Seeing as I haven't really driven very far with the car (except for Whistler), I decided to go to a different place with the car. The boys and I drove to Seattle bright and (somewhat) early (as in 8am). We had to wait for a bit at the Peace Arch border crossing and after a few questions from the border person, we were in the United States! If anyone is wondering, questions were along the lines of
a) where are you going
b) what are you going to be doing
c) are you bringing any food
d) how do you know each other (I guess two white and one non-white person does bring up that question)
e) do you all work, and where do you work
This being the first time I got to drive on the I-5 with the new vehicle, I had my fun with cruise control etc. They make good roads in the US. They also make large flags. We saw many a giant US flag by the highway, mostly in car dealerships.
We got out on Exit 202 to the Seattle Premium Outlets because we had heard many things about the bargains there and because I had visited the Gilroy Premium Outlet (owned and run by the same company) when I went to San Francisco last year... We got there about 10:30am and there was so much shopping to do. From shoes to clothes to fine china to even more clothes, this place is a shoppers paradise. And the prices here were extremely attractive seeing as the Canadian dollar is quite high. Of course, we couldn't really take much back to Canada without paying duty... so we did more browsing than anything else. There are a few stores here that are not really found in Vancouver like the J Crew store, Johnston & Murphy etc.
We had lunch there (not so cheap) after a long wait in line at the food court. We drove to Seattle, had a fun time looking for parking. We did end up getting free 2 hour parking somewhere past
Key arena. We walked past it and noticed the half looney fellow who was talking to himself about things that we did not stop to understand. He was doing a fine job of spitting all over the clean area. Seattle did seem quite clean, contrary to what I thought. Maybe it is just the touristy area.
After that, we walked up the Seattle Space Needle and paid our $14US to get a ticket to go up to the observation deck. The elevator ride was quite neat, though you don't realise how fast you are going until you see one of those concrete barriers come right at you at a good speed. Of course... we did pass through all of them without any issue.
Having made it to the top, we went outside for a stroll on the O-deck . Voja apparently could feel the building swaying and so on. I couldn't feel any such thing. The skies were fairly clear so we were able to see out in the distance. There were quite a few people up there including a rather large collection of children running all over the place.
We took plenty of pics of the Seattle scenery from up top.
We were quite a ways up and even though we couldn't see Mount Baker, we could see quite far. The fellows seemed to enjoy themselves thoroughly... as they usually do. The downtown area was interesting from where we were. There were a couple of really neat buildings including the one with the slanted roof. That looked really strange. Later on, when we drove through some really steep streets, we did notice some really cool buildings. The next time I go to Seattle, I will make an effort to walk around the downtown more and take a closer look at some of those buildings. Up top, we had a great view of everything around us including the monorail track. We did not see anything running on the tracks however... so not sure if they work or used to work at some point.
There was some good trivia inside the observation deck as well. Lots of interesting facts about the building and the process of its design and construction. For some reason, there was little mentioned about earthquake preparedness inside, despite Seattle being in such a earthquake prone area. I think Ivan was worried about earthquakes at that point...
We went down the red elevator to the gift shop. We had a college graduate who was our elevator attendant who had reached, in his own words, the pinnacle of his career. Poor fellow, not too many people were biting at his off-colour lift humour. The ride down was quite as fast too and was thrilling.
We wandered around the gift shop but didn't really see much worth purchasing. We had decided to find a warm patio and enjo
y a drink in Seattle. So we went to the one opposite the space needle, with a big picture of Ichiro plastered on the front glass... On the way, we did see a very interesting multi-ethnic couple. Apparently, Seattle has the most number of multi-ethnic couples of any major city in the United States (I quote Ivan as the source for this interesting tidbit of information).
The bar staff were quite friendly and they had some strange beer on tap (apart for Guinness and the imported Kokanee). We sat out in the patio and in front of us was the magnificent space needle. There is beauty in everything and sitting there drinking
coffee with the boys, it was nice to know we had such nice neighbours to the south. After the drinks, we had to get the car, lest we get a ticket for overstaying our free parking... so we walked back via the Key arena. Ivan made the unfortunate mistake of tasting the water from a tap there and he was mimicking the fellow from earlier in the day by spitting around the place...
After getting the car, we drove through downtown Seattle, saw some really cool buildings (but couldn't take pictures on account of me driving) and drove down one really steep hilly road. We drove to the waterfront and then headed towards the baseball and football stadiums which are next to each other. On the way there, we saw the huge harbour and the container traffic there. A train, loaded with containers was crossing at a level crossing but there were no lights etc there to warn people. The traffic signals also seemed to show a left turn green arrow when the train was clearly blocking the road... not a good thing.
At any rate, once we got across and missed the first exit to the I-5 heading north, we drove past the baseball stadium and found another exit to the I-5. Once on the I-5, we made good time back to Tulalip to the Seattle Premium Outlets (to do more shopping). This time around, we took our time and bought some small stuff (like a pair of socks).
We filled petrol in Burlington (which Ivan thought was Bellingham) at an Arco. They didn't take credit cards and gave me a bad exchange rate (though they did acknowledge that ahead of time). I got $32.10US for $40 Canadian. The car only needed $23US of fuel, so the drive down was fairly cheap. Back on the I-5, we made it to the truck crossing fairly quickly (by driving through Blaine). Once there, the border formalities were a lot better and we made it across by about 9:45pm I think. We were asked
a) Where did you go
b) What did you do
c) How do you know each other
d) What is the total value of goods being brought in
Dropped Ivan off and then Voja and I headed home. Past his apartment (we decided to go to Shark club), we saw a fellow totally out of his mind, with a few garlands around his neck, walking on the right lane of Lougheed Highway... Some nice passers by had pulled over and looked like they were telephoning the police. At any rate, that fellow was a serious danger to the public (and to himself) and hopefully, it turned out well for him. Got home around 11:45pm and turned in fairly quickly.
a) where are you going
b) what are you going to be doing
c) are you bringing any food
d) how do you know each other (I guess two white and one non-white person does bring up that question)
e) do you all work, and where do you work
This being the first time I got to drive on the I-5 with the new vehicle, I had my fun with cruise control etc. They make good roads in the US. They also make large flags. We saw many a giant US flag by the highway, mostly in car dealerships.
