Seattle – Day One: Harbor Cruise & Space Needle

Back In The Groove

I wake up at my UK waking up time, which is not good because it means I’ve hardly slept. I try and get back to sleep but am unsure exactly how much I do sleep until I finally get up at 7 am. Hope I don’t crash and burn later in the day…

There was no time to organise a “7-11” breakfast so as I often do on the first morning, I breakfast in the hotel and sod the cost. I have house-made granola, yoghurt and fruit and all for a very reasonable price. A pleasant surprise but I won’t be in here tomorrow. The breakfast was however huge. So much so that I only eat half of it and I doggy-bag the rest for in-room tomorrow.

Pre-trip, I had found a grocery store a block down where I could buy stuff. I have time after breakfast to walk to Bartell Drugs to buy breakfast for Thursday, juice for then and tomorrow plus some batteries for my alarm clock, which had gone flat. I don’t bother checking everything pre-trip because I know I can buy stuff locally if required. Like now.

An Argosy Harbor Cruise

Leaving the hotel just before 10 am, I start to walk to Argosy Cruises at Pier 55 for a Harbor Cruise around Elliott Bay. It turns out to be a good trip on the water, I like seeing places from that perspective, it gives you another viewpoint. The crew however put on a cod-pirate routine that probably goes down well with the little kids on board but I’m afraid I could have done without it.

It’s a good introduction to Seattle. The commentary is entertaining and educating on many aspects of the city. Recommended and worth doing.

Next up is MoPOP, the Museum of Pop Culture. This is located at the Seattle Center where the Space Needle is. Just before I left the UK I found out about the free Waterfront Shuttle bus that will take me from Pier 55 to the Center. But there was no timetable, just “every 25 minutes”.

As I disembark the boat, I spot the Shuttle down the street. I run to the roadway, luckily I can cross on a red light and then manage to dodge traffic in the other lane, just in front of the bus. As I sprint, I wave frantically at the bus in the hope the driver sees me and stops to wait, about a 100 years up the road. Thankfully he does see me and stop. I effusively thank him as I climb on board, nearly out of breath. Phew!

On arrival I wander around the Seattle Center to get my bearings. I’d identified the Armory Food & Event Hall as a place for lunch, as it had many eateries inside. Once inside, I have a Subway sub for lunch.

MoPOP – Museum of Pop Culture

Time for MoPOP. But where is the entrance? There are no signs indicating where it is. I end up walking all the way around the building twice trying to find it. Eventually I do find it but the signage is non-existent.

Post-visit inside, what to make of MoPOP. It’s a mess, basically. There’s no structure or flow to the place. It’s a mish-mash of spaces with exhibits that are so poorly signed that you don’t know if you’ve missed something or not. There is no paper map or guide to pick up either, nor anything on the walls. When you do find something there’s no guidance to “start here” or go this way around. You end up almost walking every space twice just to make sure you’ve seen everything.

It started as the Experience Music Project and I thought it was mainly pop music based. But not today, that’s just a small part of it. What the hell is ‘pop culture’ anyway? There’s exhibits on Jimi Hendrix, science fiction, horror movies and video games (and more), the latter of which I just found completely confusing as to what the point of it was. I don’t really recommend MoPOP.

Space Needle

Space Needle

So onto the Space Needle, which is next door, towering up into the sky. I’m about an hour early for my timed entrance but I manage to change it at the ticket office. I guess they’re not that busy, thankfully. At the top, on a nice and clear sunny day, there are excellent views all around Seattle. There really is not much more to say than that. It’s well done and great to look out on the city and Elliott Bay. Click this link to watch a video of Elliot Bay as seen from the Space Needle’s revolving observation deck.

The Needle opened in 1962 for the World’s Fair. The floor beneath the outdoor observation desk was a revolving restaurant but this closed about 6 years ago. Over the course of the next year or so the area was renovated. The space reopened in August 2018 as the Loupe, an indoor observation deck with a revolving glass floor. It takes 45 minutes for the observation deck to do a full rotation, so it’s pretty slow. The views outside are of course just the same as the outdoor deck but you can see straight down in places as the glass floor rotates. This doesn’t add a great deal IMHO but some folks seemed to think this was a nice gimmick from some conversations I overheard.

Space Needle ticket

It did of course bring back memories of my visit to the Sky Deck in Chicago. This time around I didn’t bother trying to overcome any mental tribulations and just avoided stepping on the glass panels… 🙂

Monorail ticket

Back down on solid ground there’s one last adventure today on another World’s Fair relic – the Seattle Center Monorail. It runs for just under a mile from Seattle Center to Westlake Center. Which is highly convenient to return me to my hotel next door. The journey only takes about two minutes. The Monorail is a bit of an anachronism in 2023 but it is part of history and just a bit of fun. It was good to see it even running, over 60 years after it was built.

On the Seattle monorail

“Bring On The Night” *

After a refresh back at the hotel I look into options for the evening. None of the music clubs I researched pre-trip have got music on tonight, so that’s out. As it turned out, none were near the hotel either so I’d need to Uber or Lyft. But what on earth has happened to those two services? Looking up prices for a ride to the two nearest clubs showed very expensive prices, about $14-15 for a one-way trip of about a mile. That’s outrageous! So I may not have gone anyway at those prices.

The other issue was the clubs were spread out all over the city. There was no ‘music zone’ as such. There were also not that many clubs anyway, something I found strange for a city with Seattle’s music history. Plus none of the clubs advertised their music calendar more than a few weeks in advance – which was also strange – so trying to find a decent hotel near a club was difficult. There weren’t any. And which club anyway if I didn’t know what music might be on? So I chose a hotel then had to play it by ear when in town. Like now.

But as per tonight, there’s no live music in Seattle so I need something else to do. I look for a bar locally, conscious of Todd’s dire warnings last night. I find the Elephant and Castle about 6 minutes walk away. Describing itself as an English pub and restaurant, it also serves traditional US bar food. Reviews are good as well.

The Elephant and Castle

I leave the hotel around 7.30 pm. On the way out I ask the doorman about the homeless “issue” and the level of threat. He says that almost none of them will bother you, but don’t make eye contact and if anyone does talk to you to ignore them and quickly walk on.

I do of course keep a careful watch out, but on my way to the pub, I don’t see a single vagrant anywhere. Inside, it’s quite a busy place. At the bar I sample a few IPA beers and choose one. I order wings for dinner. There is a baseball game ending on TV as I eat and drink. The wings are good, just enough for me tonight.

It was noisy when I arrived but after the baseball finished it quietened down as some people left. But then two large groups of folks arrived and the noise level around the bar sky-rocketed. I want to get my diary started early this trip but it’s too loud for me to concentrate on it sitting at the bar. One lady however asks – shouts at – me if I know where the rest rooms are. So I tell her but then she stays to chat with me for a few minutes after hearing my accent. She says the groups are in town for a conference. Not sure what of, but I think it’s IT related as I overhear one guy talking IT-stuff. The lady then remembers the need to pee so she toddles off.

I opt to move away from the bar to a quieter table, and get my diary started. Just after 10.30 pm I pay my check and leave the still noisy conference go-ers to drink the night away. Again there’s no sign of vagrants on the streets. Maybe Todd was just unlucky where he walked. After a bit more diary in my hotel room, it’s time for lights out.

Four years on I feel I’m still adjusting to life on my own “on the road” again, even though I’m not driving yet. Anyway, another day in Seattle tomorrow before I pick the car up on Thursday.

* Bring On The Night by The Police