Seattle, The Emerald City

There was no time to head home after my wonderful trip to Oregon, instead it was time to head to another place I had wanted to visit in the US, Seattle, Washington. I had heard a lot about Seattle from my parents, and about their good friends that live there Ed and Patrice. With another athlete day a week after my trip to OR, I decided it would be a good time to head up and check out the Northwest.

I was flying out of Eugene Airport to Seattle on Alaskan Air. I've travelled enough with a bike around the US now to know what to expect to pay with each airline. Sometimes at small airports I might be able to sneak it on cheaper, but not always. However, I've never flown with Alaska air before, so didn't know what to expect. I was thinking I'd have to pay somewhere round $100. I walked up to the counter to check in, and was asked what was in my massive bag. Never a good sign. "It's a bike" I replied. The lovely lady behind the desk then smiled and said rather apologetically, "I'm really sorry, but I think we're going to have charge you $25 for that." I had to stop myself laughing, cause I did find that rather amusing.

The plane trip itself wasn't too bad either, with complimentary beer and wine offered on the flight. Why can't all the other airlines be like that?

I arrived in Seattle airport to be greeted by Ed, Patrice and Katie. This was a nice surprise to have all of them come to meet me. I was promptly taken to my Seattle home for dinner with my Seattle family.

Despite the pouring rain, I began to explore the city for the first time via bicycle. It felt a lot like riding at home in Auckland: crappy weather rolling in from the ocean, cracked and broken roads, short but steep hills and lots of round abouts. If it weren't for the fact that the cars were driving on the right side of the road it would probably be exactly the same. The ride would probably have been fun if it wasn't for the puncture!

The next day I went into town to check out the heart of Seattle. Many of the sights I wished to see were located in Pike Place Market. Below is a photo of me with my two wonderful guides Katie and Jill.

The first attractions to see in Pike Place Market was the original Starbucks. The coffee shop which started so small but eventually grew enough to have ambitions of world domination is located right here in Seattle. The original was a lot different from the new chains popping up on every second block. No leather chairs and couches, soft carpet and free wi-fi, just a basic store selling coffee. But what it does have is the original logo. The women in the logo is just a face, but a full breasted naked women/mermaid. Below is a photo of me enjoying my Starbucks coffee at the original store in front of the original topless logo.

After Starbucks we had to go check out the fish. This was pretty cool, with the workers having a great time throwing them all round the place. Below is a photo of the fish about to be thrown...

...in mid air hurtling towards me...

...and eventually me having caught the fish.

I was rather glad to have caught it in my hands. Dropping it would be far to embarrassing, and catching it in my arms would have left me stinking of fish for the rest of the day. If that was the case, Rachel surely wouldn't have let me ride her, as shown below.

Having ridden Rachel, it was time to head off and do some more womanising. I did manage to find Marilyn, and she was quite happy to see me. Angelina was a bit jealous though, an tried to lure me away, and Sarah was just down right pissed off. at least Barrak was happy for me.

But I did also have time to catch up with my old flame Hannah.

But there is only so much fun you can have with an underage girl, no matter how hot she is. So i moved on to Princess Leia, much to the disgust of Harrison.


The next day I was lucky enough to catch up with my Uncle Fraser, who coincidentally happened to be in Seattle at the same time as me. I went up the Space Needle for lunch with Patrice and Fraser. Below is a photo from the lunch table looking down at the wacky design of the EMP music museum, which I would visit the following day.

Below is the three of us with our smoking dessert, though most of the dry ice had run out by then.

After lunch I was taken on a tour of the Amgen building. This was a lot flasher than the facilities I worked at in Otago. Unfortunately no photography was allowed inside. Though I did get a photo on the double helix bridge leading over to Amgen.

And of course no trip to Seattle would be complete with a visit to the house of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain's house.

Of course the landmark which I was looking forward to seeing was Mt Washington. For four days it never popped out from the clouds, until finally, just before sunset, on my way home on a bike ride, the clouds cleared the mountain came into view. I didn't have enough time to take a photo, so I'll leave you with a photo from someone else.