We got out on Exit 202 to the Seattle Premium Outlets because we had heard many things about the bargains there and because I had visited the Gilroy Premium Outlet (owned and run by the same company) when I went to San Francisco last year... We got there about 10:30am and there was so much shopping to do. From shoes to clothes to fine china to even more clothes, this place is a shoppers paradise. And the prices here were extremely attractive seeing as the Canadian dollar is quite high. Of course, we couldn't really take much back to Canada without paying duty... so we did more browsing than anything else. There are a few stores here that are not really found in Vancouver like the J Crew store, Johnston & Murphy etc.
We had lunch there (not so cheap) after a long wait in line at the food court. We drove to Seattle, had a fun time looking for parking. We did end up getting free 2 hour parking somewhere past
Key arena. We walked past it and noticed the half looney fellow who was talking to himself about things that we did not stop to understand. He was doing a fine job of spitting all over the clean area. Seattle did seem quite clean, contrary to what I thought. Maybe it is just the touristy area.After that, we walked up the Seattle Space Needle and paid our $14US to get a ticket to go up to the observation deck. The elevator ride was quite neat, though you don't realise how fast you are going until you see one of those concrete barriers come right at you at a good speed. Of course... we did pass through all of them without any issue.
Having made it to the top, we went outside for a stroll on the O-deck . Voja apparently could feel the building swaying and so on. I couldn't feel any such thing. The skies were fairly clear so we were able to see out in the distance. There were quite a few people up there including a rather large collection of children running all over the place.
We took plenty of pics of the Seattle scenery from up top.
We were quite a ways up and even though we couldn't see Mount Baker, we could see quite far. The fellows seemed to enjoy themselves thoroughly... as they usually do. The downtown area was interesting from where we were. There were a couple of really neat buildings including the one with the slanted roof. That looked really strange. Later on, when we drove through some really steep streets, we did notice some really cool buildings. The next time I go to Seattle, I will make an effort to walk around the downtown more and take a closer look at some of those buildings. Up top, we had a great view of everything around us including the monorail track. We did not see anything running on the tracks however... so not sure if they work or used to work at some point.
There was some good trivia inside the observation deck as well. Lots of interesting facts about the building and the process of its design and construction. For some reason, there was little mentioned about earthquake preparedness inside, despite Seattle being in such a earthquake prone area. I think Ivan was worried about earthquakes at that point...
We went down the red elevator to the gift shop. We had a college graduate who was our elevator attendant who had reached, in his own words, the pinnacle of his career. Poor fellow, not too many people were biting at his off-colour lift humour. The ride down was quite as fast too and was thrilling.
We wandered around the gift shop but didn't really see much worth purchasing. We had decided to find a warm patio and enjo
y a drink in Seattle. So we went to the one opposite the space needle, with a big picture of Ichiro plastered on the front glass... On the way, we did see a very interesting multi-ethnic couple. Apparently, Seattle has the most number of multi-ethnic couples of any major city in the United States (I quote Ivan as the source for this interesting tidbit of information).The bar staff were quite friendly and they had some strange beer on tap (apart for Guinness and the imported Kokanee). We sat out in the patio and in front of us was the magnificent space needle. There is beauty in everything and sitting there drinking
coffee with the boys, it was nice to know we had such nice neighbours to the south. After the drinks, we had to get the car, lest we get a ticket for overstaying our free parking... so we walked back via the Key arena. Ivan made the unfortunate mistake of tasting the water from a tap there and he was mimicking the fellow from earlier in the day by spitting around the place...
After getting the car, we drove through downtown Seattle, saw some really cool buildings (but couldn't take pictures on account of me driving) and drove down one really steep hilly road. We drove to the waterfront and then headed towards the baseball and football stadiums which are next to each other. On the way there, we saw the huge harbour and the container traffic there. A train, loaded with containers was crossing at a level crossing but there were no lights etc there to warn people. The traffic signals also seemed to show a left turn green arrow when the train was clearly blocking the road... not a good thing.
At any rate, once we got across and missed the first exit to the I-5 heading north, we drove past the baseball stadium and found another exit to the I-5. Once on the I-5, we made good time back to Tulalip to the Seattle Premium Outlets (to do more shopping). This time around, we took our time and bought some small stuff (like a pair of socks).
We filled petrol in Burlington (which Ivan thought was Bellingham) at an Arco. They didn't take credit cards and gave me a bad exchange rate (though they did acknowledge that ahead of time). I got $32.10US for $40 Canadian. The car only needed $23US of fuel, so the drive down was fairly cheap. Back on the I-5, we made it to the truck crossing fairly quickly (by driving through Blaine). Once there, the border formalities were a lot better and we made it across by about 9:45pm I think. We were asked
a) Where did you go
b) What did you do
c) How do you know each other
d) What is the total value of goods being brought in
Dropped Ivan off and then Voja and I headed home. Past his apartment (we decided to go to Shark club), we saw a fellow totally out of his mind, with a few garlands around his neck, walking on the right lane of Lougheed Highway... Some nice passers by had pulled over and looked like they were telephoning the police. At any rate, that fellow was a serious danger to the public (and to himself) and hopefully, it turned out well for him. Got home around 11:45pm and turned in fairly quickly.
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