We leave for home today, but I am a bit behind describing our trip, having chronicled only through Monday (April 27).
On Tuesday (April 28), I had a class in the afternoon. In the morning, we went to Pioneer Square, the oldest section of Seattle. In the square, there is a large wrought iron pergola that was built as streetcar station for the 1909 Alaska-Pacific Exhibition. It is also the entrance to a large underground washroom. It had been knocked down by an errant truck in 2002, but it was rebuilt from original pieces. We did not go up the hand-operated elevator to the top of the Smith building, having done teh Space Needle earlier in the week. The Smith building no longer towers over Seattle, but it does, apparently, have an excellent and unobstructed view of Mount Ranier to the south.
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| The pergola at Pioneer Square |
We took something called the Underground Tour in the Pioneer district. That part of the city is a city built on top of the old city and the tour, which was quite interesting and entertaining, is a walking tour under the current streets and side walks and on the original streets and side walks of the old city.
As I learned on the tour, the original city was built at sea level on a tidal flat and had problems with flooding at high tide. When the city burned down in a fire in 1889, the city leaders decided to raise the streets 8 feet with earth moved from the bluffs overlooking the city. The city's plan was to rebuild and raise the level of the city over the next 8 years (it took 30). Business leaders did not want to wait, so they rebuilt buildings with both ground floor and second floor entrances, the latter of which became the new street level entrances. Ladders descended from the raised streets down to the side walks and when new side walks were built, they were never filled in, creating this underground space, much of which is still used by the businesses that own it. In fact, there is a large cafe under the Elliott Bay Book Company that is part of the Seattle underground and was the inspiration for the below ground coffee shop on the TV show Frasier, which was set in Seattle. Some of the side walks in the Pioneer Square area have skylights in them so that the underneath could be used as a storage area.
We had lunch that day at Merchant's Cafe in Pioneer Square. Built shortly after the fire in the 1890's, it is the oldest restaurant in Seattle. It is a very no frills bar/restaurant, but the hamburgers were fabulous - nearly as tasty, if not as tasty, as the ones from the Meat Rack in Catonsville, MD used to be. Unfortunately we did not have time for the Elliott Bay Book Company that day, but we would be back...
For dinner Tuesday night, we went to a quirky little place in Belltown that was on the list of restaurants my friend Misun recommended (Misun is a friend I went to high school with who now lives in Seattle) called, Mama's Mexican Kitchen. Over-the-top cheesy Elvis decor and Mariachi singers (who actually had wonderful voices) made it an interesting experience. The food was cheap and good. Not the best Mexican, but the equivalent to Los Portales in Glen Burnie. Although I didn't like the thick breading that surrounded my chile relleno, my chicken enchilada was good.
On Wednesday and Thursday, I took no classes and did not attend the conference. Wednesday morning (April 29) we took a bus up to the Boeing plant. Although we did not book a factory tour, we did go to the Museum of Flight. It was a lot of fun. Part of the museum, the Red Barn, is actually the original Boeing plant. There was lots of information there about other pioneers of the aviation industry, including Glen L. Martin (my grandfather worked for Martin's in Baltimore). There was an excellent display of the space program, including a replica of part of the International Space Station that you can walk through. We also saw an early RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) fighter, an F4, and early MiG's. I got to sit in an SR-71 Blackbird cockpit and Lisa in an F-18 cockpit. A full plane of a different aircraft in the the Blackbird series hung impressively overhead. Across the street was an air park with several planes, including the prototype 747, a British Airways Concorde, and a 707 that served as Air Force One for Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, and Nixon. You could actually go aboard the Concorde (a placard talks about Phil Collins' flight to perform in both London, England and Philadelphia, PA on the same day for Live Aid in 1985) and Air Force One. The Concorde is no longer in service, but for a time both Air France and British Airways operated them as supersonic passenger jets, crossing the Atlantic in about 2 and a half hours. More impressive was Air Force One. Although the older 707 is cramped compared to the 747 jumbo jet now used, it is still impressive. In addition to standard seating at the back, the front of the plane had a small conference area, a private office for the President, and a private bathroom with shower for the President. There was a separate communications station and a safe to hold the nuclear football. It gave me chills just walking through this piece of history.
