Vacation--Day 2

It was cloudy and cool today.  Great for walking around Seattle.  And that is what we did.  Lots and lots of walking.  However I have good news and bad news.  Bad news first.

Bad news--I forgot to take my camera.  

Good news--Steve let me use his to take pictures.

Bad news--I don't have the correct size USB cable to download the pictures.

Good news--I will get the pictures.

We spent most of our time walking around the pioneer district of Seattle.  We took a tour of Seattle's underground.  Seattle has quite a colorful history.  Originally, Seattle was built at sea level.  When the tide would come in the city streets would become quite muddy.  Then one hundred and twenty years ago today, June 6, 1889, a Seattle cabinetmaker accidentally overheated a pot of glue and ignited his shop at 1st Avenue and Madison Street.  Fanned by a hot, dry breeze, the flames quickly spread through the wood-framed downtown. Volunteers struggled to douse them, but the town's privately owned water system delivered only a trickle of water. By that night, 64 acres of central Seattle had been reduced to rubble.  The good thing that came out of the fire was the fact that when they rebuilt Seattle they rebuilt the city one story higher.  That left many tunnels where the old sidewalks had been and the first floor of many old buildings became the basements.  There is a lot more to the story than that but so much for today.  Taking a tour of the underground is a must.

I was not planning on buying anything but when you walk through Pike Place Market you might as well plan of finding something you will want to buy.  I found a couple of things that I really wanted.  One was a wooden frog that sounds like it is croaking when you rub its back with a stick.  The other two things were sculptures made from Mt. St. Helens volcanic ash.  One sculpture is a totem pole the other is an Eskimo in his kayak.  

Pike Place Market is nine acres of every kind of shop you can think of.  You can never see it all in one day.  But if you ever go there you have to see the fish market with the salmon throwers.  When someone says he wants to buy a fish one salesperson in front of the counter throws the fish the buyer has picked out to another salesperson behind the counter who wraps the fish.  It is pretty funny.  There was an octopus there and one of the salesman picked up the fish and chased some of the kids that were watching.  They also had an ugly fish called a Monk Fish rigged up so that if someone got close to it a guy would pull a string and the fish would jump at you.

We came back to our hotel completely worn out.  We enjoyed our day!