Pacific North West Trip: on to Seattle

We arrived in Seattle on the train from Portland at noon on Monday 6th June, absolutely famished. Seattle, like Portland, isn't exactly known for its weather, but it was a beautiful sunny day with clear blue skies. I felt like I was living a charmed life, since the last time I'd been in Seattle, some 9 or so years ago, it had been cold and drizzly. After settling ourselves in at the Alexis Hotel we walked up to Pike Place Market. It was teeming with tourists, way too many to get any good photos, so after 30minutes of so we gave up and headed to Matt's In The Market for some lunch. Unfortunately since we didn't arrive until 1.30pm they were already out of the special I liked the sound of, halibut fillet served with salad on a brioche bun, so instead I decided to go for the pork belly confit "banh mi" served on a baguette, which was delicious, but way heavier and greasier than my health food accustomed stomach could deal with so sadly I could only manage half of it.


We walked off our lunch with a trip down to the Olympic Sculpture Park, passing this sculpture of 'Angie's Umbrella' by Jim Pridgeon and Benson Shaw.


The Olympic Sculpture Park spans 9 acres of what was previously a contaminated brownfield until the Seattle Art Museum proposed transforming the area into green space and includes sculpture by the likes of Richard Serra, Tony Smith,...


...Alexander Calder


...and my personal favourite, Roxy Paine.


Afterwards we walked the few blocks up hill to the space needle where $18 got us a ticket to the observation deck.


And then took the monorail back to downtown to check out the Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Ramus designed Seattle Central Library. The library is breathtaking, I think if I lived in Seattle I'd spend a good deal of my time there.


Although leaning over the balcony of the top floor to take this photo made me feel very peculiar. Heights are not my thing.


We got back to the hotel just in time for the complimentary happy hour and enjoyed a glass of wine while flipping through our guidebooks for dinner recommendations, finally deciding on Quinn's Gastropub on Capitol Hill. Unfortunately we never made it there as en route I came over all queasy and had to make an emergency dash into the bathrooms of the Hilton Hotel and the wine made a repeat appearance, although I'm not sure why, since I had by no means over indulged. Feeling sorry for myself I shuffled slowly back to the hotel where I had some tea and pita breads in the library bar instead. Pah!!