Summary of time:
· Seattle Mariners baseball game
· The Underground tour
· Smith tower
Handy hints –
§ Get a map of the city, and take the hop on/off to help get bearings, or talk to other people for ideas.
In the hour or so between getting back to the hostel and the start of the game, it rained reasonably heavy, but by the time i needed to set out it had eased off, but there were some big puddles around. Theresa had got her seat for the Seattle Mariners Baseball game, next to a man who had been the tour guide on a trip she had done, he was taking a friend, so she had let him know that i was going in her place and to look after me. Walking to the stadium i realised that my walking shoes were not going to last me much longer, they were cheap ones i had got almost a year ago, and they’ve seen quite a bit of walking so they didn’t owe me anything.
My seat was nr the front of the top tier, behind the batsman, with a small obstruction of a rail, that didn’t really obstruct anything. The cover was on the stadium, so we weren’t getting wet, but it was cold, i wish i had got my gloves. Lauren wasn’t there, and actually as it was a mid week game, and the team were not going to make it to the playoffs, there were not that many people at the game.
The first couple of innings, happened very quickly with only 1 hit, i could sort of follow the game, knowing rules of rounder’s, but there are differences. Lauren and his friend turned up, and we chatted, i was learning some of the rules, but we also chatted about the differences in culture, language, and the effect of the economic situation in both of our countries.
It was a good evening, especially as the Mariners beat the Oakland A’s, which does not happen very often apparently. When we were leaving it was late, but the rain had stopped, and it was only a short walk back to the hostel, many people were heading in the same direction to catch buses, and the metro.
I had arranged with Anya, one of my roommates to do some of the tourist things together, as we both wanted to do similar things. Our first trip of the day was to do the underground tour.
Following the great fire, the city decided to build all properties on the original level, but that at a later time the road level would be moved up to aid in the water and sewerage problems that the city was experiencing.
Properties were built so that when the road was moved, properties would still have a front entrance, banks, shops, had two levels that looked like the ground floor. Then over the next few years, a wall was built between the sidewalk and the road, and then the road was filled in, with earth from one of the hills in the city up Yesler Way. Block by block the road level was increased, and for a while before the new sidewalks were put in, if you wanted to cross the road, you had to climb up and down ladders, or go a long way round. For the ladies of the time this was not the best option, although some men may have thought so. Also there was issue of horses and wagons potentially slipping down or even horse muck!!! Replacement sidewalks were then installed, with glass windows so that light would reach down into the sidewalk below and businesses moved up one floor, creating a basement, or even an underground city! It was great for storage of wares, or illicit drinking dens during prohibition.
Doing the underground tour, is well worth it, especially if you have a good guide like we did, giving not just all the history, but also the funny stories of the day. The was set up in the 60’s as part of keeping history alive, but also a way of start to rejuvenate the Pioneer Square area. The historical society has been able to get lots of the buildings listed to preserve them, and these buildings are slowly being renovated. If you walk around Pioneer area, the original names of the shops and banks are still on a lot of the buildings. We were taken underground, through some of the original shops, walked along the sidewalks, and even through the vault of a bank.
The sidewalk is supported on Iron supports, but these are rusting away, so new steel supports have been installed, but in many places they have been attached to the rusting supports!
In some places, the lower level of shops have been reopened as shops, cafes, even a nightclub – this is one of the original illicit drinking dens that then got a licence.
During the 70’s / 80’s the water pipes were being replaced, and on one street, they found that the houses were still being supplied by the original wooden water pipes, so a section of this is now on display as part of the tour. We also got to see one of the first style flushing toilets, the inventor was Mr Crapper, and the product that we saw was “Crapper’s Valveless Waste Preventer” no 816, with a very ornate toilet. Don’t you wonder where certain phrase’s come from!
A couple of doors down from the Tour there is a shop just for men; it is a very specialised store..... “Utilikilts” makes kilts for men only which have pockets for holding tools whilst they work. If a woman wanted one of these kilts it would have to be redesigned.
After grabbing a coffee, Anya and i went up Smith Tower. It was built and opened on 4 July 1914, with 2 underground levels, and 42 levels, giving it a height of 522ft; it was the fourth tallest building in the world. It remained the tallest building west of Chicago for almost 50 years. The exterior on the first 2 floors is Washington White Granite, whilst all other floors it is pure White Ornamental Terra Cotta. The interior trim throughout is steel, hand finished to resemble finely grained mahogany. All interior hallways are wainscoted with matched Alaskan Marble, whilst the Lobby is panelled with Mexican Onyx.
