Seattle - May 29

 

Pike Place Market

Today started with the Fairmont Olympic hotel’s included breakfast. We had $72/day for breakfast, which sounds ample, but…it was enough, including tax and tip, it just covered it. I had their Olympic breakfast (eggs, bacon, potatoes, toast) Chris had Eggs Benedict. Often hotel’s included breakfast is a buffet, which is much more practical, offering a wider selection, but this al a carte experience was relaxed, civilized and pleasant. 

Hammering Man

We booked “Seattle 101” as our first real activity, a 2 hour, “pay what you feel” walking tour to orient us to Seattle’s downtown. We saw and learned about Seattle’s historic centre, the waterfront and general downtown. There were many opportunities for photos of the skyline, landmarks and mountains. This tour also gave info about happy hours, restaurants and other Seattle activities. The guide was among the best of the million guides we’ve had in the past…the perfect balance of stories, pace, history and recommendations. This was a great way to start out time in Seattle. 

Next was a bit of shopping and back to the room for some down time before this evening’s Seattle Mariners baseball game. 

Smith Tower

According to Jake, “Seattle 101’s” guide, Seattle has a big Happy Hour culture…not terrible news for us. However, the terrible news for Seattle as he went on to explain is because post-pandemic downtown Seattle is 30% emptier and the restaurants and bars that remain are struggling to survive…hence the Happy Hour. None of this is a surprise and not exactly unique to Seattle. Long story short…we benefit. Today’s Happy Hour is at Salty’s on the water. We have 2 cocktails and bruschetta, not clams. We WANTED the clams, but they were out. We figured we could reach down into the water and touch some clams, but nope…bruschetta was going to have to do-it did, very tasty!

T-Mobile Stadium is about 2K from Salty’s. Of course we had to stop for a pre-game pint where we weren’t IDed, but were assessed as old enough. 

cool wall

The game was good, didn’t buy any Mariners gear, had a $12 Rainer beer, some chicken strips and that was that. We tried for one last stop on the way back to the hotel, but no luck-maybe Jake knew what he was talking about. We settled on a 500ml box of 7-11 wine and room service. 

That 7-11 was an interesting place. As Jake mentioned, downtown empties after work as no one lives here and

Happy Hour

there really is nothing drawing people. Today also happens to be Memorial Day so, we’ll see if anything changes for the rest of the week. We have noticed a significant homeless population all day in fact, but especially at night. I’m no stranger to homeless folks, people sleeping in doorways and other realities of downtowns, but I can’t say I’ve ever seen anyone pull down their pants and get down to business right in front of me. I occasionally see the results of this business and when you gotta go, you gotta go, but this was something-definitely reminded me to be thankful I have somewhere to go. 

Yup

A room service club sandwich and glass of 7-11 wine hit the spot. Oh, and checking in on the election too.