Out West Adventure: Part 2--First day in Seattle

Tue. June 17: We really did a bang-up job with two days in Seattle! It was about a thirty minute drive to downtown from our campsite and the GPS took us near our first stop, the Olympic Sculpture Park. We found a pay to park place on Western Ave. and wandered down the hill past the very modern works, each with an explanatory plaque with a statement from the artist. One new work is a rooftop coming out of the hillside and the artist was there working on completing it. She has done similar rooftops in several other locations around the world. We walked along the riverfront, past a large fountain, and back up another path with more sculptures before returning to the truck. The GPS then took us right to Ravenna Park, where we met Rachel Kabodian for some urban hiking. She guided us through the trails for an hour or so and then we went to one of her favorite vegetarian restaurants in the area, The Sun Light Café, where she and Marv had the tempe-burger and I had the hummus-avocado sandwich and we all had a side salad. YUM!! We all parted ways at Rachel’s bus stop and Marv and I drove back downtown and found a parking place near the Mariners and Seahawks stadiums. It was an easy walk up to the Pioneer Square area where we visited the Klondike Gold Rush National Park building. That was fun for us to see because we were at its sister/other half in Skagway, Alaska with Ann and Shelby in 2009. We walked around the area and across the square before returning to the same corner to a coffee shop with some WiFi for a little while. Then we drove back to the campsite ahead of most of the traffic to take showers and make tomato-basil soup and a grilled cheese sandwich to share for only the second vegetarian day of the trip. I find it’s pretty hard to get the supplies I need to cook vegetarian while camping. Wish I could do better. After dinner we rode our bikes down to the beach for a really nice sunset. We got kicked out of the closing day-use area before the sun was quite down but by then it had disappeared behind clouds and/or the Olympic Mountains so we didn't mind. Another Northern Exposure closed out the day.

Roof Sculpture at Olympic Sculpture Garden

Waterfront fountain by the Olympic Sculpture Garden

Peggy walking through large interactive walking sculpture

Wildflowers on the bank of the Olympic Sculpture Garden

Rachel Kabodian, Peggy and Marv hiking in Ravenna Park

Klondike National Park 

Seattle skyline

UPS 100th anniversary garden waterfall

Pioneer Square

Sunset over Puget Sound