1) nighttime from our suite in Seattle

This past weekend was British Columbia Day which means it is a long weekend. It also coincided with the garish, horrific spectacle that is Vancouver’s Pride Weekend. Being such, we did what any self-respecting gay lads would do – we left the city. My only advice to those enamoured by pride festivities – the parade in particular – is this, found on a sign in Seattle.

2) advice for pride paraders courtesy of Seattle

We opted to drive to Seattle this trip and enjoy the scenery. Our goal, threefold:

3) shop; 4) eat; 5) see [this is Mt. Rainer taken from our room at the Bellevue Westin]

We were very successful in all three goals!

In a way, this was a trip of mountains as each night we had a view of either Mt. Baker or Mt. Rainer. Mt Baker (3286m high) is 60 odd kilometers from Vancouver and can be seen from pretty much anywhere in the city – I see it each morning from my office window. Mt. Baker is the one of  the snowiest places on earth. Mt. Rainer (4392m high) is 80 odd kilometers south of Seattle and is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, and it is on the Decade Volcano list. For perspective, Grouse Mountain that dominates Vancouver to the north is 1200m high and Whistler Moutain is 2181m high.

In another thought, the Seattle/Bellevue/Tacoma area is so immersed in all things Dale Chihuly that sightings of his artwork have become ubiquitous. Sadly so. We also purposefully visited to see the Eero Saarinen exhibit at the Nordic Heritage Museum and – of course – the Museum of Glass in Tacoma.

And all this plus it was 92F during our stay! Unbelieveable!

6) dawn from our room at the Sheraton, Guildford; 7) Mt Baker from our room at Sheraton, Guildford

8 & 9) breakfast (very) early in Bellingham at Horseshoe Cafe

10) the historic Bellingham National Bank; 11) heading into the Horseshoe

12) the entrance to the Saarinen exhibit

13) the famous ‘Womb Chair’ (in middle); 14) Saarinen’s even more famous ‘Tulip Chairs’

15) did you know who designed the Arch in St. Louis? …. this is his original drawing …yep, Saarinen again. He also design Dulles Airport in Washington, DC; 16) if you were an immigrant into the US at the turn of century, you would have been asked these questions

17) the Nordic Heritage Museum; 18) the Museum of Glass in Tacoma

19) the Chihuly fountain out front; 20) inside the glass studio workshop

21) you can watch glass artists working here; 22) Chihulys

23) more Chihulys; 24) these look like rice grains to me … those bases are also hand blown

25) the Tacoma Dome from the museum; 26) Chihulys in the Bridge of Glass

27) more Chihulys in the Bridge of Glass

28 & 29) G wanders along the Bridge of Glass

30 & 31) our room at the Westin Bellevue

32) dawn from our room at the Westin … you can see Mt Rainer above to the right of the construction crane

33 & 34) of course a visit to Top Pot Doughnuts

35) Bellevue is the city that a small company called Microsoft built; 36) what the heck is LV up to here?

37) big balls in Bellevue City Park; 38) G finds the Skybridge!

39 & 40) Din Tai Fung has but two locations in North America – LA and here in Bellevue … last time I had these was in Hong Kong

41) Din Tai Fung has trained mainly Mexicans to build the dumplings; 42) visiting Pike Place Pier

43 & 44) a visit to Beacher’s Cheese for their heavenly mac ‘n cheese

45 & 46) our view from the suite at Westin Seattle

47 & 48) our wee suite

49 & 50) trying the excellent pizza at Serious Pie

 Best of all, we had some seriously beautiful sunsets on Puget Sound while in the city.

51 & 52) variation on a sailboat at dusk

 

53) (sigh)

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