From the Yukon, we had a day and a bit in Vancouver. We were pretty bummed at leaving Whitehorse, but when we arrived in Vancouver, it was perfectly blue skies and nice and warm. We got to take advantage of the beautiful weather, heading out to Grouse Mountain, before getting the ferry back to the Vancouver waterfront, and wandering through to Stanley Park. The Vancouver waterfront is a really good example of a waterfront area done well. There is a great mix of nice sculptures, access areas, parks, cafes and the like. And sea planes! From the waterfront, we wondered around Stanley Park.
Next stop, Seattle. We jumped on the Greyhound, crossed the border into the US (surprisingly easy and friendly) and then into Seattle - famous for Hendrix and grunge, the Pike Place Markets, Frasier, the Space Needle and rainy weather. We were staying in the highly recommended City Hostel, a centrally located hostel, which was once located in the film district of Seattle. Nowadays, its been converted to an artsy hostel with each room including a mural painted by a local artist. We'd been in the hostel for around 15 minutes before we got pulled into a brewery tour through the city.
We tried two breweries plus a bar specialising in local microbreweries and high quality European beers. We tried some really tasty, interesting beers, including some nitrogen beers, double malted and all sorts of other tasty beers.
The next morning, we headed into Seattle, first checking out the Pike Place Markets - these are some special markets, going over three floors, spilling out onto the street and including all sorts of goodies, such as fresh seafood, fruit, flavoured pastas, all manner of craft, books, music, provisioners, loads of wonderful things.
From the markets, we headed to the Columbia Tower, the tallest building in Seattle. Our onging luck with the weather carried on, and we had a great view of the city, and Mt Rainier, the biggest mountain in Washington. From the highest place in Seattle, we headed underground. See, when Seattle was settled, the city wasn't really built high enough, and flooded twice a day with high tides. This was bad, but then they tried to introduce a sewerage system. The tailwater effects during high tides, combined with the higher elevation of the upstream houses, resulting in sewage blow-outs in the toilets stuck in the middle. Unpleasant. Anyways, there was a big fire in the early 1900s and most of the city burnt down. To fix two problems at once, they basically built the new city on top of the old. And now they do excellent tours through the old underground bit.
The next day, we headed to the Seattle Art Museum, which had the Picasso exhibition on. They had hundreds of drawings, paintings and sculptures by Picasso - we couldn't believe our luck. He was one hell of an artist, it was very cool to see. The rest of the museum was pretty sweet; there was a heap of African masks, some clever modern art, and a nice history section.
On our last morning, we headed to the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. The EMP had some pretty cool exhibits on Hendrix, the grunge movement and Seattle music history. There was a collection of smashed guitars from Jimi, Kurt, and *ahem* the Presidents of the United States of America. Their hands on exhibits were the best I've seen too. You can learn to play the drums!
So yeah, Seattle was cool. Good coffee, great sites, and surprisingly, excellent weather. Cool.
