We were taken on a guided tour of Seattle. It's a fabulous way to get to hear lots about a place.
We started off in Pike's Place, probably the place Seattle is most proud of. This is where the first Starbucks opened. There are hundreds of little shops and booths. We actually came back to Pike's Place several times, and I still don't think we saw it all.
Some of the really cool stuff was all of the glass art. Apparently there are several glass artists who have settled in Seattle. It made me wish I didn't have to worry about traveling so far to go home, there was a very neat clock that I was wishing I could bring home. Some of the art, I had no idea what it was, or what it could be used for, or how anyone could move it without breaking it. I did end up buying myself some little glass bead earrings, so I did bring home some of that history.
We drove around on a bus and passed by several notable things, most of which I can't remember any more. But one really cool thing was the floating houses. They are houses built next to piers and tied up. They don't have motors, they are never made to move, but they live on the water! The Tom Hanks character in "Sleepless in Seattle" lived in a floating house. We drove by that dock. That very house was just sold for 2.1 million! She told us that before the movie it wasn't even worth $200,000. The floating houses were originally built as low-income housing.
Next we went to the Chittenden Locks. This is at a canal that was dug between the Washington lake and the Puget Sound. There used to be just a stream connecting the two. They built the canal and locks so large boats could travel between the two. The lake is at a higher elevation than the sound so the boat have to be raised or lowered, depending on which way they're headed. We were lucky enough to witness this, as a tour boat went through while we were there.
After the locks we drove over to Freemont where they have the motto "De Libertas Quirkas" which they translate to mean "Freedom to be peculiar". They have a lot of public art, like a troll under a bridge, and statues of people waiting for the bus (with a dog that has a likeness of the mayor's face). We stopped at Theo's Chocolates, which is a chocolate factory. This factory is one of the very few in America that starts with the raw cacao bean instead of importing already processed cocoa liqueur. They were also proud to point out that they've gone to extremes to make sure none of the farms they import from use child or slave labor, and (surprise, surprise) they're all organic. They gave us a tour of their factory and we had a chocolate tasting session (similar to a wine tasting I'd imagine). She gave us hints on how to properly eat chocolate and tried to draw out descriptive words from us as we ate like "nutty, fruity, spicy, smooth, acidic). We tried chocolates made with beans from different countries, or processed differently, and although, I could taste the difference then, I can't tell you now which was best. Gordon was impressed enough that he bought the Coconut Curry Milk Chocolate even with the $7.00 price tag! I guess I'm not sophisticated, I think I still like the normal chocolate I can find in Smith's better.
That was our tour, other than the drive home, which of course, pointed out things like the Space Needle. Gordon and I went inside that another day, so we'll get to that on another post.
