Pioneer Square

The day began overcast and gray, so we decided to make it a tourist day. The first stop was the Pioneer Square area. As the name denotes, Pioneer Square is the original downtown Seattle. The modern downtown has migrated northeast, leaving the original Renaissance Revival brick buildings of Pioneer Square to serve as reminders of the past. The first thing we noticed was the tree-lined streets. Most downtown areas are almost sterile with buildings from street-edge to the sky. The Pioneer Square area had a main street with a median planted with trees. They are now mature trees shading the whole street. We parked next to Century Link Field, the home of the dreaded Seattle Seahawks (It seems like everyone in Seattle is wearing a World Championship Seahawks shirt). Occidental Park is a shady respite within the Pioneer Square area that is shared by the homeless who gather here, and the workers from nearby shops and businesses who sit at tables and sip their coffee. The park is bordered by an ivy-covered brick building that houses a bakery and deli. Patrons sit at tiny tables scattered around the square.

In another corner of the square is the Seattle Fallen Fire Fighters Memorial. "Although inspired by the four firefighters that died in the line of duty while fighting a warehouse fire in Seattle's Chinatown International District on January 5th, 1995, the Fallen Firefighter's Memorial is a respectful tribute to all thirty-one firefighters that have died in the line of duty since the department began in 1889."

Right across the street from the fire fighters memorial is the original headquarters building for UPS. The headquarters is gone, but a foundation constructed the Waterfall Garden Park in its place. It is literally a man-made waterfall park surrounded by tables and trees in the middle of the city. It's tiny, but it seems to fit right in with Pioneer Square. Pioneer Square is not going to be at the top of anyone's list of things to see in Seattle, but it had its own charm and a feeling of stepping back in time to a slower pace. Only the homeless situation detracts from the scene. That seems to be where the modern world infringes on the historical feel of the neighborhood.

One of the interesting things about Pioneer Square is that they have an annual spring cleaning. They publicize the date, and volunteers come down to Pioneer Square to fix it up and clean it. I guess that's their equivalent of our clean the beaches days.

Japanese Garden

We drove through modern, downtown Seattle, crossed over the hill, and dropped down to the Washington Park Arboretum. Time for our PBJs. After lunch, we walked over to the Japanese Garden. The Japanese Garden wasn't as big as the Huntington Library garden and didn't have a fancy teahouse, but every plant was perfectly pruned and seemed to be chosen for a specific purpose. Views across the garden or over a bridge or rocky area were carefully planned so moving even a few feet in another direction changed the entire view. The garden seemed to be designed to limit you to a stroll at best. There were far too many things to see to hurry through the garden. While we were waiting for some other people to clear out of our shot of a bridge, I noticed an osprey fly over just above the lake. He flew across the open area and landed in a giant blue spruce. Keep in mind, we're right in the middle of Seattle and only about 2 miles from the main downtown area. A few minutes later, the osprey flew away and we forgot about him for the moment. A few minutes later, he returned, dived into the koi pond, and left with dinner. The water in the pond was so shallow that he couldn't dive into the water. Instead, he opened his wings as he hit the water and kind of "splatted" on the surface. It wasn't graceful, but he had obviously perfected his technique for this feeding area. If that osprey gets one koi per day, the Japanese Garden better have a good breeding program.

Kerry Park

From the Japanese Garden, we drove to Kerry Park, one of the most-famous areas in Seattle. The classic shot of the Space Needle with Mt. Rainier in the distance is taken from Kerry Park. We found a front-row parking spot and walked over to the viewing platform. The morning clouds and haze had mostly burned off, but Mt. Rainier was hidden by clouds in the distance. The view of Seattle was striking, but it really needed Mt. Rainier. We decided not to wait for sunset and hit the freeway just ahead of rush-hour traffic.

After dinner, we took a walk around the campground lake and were stopped by a group sitting outside their motorhomes. They were obviously southerners, and one of the men was very intent on telling us a story:

A guy in Georgia called 911. When the operator asked, "What is your emergency?" he answered, "I think my wife just died." The 911 operator asked him what street he lived on. He said "Eucalyptus Street." When the operator asked him to spell the street name, there was a long pause. Finally he said, "Is it OK if I just drag her down to Oak Street and call you back?" They were a very friendly bunch and had plenty more stories.