Bad Timing

Saturday, 5 September 2009

Road Trip Day 17

The weather forecast today was not good. They said it would be colder than the average for this time of year which, given that I am in Seattle, did not bode well. As it happened the weather cleared up and proved the forecasters wrong. I managed to not get rained on all day. That is the good news.

Public Transport Fail

As I had done in San Francisco and Portland, it was my intention to use the Seattle Public Transport system to get into and around the city. Sadly, this motel is so far from the City centre that the light-rail doesn't reach here. They are building an extension to nearby Sea-Tac Airport but that doesn't help me. The motel offered a lift to the airport where I could get a bus which would take me to the light-rail station.

I opted to take another option and drive to the light-rail and leave The Beast in the car park. Mistake. Turns out the station was pretty elusive. I drove around looking for it and trying various fruitless options on my Sat-Nav but failed. I found the AmTrak station where I could wait an hour for a train to take me near Seattle. I also drove 15 miles into the city just to find that parking all day would cost around $40.

After that I gave up and came back to the motel and asked for very, VERY specific directions to the station. I set off again and after what seemed like hours of searching I found the Seattle light-rail network. I got to the city centre (again) around 12:30pm.

Fish. Monorail. Needle. Done.

Once I'd arrived I went straight to the much promoted Pike Place Market. I saw some fish and some flowers.

Then I walked to the Monorail and rode it to the Space Needle. I declined the long queue and $16 ride to the top.

Here's my photo from underneath it.

There's not much else to do in Seattle apparently. There was a music festival going on which meant that most of the Seattle Centre, the park where the Space Needle stands was closed off.

Former Landmark

I rode the Monorail back to downtown and wandered aimlessly for a while, though I did find an Office Depot where I bought some coloured dots for my map of my journey... so that was good.

I ran out of things to look at so rode the light-rail back a couple of stops to the Pioneer Square district and took a quick look at the building which Seattle was best known for prior to the building of the Space Needle. This is Smith Tower which is a very attractive building dating back to 1914 and is covered in white terracotta. Actually, now that I look at it, it looks a lot like the building transformer robot from the movie Big. Must check that out sometime.

Unfortunately this seemed to be a bit of a dodgy district with more than its fare share of crazies, including one who managed to rant and scream so loudly two police cars arrived to "have a word". I returned, cautiously to the light-rail tunnel and came back to the motel... and fell asleep in front of the Nascar.

Aimless in Seattle

I don't really want to give the impression there's anything wrong with Seattle, it's just that there's nothing really here for me. The hotels are packed here this weekend because there's a College Football game between Washington State and Louisiana and also a Fantasy Computer Games convention as well as the Bumbershoot Music Festival. So, as I know nothing about American Football, World of Warcraft or Grunge music I am pretty comprehensively sidelined.

So, just a case of bad timing really. Nevermind.

Goodnight.

Stats - Day Forty-Three

Distance travelled - 0 Miles (not counting the 30 odd miles I drove trying to find the light-rail station) - Stayed in Seattle

State count - 18 + DC

Room numbers stayed in - 203, 1, 148, 212, 205, 210, 246, 118, 3, 145, 229, 111, 207