyed the tasting, I enjoyed the smell of roasting coffee. . It’s not that I don’t like coffee it is just that I am not allowed to drink coffee.
Seattle is a friendly and welcoming city. There is lots of touristy things to do, if that is what you enjoy. I think we all enjoyed seeing the sights but we also enjoyed just walking about. We met folk and chatted, some were ‘high flyers’ relaxing over a coffee and others were down at heel with just enough money for a coffee and a comfortable sit down. Others we met as we walked through parks or shops or as we sat and enjoyed the fresh air. I am becoming more aware that Pete, Chris S and the ladies find it easier to engage others in chat than I do. I enjoy talking with ‘new’ people but I am often content to let others chat and just people watch. I find people fascinating particularly some of the things they do. A for instance. A group of people approach a lights controlled road crossing. They all pause at the kerb side but one darts out across the road and all followed. You would have had to be an Olympic sprinter to have gotten across before the lights said ‘do not cross’. The waiting drivers seemed tolerant and waited some more. Young and not so young couples walking some easy in their togetherness and others very aware of others around them and shying away from showing affection.
Our trip to the cinema (movie theatre) was memorable although I cannot recall the title of the film we saw. I think it was the Oscar winner from South Korea, quite violent and sinister. The cinema was named ‘Cinerama’ and had opened in 1963 about the time of the ‘world Fair’. The sound during the film was amazing.
We usually took lunch at the same place ‘Mr West’s cafe bar’. Not the sort of breakfast we Brits were used to, but an interesting and tasty menu to work through. We all seemed to enjoy the food.
Each evening was a different eatery. Seattle is renowned for it’s sea food restaurants. The standard of cooking in each was top notch. I was also impressed with the standard of service in the places we ate. Each worker seemed to be treated with respect and dignity. All from the Chefs through to the cleaners. All were counted as important to the success of the restaurant. They all seemed to work very hard.
Saturday morning arrived and the usual routine was followed. This was the day the ladies would fly back to Heathrow and we three guys would board a ship for Alaska. The Ladies flight back to Heathrow was scheduled to depart just after midday from Tacoma airport. It was with American Airlines and there would be a short stop in Chicago. Hopefully they and their luggage would arrive early morning and be home in Banbury around midday Sunday. Us men would be catching a ferry from Bellingham at six pm and arriving in Whittier at six am on Thursday.
The first thing was to settle our bills and store Pete, Chris S and my luggage till we three picked it after the airport trip. Pete and I went down to the garage and drove our vehicles up and parked near the hotel lobby. Jolander and Jeans cases went into the back of the Ford and Chris’s into the Charger. Satnav set, Chris and I followed the Ford. The trip to the airport didn’t take very long and the parking was easy to access.
We made our way into the departures area. Passports were checked. The cases were tagged and sent onto the system that would eventually deliver them into the hold of the aircraft. Hopefully the hold of the aircraft they would be on.
A coffee and coke quickly grabbed a table found and we huddled around it. Prayers and blessings were spoken, drinks drunk and then hugs exchanged. We three men watched our wives pass through security and disappear into the departure lounge.
It was with some sadness that we made our way to the pay machines and then our cars. We made our way back to the hotel. Our luggage was mostly stored in the trunk/boot of the Charger, small cases went into the Ford. I drove the Charger back into the garage and parked alongside the Harley. Chris and I had to leave a key with the receptionist keeping the spare with us.
We boarded the Ford. Pete decided that on this leg of the journey he would drive. Chris sat alongside him and I stretched out in the back. The satnav was set for the ferry terminal at Bellingham. The journey time was shown as an hour thirty. It would take longer as we would stop for lunch somewhere. We drove out of the Marriott car park and headed south.
We drove for about half a mile and turned left then another left followed not long after by a right. Soon we were filtering onto the I5and heading north. North to Alaska. I found a song by ‘Canned Heat’ titled ‘On the road again’. It seemed appropriate as we headed through Seattle. The I5 passed under lots of fly overs and through some tunnels. I like that the flyovers all seemed to have hanging flower beds. It broke up the harshness of the concrete. And there was a lot of concrete!
There were high walls to our right which obscured our view in that direction. To our left were skyscrapers which we could view across the sunken I5 running south. The concrete to our right lost it’s redeeming features and became bare. The views to our left became more industrial and low rise. There were roads heading of in all directions and others joining ours from all directions. In amongst this spaghetti tangle of roads we crossed a bridge and to our right I could see ‘House Boats’ of the ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ kind.
The concrete sides of the road gave way to grass and shrubs slopes. This in turn gave way to a more open landscape with lots of tall pines. I glimpsed a golf course through the trees to our right. The road looked like it needed some tender loving care. There were cracks, albeit small, everywhere. There was a lot of work going on alongside the road. The grey concrete sides walls to the road re-emerged. The eye was attracted to the tall pines behind and the greenery hanging over the walls.
The Ford was comfortably eating up the miles. The conversation was easy and consisted of mainly silly banter about the boat trip. I think we were all missing our wives but none of us was being explicit about it. A touch of mild panic when Pete asked Chris and me where our passports were. We would probably need them handy when boarding the ferry but then maybe not.
We passed a huge (grey) building with the name ‘community Transit’. There was some speculation about what that might mean. It looked like a multi story car park – so maybe it was like park and ride with the parking undercover. Then we spotted what looked to be a rail station between the two sides of the highway. Soon after we realised that the grey walls had gone.
Chris got a little excited as a motor cyclist roared past and he gleefully informed us it was a ‘Triumph’! We passed clusters of what looked like blocks of flats but were probably budget hotels. Chris reminded us that we probably needed to eat.