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| Cockpit of SR-71 Blackbird: The world's first supersonic spy plane |
After lunch, we walked back over to Pioneer Square and went to the Elliott Bay Book Company. A truly cavernous bookstore with both new and used books as well as bargains/remainders. I am not sure I have ever seen a broader selection of books and I could've spent hours upon hours there. I did, of course, find some bargains. A Commonwealth of Thieves, a book on the beginnings of Australia by Thomas Kenneally and The Troubadour's Song, a book on the capture and random of Richard Coeur-de-Lion. Both in hardcover for $8.
After the bookstoore, we took the bus back to our hotel to change for dinner. Then it was back to Pioneer Square to meet my friend Misun (my aforementioned high school friend) and her husband, Chris. Misun and Chris have been married for 2 years, but I had lost touch with her about 3-4 years ago an only reconnected recently on Facebook. She seems to be doing well. She works as an architect and is about to travel to Africa where her company is building an orphanage...
The restaurant Chris and Misun chose was excellent. It was an Italian place near their office (Misun had met Chris at work) called Il Terrazzo Carmine. It is a little tricky to find as it was on the ground level of big office building. We drank a nice, local, pinot noir. I had fresh mozzarella and tomato as an appetizer and a wonderful veal chop for an entree. Lisa had prosciutto and melon followed by veal scallopini that looked amazing. We shared a very good tiramasu for dessert.
After dinner, Chris and Misun took us for a drive over to West Seattle. The views of downtown from there, across Elliott Bay, are truly stunning. It was really nice to see Misun again. It has probably been ten years since we last saw each other, I remember it was not very long after Lisa and I were engaged. She had never met Lisa before, nor I Chris, who seems like a really nice fellow. I liked him a lot.
Thursday (April 30) was, by far, the highlight of the trip. With our good friends (from residency) Billy and Amy, who were also in town for the conference, we took a ferry (The Victoria Clipper) to Victoria, British Columbia for the day. The weather had been good all week, but Thursday was picture perfect. Sunny, clear, and warm (low 70's F), it was an amazing day. The ferry ride took about 2 and a half hours. We had booked a bus tour through the ferry company. It included a narrated tour around the city of Victoria and then a drive to Butchart Gardens. We had two hours at the Gardens, which was sufficient, including time for lunch.
The Butchart's were in the concrete business and quarried limestone on the site. The garden included a serene Japanese garden, an Italian garden, a rose garden, and a sunken garden converted from the hole left by the limestone quarry. The roses were not yet in bloom, but the rest of the gardens were beautiful. However, the sunken garden was absolutely breathtaking. The vibrancy of the colours was stunning and the gorgeous weather added to the effect.
Victoria is a beautiful waterfront town. It is the capital of British Columbia and a majestic Victorian legislative building looks out over a picturesque inner harbour. Boats sail in and out of the harbour and sea planes take off and land, taking tourists on scenic flights. A great looking fish and chips stand was at the water's edge, although we had already eaten and there was quite a line and we were pressed for time. We walked around the inner harbour and took some great pictures. The town is very walkable with lots of little shops, pubs, and restaurants. It even has its own, authentic, Chinatown, but we didn't have much time to explore before taking the ferry back to Seattle. We did have tea at the Empress Hotel, although we did not have the high tea service, which was pricey ($44 CAD, approximately $35 USD, per person), but we thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the Raj-style Bengal room drinking tea and Lisa and I split a wonderful apple-coconut cobbler. The setting could not have been better and both the Earl Grey and the house blend were excellent.
