A bit more exploring in Seattle...

Although I was only there for a few days (Sat-Mon), I found Seattle to be a charming city with lots to explore. We stayed at a hotel that was close to so many attractions as well as the centre of the city, and walking around was very pleasant. 

In the side street near our hotel, a festival was in full swing on the Sunday to say goodbye to Summer. 

In a previous post I mentioned the cafe next door to the hotel...

The tree lined streets and the gardens added to the charm...

The view, looking the other way from the hotel...towards the centre of the city.

 Similar buses to what we had seen in LA.

We didn't ride in any Seattle buses but we did catch the monorail...here's the sign letting us know that the monorail station is in the building adjacent.

We rode the monorail to the Space Needle, which is a well known landmark (icon really) in Seattle. Being the weekend, there was a bit of a wait to travel up to the observation level of the Space Needle, so we walked around the large parklands that surround it. 

The gardens were beautiful...

 A lovely quote...

Also in these parklands were the Chihuly Gardens; these are filled with fantastic looking glass sculptures of plants...we didn't go into this area but here is a link to visitors' photos of those who did pay to go in and marvel...
DH and I checked out the Sonic Bloom Installation which was also made of glass...these huge glass flowers light up at night due to the stored energy from the solar cells that are incorporated into the sculpture.

After walking around for a while, we found a seat and 'watched the world go by'...(I was also checking the photos I took with my iPad)...but I had this feeling that someone was watching me!

 Someone else was having a 'sit down ' too! lol

Love the 'dog'!
The nearby playground was very busy!

 Looking from an Australian educator aspect I was amazed by a couple of thing...

How high that climbing net went...and not a bit of 'impact absorbing' materials beneath these activity areas in sight. I guess Aussie regulations are a bit different to those in Washington State.
I reckon those adults were having as much fun as the children...maybe more?
Eventually it was finally time to line up, to go up to the Observation deck of the SkyNeedle ...but I'll save all that for another post!

Some sights of Seattle...

In a previous post I wrote about the  'Underground' Tour of Seattle, but in our few days there in this lovely city, back in late August, we  enjoyed walking around looking at the 'above ground' parts too!

 A giant Saxophone sculpture...purple too!

 One of the trams...

 A Sheriff's car cruising the streets...

 A busker in a city square...

 We took this photo as DsD1's partner is called Dan...

I showed him these 2 photos and joked that as well as being a grazier, he has a sideline business as well!

Coming from a city that cared little for historical buildings and tore most of them down in the 1960 and 70s, I loved all the old buildings in Seattle. 

In another post I'll write about the afternoon we spent at the Space Needle. This iconic structure was built as part of the World Fair in 1962. I'll also write about the time we spent exploring Pikes Market another well known landmark of Seattle. 

Back in Seattle...

Another post about our travels in North America. Our cruise ended with the ship docking in Seattle. The girls spent a lot of the day with us before heading off back to Vancouver.
We all went on what's known as the Underground Tour of Seattle. Friends of the girls had said it was well worth a look.
The tour starts at a cafe where a guide recounts the quite colourful history of Seattle. The woman who gave the preliminary talk before our tour did an excellent job of bringing that history to life. Once again we learned about those 'ladies of the night', but in early days Seattle they were referred to as 'seamstresses' in records. Just like in those Alaskan towns we visited, these women had achieved high status in historic Seattle.
Now the Underground City as it is referred to, is the subterranean passages that were once the main roads and ground floor storefronts of old Downtown Seattle. Yep! Old Seattle had drainage problems due to the lie of the land, so the early city fathers decided to fill in the dips etc and therefore raise the street level.

At first they used sawdust from the early sawmills but that didn't work too well. So then the plan was to lower the hill behind the town by blasting it with water...it must have worked as the street level was raised to what it is today.
So here are the few photos we took on our Underground Tour...
After the talk inside the cafe, we moved outside to this area, where we were divided up into smaller groups, with a guide for each group.

 We walked along the street (above ground) and this hotel was pointed out...the 75c per night would have been the tariff in 'old Seattle'. Note the lovely detail on the building.

Then we went down the stairs to the Underground city...

Our guide gave us more history as we walked though this fetid underworld...

 We're not talking well maintained here are we?

 

An elevated toilet...an indication I guess of the problems caused by being below sea level in old Seattle.

Listening to more 'stories'/history

 Like most places likely to be visited by tourists, we had the photo taken with the green screen behind us...this was one that I purchased though; I usually don't!

The girls seemed to enjoy this tour but DH and I thought it was just okay. The enthusiastic guides were the best part and those stories they told were quite entertaining. A link to the website is here and gives a bit more background to how Bill Speidel saved this historical area. 

The White Pass and Yukon Route...

I still have a few more posts to publish about our recent holiday even though we have been home for 3 weeks! This post is about the train trip we did from Skagway. We were booked on the afternoon train and I've previously written a post about our walk around the town of Skagway in the morning.

The White Pass Yukon Route is a narrow gauge railway which climbs from sea level at Skagway to almost 3000 ft at the Summit in just 20 miles; so that is quite a climb! The whole route was 110 miles of track. The line was begun in 1898 and completed in 1900. To say the building of this railway line was a challenge is an understatement!
The rolling stock consists of both diesel-electric and steam engines and restored and replica passenger coaches.

The train moved off through the town of Skagway and the outskirts...including passing behind the large Depot area where the rolling stock could be seen.

The line follows the fast flowing Skagway river for much of the  of the journey.

Our guide also pointed out waterfalls that tumbled near the line.

It's not long before the line starts to climb...

 I guess when the cruise ships come in to town, this railway is very busy! Every now and then we would catch a glimpse of another train which left before us. We knew that we too, would be travelling on that line on the edge of a cliff...and way up high!

At one point our tour guide on the train told us to look back...

A view of the fiord in the distance...
Just magnificent scenery...

And in a remote area we passed a North West Mounted Police Office/Station/Base? Yes, even though this train route starts in Skagway Alaska, the line does go into Canada. The building looks like a little log cabin.

At times the line came very close to the side of the cutting/cliff face...

A line travelling through such country needs both tunnels and bridges. There was one historic bridge which is no longer used...thank goodness!!! lol

These other bridges seemed to be in much better condition, thank goodness.

The trip back to Skagway was of course all down hill so it wasn't nearly as long. The staff got us to 'change sides' so that we got to see the scenery on the opposite of the train to what we saw coming up.