On the 35th floor, which is the viewing floor, is the Chinese room, which is finished in genuine teakwood, hand carved and imported from China. There are 776 semi precious porcelain discs inset into the ceiling, and the room has ornately carved Blackwood furniture. There is also an almost 300 year old wishing chair which portends marriage within 1 year to genuine wishful single women who sit there. Did i sit in it?
To get up to the 35th floor, you ride up in the original 1914 Otis Elevator, its ornate brass and copper functional works of art are some of the last manually operated elevators on the west coast. The views from here were awesome, it was clearer than the views from the Space Needle, although we couldn’t quite see Mt Rainier.
Having seen our fill of the views and learning some of the history of the building, as well as identifying the buildings in the city, we headed back down making our way up 2nd avenue, admiring the changing styles of the buildings, i even saw the Norton Building!
Anya wanted to go to the Public Market so we wandered off that way, and she also wanted to see the Gum Wall – this is a wall where people having been sticking their gum on it for years. We didn’t find it, but had a good wander around the market and shops, and also spent time watching the fish throwers. I was passing on the information that i had picked up on my tour. We had dinner at the Pike Brewery, trying the home brew, rather pleasant.
There were a few places Anya wanted to find, which i happen to know roughly where they were so we wandered around, and even went shopping – although not buying. Then it was back to the hostel via the supermarket in Chinatown – International district – for me to get some food for my long train journey tomorrow, to chill out, and for me to make sure everything was packed.
The train was due to leave at 9.45am on Thursday, and i would get to Emeryville around 8.15am Friday with the transfer bus getting me across into San Francisco for 9am.
The fun of it all was that i would be seeing Theresa again, she was due to get on in Portland (just after lunch) heading for LA (getting in at 9pm!). Again i had a couple of different seat-mates, and the second lady was really nice, we talked.
I had lunch in the buffet car, i was on the last sitting and there was hardly anyone else around, it was the Portland stop, so i didn’t see Theresa get on. Later on in the afternoon, we met up and found that we had both booked in for the same sitting at dinner. Another chance for us to exchange news, and plans.
Sleep was not too bad, but i was awake really early so went to grab a cup of tea, and saw the sunrise over California. Theresa joined us later, but she was heading to the buffet car for breakfast, and would be back to say farewell, before i got off.
Strange how you meet up with people.
· Seattle Mariners baseball game
· The Underground tour
· Smith tower
Handy hints –
§ Get a map of the city, and take the hop on/off to help get bearings, or talk to other people for ideas.
In the hour or so between getting back to the hostel and the start of the game, it rained reasonably heavy, but by the time i needed to set out it had eased off, but there were some big puddles around. Theresa had got her seat for the Seattle Mariners Baseball game, next to a man who had been the tour guide on a trip she had done, he was taking a friend, so she had let him know that i was going in her place and to look after me. Walking to the stadium i realised that my walking shoes were not going to last me much longer, they were cheap ones i had got almost a year ago, and they’ve seen quite a bit of walking so they didn’t owe me anything.
My seat was nr the front of the top tier, behind the batsman, with a small obstruction of a rail, that didn’t really obstruct anything. The cover was on the stadium, so we weren’t getting wet, but it was cold, i wish i had got my gloves. Lauren wasn’t there, and actually as it was a mid week game, and the team were not going to make it to the playoffs, there were not that many people at the game.
The first couple of innings, happened very quickly with only 1 hit, i could sort of follow the game, knowing rules of rounder’s, but there are differences. Lauren and his friend turned up, and we chatted, i was learning some of the rules, but we also chatted about the differences in culture, language, and the effect of the economic situation in both of our countries.
It was a good evening, especially as the Mariners beat the Oakland A’s, which does not happen very often apparently. When we were leaving it was late, but the rain had stopped, and it was only a short walk back to the hostel, many people were heading in the same direction to catch buses, and the metro.
I had arranged with Anya, one of my roommates to do some of the tourist things together, as we both wanted to do similar things. Our first trip of the day was to do the underground tour.
Following the great fire, the city decided to build all properties on the original level, but that at a later time the road level would be moved up to aid in the water and sewerage problems that the city was experiencing.
Properties were built so that when the road was moved, properties would still have a front entrance, banks, shops, had two levels that looked like the ground floor. Then over the next few years, a wall was built between the sidewalk and the road, and then the road was filled in, with earth from one of the hills in the city up Yesler Way. Block by block the road level was increased, and for a while before the new sidewalks were put in, if you wanted to cross the road, you had to climb up and down ladders, or go a long way round. For the ladies of the time this was not the best option, although some men may have thought so. Also there was issue of horses and wagons potentially slipping down or even horse muck!!! Replacement sidewalks were then installed, with glass windows so that light would reach down into the sidewalk below and businesses moved up one floor, creating a basement, or even an underground city! It was great for storage of wares, or illicit drinking dens during prohibition.