A place named Everett was coming up and and a quick google search proclaimed it had lots of places to eat. Chris being more of an eater than Pete or me opted for ‘Noodle Nation’. Sounded good so the Satnav was reset. We soon left the I5 at exit 193. We took a left under the interstate then immediately right. North for about a hundred and fifty yards then a left. (Satnavs can be so useful!) We pulled into the petrol station forecourt and the Ford was filled. Not seeing and sign of ‘Noodle Nation’ Pete asked the teller in the garage. Following his directions we drove the thirty or so feet and parked up and then entered the eatery.
Outside and inside it looked plain but clean and functional. We were greeted and seated. The menu was over the servery. Chris went for a ‘Dirty South’, Pete a ‘Tokyo Drift’ and I had a ‘Living La Vida Loca’. Chris and I had a coke a cola each and Pete had a large strong coffee with cold milk on the side. The food looked great and tasted as good as it looked. I do like eastern Asian food. Well mostly.
The food eaten and drinks drunk we paid our bill and returned to the Ford. The Satnav was set and it neatly directed us to a left, right, left, right and back onto the I5 north. Soon after joining the road north we crossed the Snohomish River. Quite wide but not as big as some we had seen. Chris got excited as another motor cycle roared past this time a Ninja – a Kawasaki I think.
We drove past Boat yards and Timber yards along a mostly flat road forested on both sides. There were occasional places of industry and residential housing. We passed a huge Honda Bike towing a trailer tent. Then a selection of bike and car dealerships at Marysville heading towards Arlington. Soon passed those we crossed another river. Going north across a modern concrete bridge and on the south bound carriageway a metal framed bridge. There’s was more interesting to look at. We passed exits for reservations usually followed by signage for casinos. The road was undulating but with the power of the Ford all was taken in its stride, We passed a sign that informed us that Mount Vernon was ten miles away and Vancouver ninety one miles north. We would be on a ship when we passed Vancouver going north.
Pete was tempted as we passed a sign for Bertensen Winery. He resisted and we continued north. As we came through more forest we could see mountains to our left. The road transitioned from four lanes to three and now to two. We were also restricted to sixty five mph a limit Pete stuck to.
Back to grey walls as we drove through Mount Vernon. The grey walls disappeared and there was a river to our left and we saw trains to our right. A short while later we drove across a bridge as it crossed a stretch of water. The road was straight north on the left a Harley Davidson franchise and on the right signs to an Indian reservation and the Cascade Mountains. On either side of the road there were low rise shopping or light industry. Pete had seen a sign that seventy but trucks sixty. We were doing seventy. Soon the buildings were behind us and there was what looked to be good farm land on either side of the road.
Chris read a sign on the side of the road ‘Skagit Casino and Resort. The fun starts here’. Pete commented ‘The fleecing does. and Bellingham is just sixteen miles to go’.
We were now driving through woods. Not just pine but a variety of deciduous trees. Through the trees we could see water. We were about six or so miles to Bellingham. Pete who was paying more attention to road signs reduced our speed to sixty. We left the I 5 to the right and got to a junction. Pete did really well to get us through the maze of signs and over the 5 and onto the ‘Fairhaven Parkway’. Which soon changed into WA11. We passed through housing areas that transitioned into building that heralded more the centre of town rather than the outskirts. We or rather the Satnav found Harris Avenue and we followed the satnav and the signs to the Ferry docks. We parked in front of a lovely looking brick building and went to find directions as to how to get on the boat.
It worked out to be very simple. We three could drive on when the car was called from the line we were told about. Or Pete could drive the vehicle on and Chris and I could board as walk on passengers. We got ourselves two coffees and a coke and found some seating.
After a bit of a chat we decided we would all board the boat in the Ford. I know that boats aren’t very big but felt it might be better to stick together until we all know where the cabin, dining areas are.
Back in the Ford we went to the spot we were directed to and waited to be called forward. About an hour later the lane we were in started to move towards the boat. There seemed to be a lot of vehicles to get on a not very big boat. They obviously knew what they were doing because we and all the other thirteen vehicles managed to get safely parked aboard. We followed the signs to the pursers office. Pete showed our tickets and we were given three keys to our cabin. Each of trailing our small cases, we followed the signage to find our cabin. When we did find it – it wasn’t very large There were four bunks and a tiny bathroom but swinging a cat would have been impossible. After a little checking on who gets out to the loo most of a night The bunks were allocated.
Our luggage stowed away we decided to take an exploratory walk around the vessel. We found the shop, bar and restaurant fairly quickly. Then did a wander around the decks. It was during our wander that the boat left the dock to commence our journey to Whittier. We spontaneously broke into a rendition of ‘North to Alaska’ unfortunately the boat turned south! Oh well, back to the restaurant.
The dinning area was functional the food fairly basic but very tasty and inexpensive. After dinner we went to the observation lounge. Chris disappeared and came back with a drink each. It felt good to be able to relax and enjoy the scenery as we sailed.
The drink, the hum of the boats engines and the comfort of the seating certainly helped one relax. After a couple of hours we decided to take a turn around the deck before heading to bed. I was amazed to see tent city on ‘aft’ decking. Loads of folk standing/sitting around chatting.
We made our way to our cabin and settled down for the night. I was wondering if we would see orcas or even humpback whales tomorrow. Four and a quarter day to go to Whittier.
-oo0oo-
SAM – Seattle Art Museum, Asian Art Museum & Olympic Sculpture Park
seattle_roastery_tours_events_brochure_july_2020 (starbucks.com)
Seattle’s Flying Theater | An Aerial Adventure | Wings Over Washington
https://mrwestcafebar.com The place for lunch.