Trip to Washington: Seattle

July 2, 2003

Helen and I decided to take a brief trip to Seattle after finding some good deals online for spur-of-the-moment travel. Since this is our summer of "do nothing," we have the luxury to do things spontaneously. We spent two full days in Washington, the first of which, seen here, was spent doing touristy things in Seattle.

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An old Russian submarine was parked at one of the piers. We didn't pay to go inside, but it was still interesting to see from the outside.

Next we went on the Seattle Underground Tour, which took us to the "old city," buried 15 foot under the street level after a fire in the late 19th century. Most of the original store fronts and sidewalks and still intact down there, although worn with age. This is the start of the tour, where they brief us on some of the history before taking us down.

An old toilet. It is on a platform because they had problems in those days with the ocean tides causing the toilets to flush upwards instead of downwards.

Looking outside, from inside one of the old storefronts. The current street is on top of the wall of earth seen through the windows.

The tour guide telling more stories.

Walking along the old sidewalk.

More open space down there.

A large pile of rubble. After each earthquake in the region, they usually dump any debris down in these underground spaces.

A skylight that brings in light from the current sidewalk up above.

An antique toilet. The guy who started the Underground Tour seems to have a special interest in toilets, or "crappers" as they were original called.

We had lunch at Ivar's fish bar, a good place to get cheap salman or other seafood and sit on the bay while eating it.