Doing the underground tour, is well worth it, especially if you have a good guide like we did, giving not just all the history, but also the funny stories of the day. The was set up in the 60’s as part of keeping history alive, but also a way of start to rejuvenate the Pioneer Square area. The historical society has been able to get lots of the buildings listed to preserve them, and these buildings are slowly being renovated. If you walk around Pioneer area, the original names of the shops and banks are still on a lot of the buildings. We were taken underground, through some of the original shops, walked along the sidewalks, and even through the vault of a bank.
The sidewalk is supported on Iron supports, but these are rusting away, so new steel supports have been installed, but in many places they have been attached to the rusting supports!
In some places, the lower level of shops have been reopened as shops, cafes, even a nightclub – this is one of the original illicit drinking dens that then got a licence.
During the 70’s / 80’s the water pipes were being replaced, and on one street, they found that the houses were still being supplied by the original wooden water pipes, so a section of this is now on display as part of the tour. We also got to see one of the first style flushing toilets, the inventor was Mr Crapper, and the product that we saw was “Crapper’s Valveless Waste Preventer” no 816, with a very ornate toilet. Don’t you wonder where certain phrase’s come from!
A couple of doors down from the Tour there is a shop just for men; it is a very specialised store..... “Utilikilts” makes kilts for men only which have pockets for holding tools whilst they work. If a woman wanted one of these kilts it would have to be redesigned.
After grabbing a coffee, Anya and i went up Smith Tower. It was built and opened on 4 July 1914, with 2 underground levels, and 42 levels, giving it a height of 522ft; it was the fourth tallest building in the world. It remained the tallest building west of Chicago for almost 50 years. The exterior on the first 2 floors is Washington White Granite, whilst all other floors it is pure White Ornamental Terra Cotta. The interior trim throughout is steel, hand finished to resemble finely grained mahogany. All interior hallways are wainscoted with matched Alaskan Marble, whilst the Lobby is panelled with Mexican Onyx.
On the 35th floor, which is the viewing floor, is the Chinese room, which is finished in genuine teakwood, hand carved and imported from China. There are 776 semi precious porcelain discs inset into the ceiling, and the room has ornately carved Blackwood furniture. There is also an almost 300 year old wishing chair which portends marriage within 1 year to genuine wishful single women who sit there. Did i sit in it?
To get up to the 35th floor, you ride up in the original 1914 Otis Elevator, its ornate brass and copper functional works of art are some of the last manually operated elevators on the west coast. The views from here were awesome, it was clearer than the views from the Space Needle, although we couldn’t quite see Mt Rainier.
Having seen our fill of the views and learning some of the history of the building, as well as identifying the buildings in the city, we headed back down making our way up 2nd avenue, admiring the changing styles of the buildings, i even saw the Norton Building!
Anya wanted to go to the Public Market so we wandered off that way, and she also wanted to see the Gum Wall – this is a wall where people having been sticking their gum on it for years. We didn’t find it, but had a good wander around the market and shops, and also spent time watching the fish throwers. I was passing on the information that i had picked up on my tour. We had dinner at the Pike Brewery, trying the home brew, rather pleasant.
There were a few places Anya wanted to find, which i happen to know roughly where they were so we wandered around, and even went shopping – although not buying. Then it was back to the hostel via the supermarket in Chinatown – International district – for me to get some food for my long train journey tomorrow, to chill out, and for me to make sure everything was packed.
The train was due to leave at 9.45am on Thursday, and i would get to Emeryville around 8.15am Friday with the transfer bus getting me across into San Francisco for 9am.
The fun of it all was that i would be seeing Theresa again, she was due to get on in Portland (just after lunch) heading for LA (getting in at 9pm!). Again i had a couple of different seat-mates, and the second lady was really nice, we talked.
I had lunch in the buffet car, i was on the last sitting and there was hardly anyone else around, it was the Portland stop, so i didn’t see Theresa get on. Later on in the afternoon, we met up and found that we had both booked in for the same sitting at dinner. Another chance for us to exchange news, and plans.
Sleep was not too bad, but i was awake really early so went to grab a cup of tea, and saw the sunrise over California. Theresa joined us later, but she was heading to the buffet car for breakfast, and would be back to say farewell, before i got off.
Strange how you meet up with people.
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