Seattle: Oh Hoollleee Jesus!

Downtown Seattle Skyline by Night

Seattle seems to be a logical place that most road trippers coming down from Whistler seems to stop off at, but usually only for a night. I would highly recommend spending a couple of days here, and if it's football season, do yourself a favour and get amongst the 12s and get to a game.

Getting in early from Port Angeles early we plugged in 'park' into young love Sammy J (our GPS) and were pleasantly surprised with what she delivered (she later let us down big time mind you!). Gas Works Park is an old gas plant set on the banks of Union Lake with a pretty impressive view of downtown Seattle. A nice spot to have our usual 'on the road' lunch of Walmart roast chicken and potato salad.

Seattle Skyline & Union Lake viewed from Gas Works Park

After this we wandered around the Fremont area taking in the various art installations, some more impressive than others. The Troll, the Lenin Statue and the ivy Diplodocus are probably the top 3, but all up it's a nice way to spend an afternoon in a pretty eclectic suburb.

Fremont Art Installations

After this we did something Nic and I have been waiting to do for some time: spend an afternoon chilling out in an American College – University of Washington. We strolled down Sorority and Fraternity Alley – don't think it's actually called this but it's what we decided on. We then strolled around the uni and both came to the conclusion that we really should have done an exchange back in the day. Oh to have our time again!

University of Washington - complete with Sorority and Fraternity Alley

After this we headed out to our Couch Surfer's place in north Seattle. Again, CS didn't disappoint. Marc, our host, actually took us for a quick tour of the city with the first stop at a friend's place who has just moved in to downtown Seattle. From the top of his apartment building you get a better view than from the top of the Space Needle – I say this because you actually get to see the Space Needle from this particular vantage point.

An apartment with a view

To the west you get the Elliot Bay, Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains, to the north you get the Cascades, to the east you get the seaplanes landing on Union Lake and to the south (on a clear day) you get Mount Rainier – all from smack bang in the heart of Seattle!

Downtown Seattle viewed from above

After a stop off at a local pub for a feed Marc took us up to Kerry Park where you get an iconic view of downtown Seattle – at night it's simply beautiful. I imagine sunsets would be pretty special up here as well.

Seattle by Night viewed from Kerry Park

Tuesday was a day that was aptly described by Imogen as 'running around like headless chooks'! A quick tour through Pike Place Markets was followed by an amusing stop off at Gum Wall – a wall now dedicated to used gum – not something I am very fond of. Still I think I handled the experience a little better than the dry-reaching ladies of our group!

Pike Place Markets & Gum Wall

After this fun-filled adventure we headed off for a stroll through Capitol Hill – one of Seattle's more diverse suburbs with a mixture of grit and class right next to each other. This is where the headless chooks started to roam free!

It didn't help that the hostel's (where the girls were staying at) directions were one block off each time but we eventually found the recommended coffee store, which lived up to expectations, and a bite to eat, which didn't. Still the coffee in Seattle is rumoured to be some of the best in the States, and after a number of samples, Nic has decided the rumours are true.

Sampling the finer side of Seattle

Next up was Volunteer Park which was said to have a spectacular view of the city. After lapping this one the only thing we found was a spectacular view of some trees obscuring the skyline.

Next up in the string of calamities was our trip out to Discovery Park. En-route, young love Sammy J just decided to pack up and leave – probably should have called her 'Laydown Sally'! Reverting to the tried and true measure of road maps wouldn't have been too bad, if we had a road map! Still we had a few 'tourist maps' that showed the main arterial roads so we thought we would give it a crack – we shouldn't have bothered! Again Discovery Park was meant to command a spectacular view – we just didn't know what of. We had thought it might be back towards downtown, the Puget Sound and the surrounding mountains but we didn't get much in the way of anything.

Surprisingly we made it back downtown to the girl's hostel without too much fanfare and then the fun started of trying to remember how to get back to Marc's place with no GPS and no maps. After chasing our tail for a few blocks trying to get back onto the interstate, we finally stumbled across it and from there it was relatively painless.

That night we got to meet Marc's room-mate Josh, who actually got Marc into Couch Surfing and had just returned from a quick trip to Germany and Turkey. All from sign-up bonuses and reward points on his credit cards – smart man if you ask me!

The next day we caught up with Lauren and Imogen again, and checked out the EMP Museum, which given we thought it was planned as a museum dedicated to Jimmy Hendrix but didn’t contain any Hendrix memorabilia, you'd think we'd have been bitterly disappointed. We weren't.

They have a pretty interesting array of 'experiences' from Sci-fi, to Music, to Pop Culture. The highlights would have been the Nirvana exhibition and the Interactive Music experience. The 'Taking Punk to the Masses' exhibition took you from the band's formation through to their untimely end, along with their everlasting effect on music and the Grunge movement. The interactive music floor allowed you to mess around with everything from drums and guitars, to mixing tables and sound booths where you could spend all day trying to be a rock star.

'Taking Punk to the Masses'

The girls also left me to my own devices for the 'We Are 12' experience – an interactive exhibition of the Seattle Seahawks and their recent success at Superbowl XLVIII. It almost made me wish I actually supported the Seahawks in the last Superbowl, and definitely made me want to go to a game in Seattle as some point in time. Fair to say I am even more jealous of your playoff game Powder!

That night, with all the Sasquatch! crew in town we all took on another Seattle experience – Buffalo Wild Wings. Although our Couch Surfing hosts said it's not remotely Seattle-like. Just to explain, our mate Powder spent some time with us in Whistler over the New Year and then headed down on his own West Coast road trip where he started it all off with a bang – a Seahawks playoff game and a restaurant/bar where if you like sports, wings and a dessert that requires open heart surgery, then Wild Wings is your heaven on earth. The next morning is hell on earth – for those who partook in the dessert nachos experience and for those who are simply around you the next day. Just ask Ness and some of the other guests at the Green Tortoise!

Oh Hooollleee Jesus!

The struggle is real!

As Powder recently said to me, 'it makes me so happy to be able to share such a unique experience with another human. You can't explain it. You just need to do it'.