The final push: Seattle, Day 7 (11 July 2017)

Going west

You would have thought that Seattle was about as west as we could be, but in fact there is a West Seattle and that was our first stop for today.

After a lazy start, we walked the 3kms or so down to Pier 50 and got the water taxi over to West Seattle, where we proceeded to do the 3kms or so walk around the point to Alki Beach. It was a glorious day. People were out walking, cycling, kayaking, or foraging (for shellfish or metal); the tide was going out; and the birds were fishing. 

We eventually reached our destination, Duke’s Chowder House, where we both lunched on salmon (this being salmon country) with different flavourings, Len’s tomato and mine cherries. We decided that we weren’t ready for another 3-4kms walk just yet, so cheated and ordered an Uber. Our driver was a Sikh from India, and although he’d been here for a couple of decades he could understand Celsius and Kilometres! He could also talk sport – both cricket and American football. That ride to our next stop, the well-recommended Bakery Nouveau, was thus a very pleasant one. 

And then, having sated ourselves well at Duke’s and the Bakery, it was time for more sightseeing – back in Seattle proper. So, we caught the Rapid Ride C-Line bus back into town, and walked to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) to see the Yayoi Kusama exhibition. Having seen her work on Naoshima, as part of the Setouchi Art Exhibition, we were really keen to see this exhibition and had saved it up for our last day.

When the art museum is closed on Tuesdays

Well, silly us. You would think that experienced travellers like us would have checked opening hours, but who would have thought that the major art museum in a major city would be closed during the week in peak summer? Not us! After all, our own national cultural institutions are open every day of the week, except, usually, Christmas Day. However, SAM was indeed closed (on Tuesdays). We consoled ourselves that at least it was Japanese art, not local Seattle art, that had been our goal, so it could have been worse! (I love to console myself like this when things go wrong!)

So, we decided to do the next best thing and find some home-made art,  at the famous Gum Wall in Pike Place Market. Hmm … enough said. The pictures tell it all, though we didn’t include pics of people standing there chewing chewing chewing in order to make their contribution to the work. Honestly! (Phil and Betsy did warn us, so we only have ourselves to blame.)

We hadn’t necessarily planned to visit Pike Place Market again, but having found ourselves there for the above-mentioned artwork (ha!), we decided we might as well walk through it again and check out the famous fish throwing. Surely that would be better than gum – and it was. It was a hoot, as the videos below will show.

Day’s end

After a little rest, we concluded the day with a visit to Seattle’s best-known independent bookstore, the Elliott Bay Book Co. It’s another wonderful bookshop, and it’s just as well I’m travelling, because the offerings were so tempting. The store has a lovely open, welcoming layout, and, like many such stores, includes excellent displays geared to various special interests, such as bookgroups, local authors, and so on. There was even a small display on “unreliable narrators” which included one of my favourite unreliable-narrator novels, Kazuo Ishiguro’s The remains of the day. I had a lovely time pottering around but, in the end, only bought one book by a Mexican author, relevant to where we are heading, rather than by a local author.

However, I couldn’t resist also checking out what Australian authors they had. I found Charlotte Wood, Dominic Smith (who now lives in Austin, Texas), Robyn Cadwallader and Evie Wyld (with a “staff pick” note). I didn’t, though, find Annabel Smith or Jane Rawson, nor Emily Maguire or AS Patrić. I didn’t look for our better known authors like Carey and Winton, but I did manage to face out Wood and Wallader on the shelves. Wyld was already face out!

After that most enjoyable browse, we wandered next door to the noisy but cheery Oddfellows Cafe and Bar. I’d realised that we hadn’t tried what I believe is a local speciality, halibut, and they had it as one of their specials (served with a quinoa and squash salad). It was delicious. I did, though, nearly give our server heart failure when, partway through the meal, I told him he’d offended me. That was a bit unkind of me because not offending in order to gain a good, and much-needed, tip is their goal. However, I quickly reassured him that it was because he had carded the two young people at the table next to us (who, as it happened, were born in 1985 and 1986) and not us! He took the joke, noting that he’d better be careful in future about risking the liquor police! All in all, a lovely meal to effectively end our Seattle stay.

As for today’s walking distance? 12kms. It will be much less tomorrow, unless we walk up and down the train multiple times, and our feet will probably appreciate it.

Today’s trivia

One of the original white settlers in the area was a Charles C Terry (who also apparently named Alki). Terry Street is (more or less) parallel to the one we’ve stayed on for the last week.

Today’s images

Still

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Moving

Alki Beach Scavenger

 

Post Alley Chewing Gum Wall

 

Mackerel for weighing

 

Fish Throwing Demonstration

 

Seattle Skyline Panorama