seeing the seedy side of Seattle

 I had this memorable dream months ago that I moved to Seattle.  Unfortunately, I moved to outer Seattle, like the suburbs.  I could see the city but I was working a lot so I had no time to make it into the city and no car so I was stranded, looking at the city but unable to enjoy it.

That's kind of how tonight went.  We got out to our hotel in the U district and everyone was too tired to make any effort to go into the city.  Plus it began raining and I didn't know what I'd do in town anyway.  So we called it an early evening.  While I could have went to out using public transport, it reminded me of my dream in that I felt stranded.

This is why I love Portland.  Portland is easy to maneuver around, especially if you have a bike.  The hills of Seattle and the ridiculous layout make biking a challenge here unless you really know what you're doing.  Fortunately, we got out during the day so I can say that I earned my apathy in the evening.

My dad and the family friends and their daughter went to the game.  They were only able to get four tickets so that left my mom and me to go out and see Seattle.  We walked west up an endless staircase and grabbed a bus downtown.  I had no idea that Seattle had underground tunnels for their transit system.  I also got a chance to see the other underground Seattle as well.

In 1889, there was a big fire due to a lot of stupid circumstances.  It burnt the downtown down and the residents decided to take the opportunity to build upon the old city, raise themselves above the tide of the sake of safe sewage and created an underground Seattle.  The actually underground tunnels (pictured in the second picture) weren't that impressive but the story of the underground was entertaining (despite the look of my mother in the third picture).  The tour guide is the person in on the right in the fourth picture.  After the tour, my mom and I got Lebanese at Zaina and then walked around the piers.  We took the bus back and then I convinced my mom to walk up more hills so I could check out the vegan district near the U.  Incidentally, we went to an English pub (the Rat and the Raven) and some UW guy legitimately thanked my mom for supporting UW.  She thought he was being sarcastic and pointed to her Nebraska sweatshirt but he said that they appreciated the NE fans filling up the stadium (and also bolstering the Seattle economy by an estimated 2 million.

Seattle is a pretty place but it's also pretty confusing.  It's sort of like they took a large square city grid, dropped in on the edge of Washington and whatever parts were over water just fell into the bay.  It seems that every inch of these peninsulas and coves are covered in sprawl.

Ultimately, I finished my day satisfied.  While it was odd to be calling it such an early evening on a Saturday, it was nice, simple and I didn't feel the pressure to head back downtown (since I was soaked and my calves already got a workout).