Intro page
Seattle
Juneau
Skagway
Tracy Arm Fjord
Prince Rupert, BC
Visions of the Sea
My mother and I left Kansas City at 2:15 PM, Wednesday, June 20. We arrived in Seattle about 4:00 PDT. We rented a Chrysler 300 from Thrifty Rent a car and headed for our hotel, The Quality Inn on the north edge of downtown. We had dinner at an Irish Pub called T.S. McHugh’s. After driving around a little, we went back tothe hotel.
Thursday morning we had breakfast at the hotel with a lot of foreign students on some sort of Rotary sponsored tour. We then went to the Pikes’ Place Market. It took a little bit to find the place since I parked in the wrong lot. We walked about a half a mile before we realized we were going the wrong way. I left Mother and went back and got the car and tried again. I was thinking that the market was on the waterfront. Actually, we had to walk up four flights of stairs, then take an elevator up six floors and walk out on the ground floor. Yes, Seattle is hilly. The Pike Market is a fun experience with a lot of small shops and hawkers.
We then went to Pioneer Square, the oldest part of town. We had coffee and ice cream at a place called Planet Java on Yesler Street. Right across the street was Emerald City Guitars. I had read about them in Vintage Guitar Magazine. We had a nice chat with the manager and looked at all the vintage guitars and amps.
It was now time for lunch at the Space Needle. I had a sort of seafood gumbo called Cioppini. It was quite good. The Space Needle was just three block from our hotel, so we were able to leave the car there. After lunch we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island and drove to Poulsbo, a charming Norwegian community. We walked around some and had a pizza at a place called, “That’s-a-some-Italian Restaurtante.” On the return trip, I parked the car too close to the ferry wall and Mother couldn’t get out of the car. She had a nap while I went up a stood on the breezy deck.
Friday, June 22, we went to the Experience Music Project. This is a rock music museum in very strange looking building. The highlights were the Guitar Gallery which housed a wonderful collection of vintage instruments detailing the history of the guitar. There was even a wall dedicated to the steel guitar. Videos played showing a number of older and current guitar players. Some of them were Les Paul, Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, Bonnie Raitt, Roy Buchannan, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page. The other highlight was a three story sculpture shaped like a funnel or tornado made from hundred of musical instruments. We had lunch at the museum and headed for the ship.
Jim Mathis
