#5BDA Seattle Slew

You might ask why the first target in the Grumpy Bulldog Does America tour was Seattle.  I would say:  why not?  Starbucks, Amazon, Boeing, and Microsoft are all headquartered in that area so there's a strong economy.  It was the home of bands like Pearl Jam (also Nirvana, but they're not one of my faves).  It's in a blue state.  It might rain a lot but you're on the Pacific coast so there's less snow.  Like Michigan Canada is pretty close by if you feel like going there.

In my greatest fantasies I would have found a job and place to live and just stopped there.  To that end I sent out resumes on LinkedIn and looked at the want ads, but nothing happened.  Not even a temp agency calling to kick the tires.  Maybe the economy was too good for the likes of me.

And things got off to a rocky start when I got pulled over because my car was halfway in an intersection because traffic ahead of me was not moving at all.  But at least the cop was nice enough not to give me a ticket.  Still, it didn't really make me feel wanted.  It was like when I went to Canada in 2010 and they pulled me over at the border to search my car; it's not exactly rolling out the welcome mat.

The next day I didn't do much of anything except go somewhere to get a pizza and a newspaper and go back to my motel.  But finally the day after that I went to Alkili Beach which has a great view of the city skyline.  And a beach if you have a beach body.  I did some walking and got some nice pictures, which made me feel a little better.

Then the next day I went into Seattle proper.  I soon found out it is really hilly.  A lot of steep hills that made it really annoying at intersections.  They'd be even worse in ice or snow.

I went to the Pike Place market which was packed and almost impossible to get a nearby parking space.  It wasn't a lot of fun then because there were so many people that you couldn't really do anything unless you like standing in line.

After lunch I went to the Space Needle.  It was a little hard to get there with construction in the area but I found a lot and walked.  But I only put like an hour's worth of change in the meter so I couldn't spend tons of time there.

But it was pretty freaking cool at the top of the Needle.   The weather was nice enough that I got some great shots.  As I said I'd have liked to stay longer but I didn't want my car to get towed or anything and it was far enough away and getting up and down the Needle is enough of a hassle that you can't just run over, put change in, and run back like at some store in a small town's downtown.

That was pretty much it for Seattle.  I didn't feel like spending a lot of money on museums and stuff so mostly the last day or two I hung around suburban Seattle writing and stuff.  The last day we got some of that famous Seattle rain but otherwise the weather was pretty good the rest of the time.

I had realized by then Seattle and I were not going to be.  And so I continued my journey alone...