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My family took a summer trip to Seattle, in Washington state, for 6 days and 5 nights. The first three days we spent in Seattle.

On Wednesday July 27th, we attended a Mariners game at Safeco Field. The Detroit Tigers were in town, and the Mariners did pretty well with them.

The following morning, we went to the Space Needle. What a sight! The ride up was amazing, as was the view from the observation deck. We then took the Monorail into downtown Seattle. From there, we went to the public market at Pike Place; the market was huge - it was four levels! The top level, at street level, was packed with local produce stands, fish counters, and artists selling their work. Ramps led to lower levels. The lower levels had quite an assortment of stores, selling anything from jewelry to books to toys to clothes…it was amazing. From there, we walked through downtown Seattle, probably about 15 blocks, to Safeco Field. Along the way, we saw the building that the TV show Fraisier is filmed in.

The second game we went to had the Mariners against the Cleveland Indians. And the Mariners got clobbered…It was almost the opposite of the previous night. The Indians seemed to hold their own quite well. I was so glad to actually go to live games - it’s so different actually being there, in person, than just watching it on TV. Being there is, quite simply, a great experience.

I had been to see the Mariners in Seattle previously, but when they were still playing in the old Kingdome. So the Mariners were nothing new, but the stadium was. I would have liked to see the roof open or close on the field, but it never happened; that roof is suposed to be an impressive piece of engineering. But oh well.

Friday, still in Seattle, we went to the Woodland Zoo, which was very impressive. A huge variety of animals, from almost all over the world. I liked the way they were divided by region, so there was a tropical rainforest section, a temperate rainforest section, an African savannah, and a north-North American section (animals from the northern part of the continent, ones that are natural here in BC and down in Washington). The place was HUGE - the outer track was probably a few kilometers, and there were numerous side tracks we could go off on. We spent the whole afternoon there, about 6 hours. It was a very hot day, and it was early in the aftenoon when we started, so a lot of the animals were sleeping, or were otherwise not very active, which was a bit of a disappointment in some places…Some we didn’t see at all.

On Saturday, we left Seattle and drove down to Mount St. Helens. That was another high point of the trip. We went all the way to the Johnston Ridge Observatory, which was not very far from St. Helens. The day was clear enough that we could see a small plume of sulfur coming from the peak (shown in the photo). I learned at the visitor’s centre that most days it’s too hazy to see that plume, so we were there at a good time. The devastation of the area immediately around the volcano was incredible, but further off, vegetation was starting to creep back - although not all that much, even 20 years later.

Saturday night, we stayed in Olympia, the state capital. We drove into town and went by the Capitol building which was very reminiscent of the Parliament Buildings in Victoria because of the large domed roof.

Sunday was spent in Port Townsend, a small town at the west of the entrance to Puget Sound. The small-town atmosphere was very nice. We took a walking tour of the nearby residential areas, where we observed a number of beautiful old hourses, built about the time the transcontinental railroad was under construction. Here’s a picture of one of them. I like the detail on the roof; I’m not too sure about the colour scheme though.

Monday, August 1st was a holiday for us - BC Day. So we had one more day. We looked around Port Townsend a little more, then drove to Port Angeles, in north Washington state. It’s right on the coast, and about 20 miles straight across the, well, strait from Victoria. We spent time looking around Port Angeles, which is another relatively small city like Port Townsend. But very nice. We were there on a good day - there was an annual paddling competition for various native Americans - some were from Washington, some from BC, and some from as far as Alaska. Quite a big affair, quite fun to watch.

We got home from Port Angeles via the M.V. Coho, a car and passenger ferry running between the two cities. The ride was very nice, and it was a great pleasure to be watching from the front deck when the ferry entered our own inner harbour. Note in the second picture the Empress Hotel at left, and the domed roof of the Parliament Buildings at right.

We were quite happy to be home, but it had been a wonderful trip. I hope we can do something like it next summer. Definitely the baseball, and maybe even visit a different state. There’s a lot of possibilities!

If you want to see more pictures from the trip, I have added a number of photos to my image gallery…

Pictures from around Seattle

Woodland Zoo

Mount Baker and Mount St. Helens