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| Empress Hotel |
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| Victoria Inner Harbour |
After returning to Seattle we had a late dinner with Billy and Amy back at the Dahlia Lounge [Lisa and I had eaten there earlier in the week, at Misun's recommendation], where we figured we'd be able to sit at the bar, and we were barely able to do so! Dahlia delivered again. This time Lisa had the [Dungeness] crab cakes [which I had earlier in the week and they are excellent] and I had the duck and another local brew, which were excellent. Of course we started with the vegetable samosa again [we both really liked that appetizer the first time]! We also had a complimentary dessert, I think because Billy had to send something back to be further cooked. It was a, "bag of donuts." They were small, bite-size beignets rolled in cinnamon sugar. Yum!
Friday (May 1) was another perfect weather day. Unfortunately, I had stroke CME classes all day, although I did break away for pho at a Vietnamese restaurant a block from the convention center near the Tap House Grill. Lisa rode up on the bus to University of Washington and took some great pictures of a truly beautiful campus.
Our trip was capped off last night with a baseball game at Safeco Field. We watched the Mariners take on the Oakland Athletics. Safeco is a great ballpark. Although there is no view from inside the stadium and it is an unattractive, underdeveloped, industrial area just outside Chinatown, once you enter the park, you feel transported into an idyllic baseball setting. Like Jacob's Field (Cleveland) it is at once spacious and yet feels intimate. Our seats were phenomenal. We sat on the third base line, just onto the left field grass, in row 20. We had an excellent view of the entire field and felt right on top of the action. The rows were elevated enough that I didn't feel like I had to strain to see over anyone. The park has a retractable roof for all of Seattle's rain, but it was left open given the gorgeous, perfect baseball weather we had on Friday.
The concessions at Safeco must be among the best in baseball. There is the usual - hot dogs, sausages, hamburgers, pizza, chicken fingers, and barbecue; as well as garlic fries (which I thought smelled great and Lisa thought were disgusting) and sushi! The favoured concession is the Ichi-roll, named after Mariner's star Ichiro Suzuki. It consists of tuna and cucumber wrapped in rice and served with ginger and wasabi. For $9, you get 8 pieces, so it's not a bad deal. There is also a Thai place in the ballpark! Entrees included curry chicken, cashew chicken, vegetable Pad Thai, or garlic beef, each for $11. Served with rice, each was a ridiculous amount of food that could have served two if not three people. Lisa and I split an order of Ichirolls and a curry chicken. We both ate our fill and had lots of rice leftover - so we both ate a full dinner at the ballpark for $20, ten bucks apiece! The Ichirolls were tasty and the curry chicken, in coconut milk, was a good as any I have ever had. Although the beers were expensive ($8.75 for microbrews, which cost $6.50 at Camden Yards), they have the full gamut from local microbrews to imports and mass produced domestics.
Unfortunately Bedard (former Orioles pitcher, Erik Bedard) wasn't pitching and Griffey, Jr. was not in the line up, but we did get to see Ichiro. We saw a great ballgame. In the first, Ichiro reached on a bunt single and the next two hitters walked, loading the bases with no one out. But, the A's were able to get out of the jam, giving up only a single run on a sac fly. Mariner's starter Carlos Silva cruised through the A's line up the first time, giving up only a couple of hits over the first two innings. But, the A's got to him for six runs in the third. The Mariners, behind a couple of home runs, began to chip away and eventually took a 7-6 lead. The A's tied the game with a solo shot in the 7th and the score remained knotted into the bottom of the 9th. Ichiro led off, but failed to reach. Endy Chavez singled and went to second on a walk. Chavez went to third tagging on a fly ball out. With the winning run 90 feet away, the lefty Russ Springer on the mound, and two outs, the A's intentionally walked the right-handed Russell Branyan to face the lefty Jose Lopez. He took the first two pitches for balls and the second two for strikes to even the count at 2-2. Then the at bat turned into an epic battle of wills. Lopez fouled off 8 or 9 pitches to stay alive before drilling one into right center field for a single and driving in the winning run. The crowd, on their feet for the entire at bat, erupted and the Mariner's stormed the field, mobbing Lopez as if they had just won the pennant! What a thrilling finish!
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| Safeco Field |
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