Seattle, March 2013

It has been several years since we visited Seattle, a town we love, but this year the Pac 12 women's basketball tournament played at Key Arena, Seattle Center.  Deb is a member of Rebounders, the OSU women's BBall rooters, and since the club had arranged for hotel rooms at a discount, we reserved seats on the Coast Starlight and showed up at the Albany Amtrak station in typical Oregon sunshine.

The train was delayed—2 to 3 hours—so we took in the local antique stores and found a Dehillerin copper mixing bowl.  Toward 4 we stepped out on the platform

and were soon headed north, enjoying views one does not get from I-5.

In no time, it seemed, we were running under Burnside bridge in Portland

and into Union Station, one of the finest train stations architecturally in the U.S.

Then on to Seattle.  Because we were so late, we couldn't go to our usual haunt, F.X. McRory's, and instead took a cab to the Mediterranean, grabbed a bite, hit the sack.  Next morning to Pike Market to eat at Lowell's.

Beside the best corned beef hash one can find anywhere, we like the view—and we liked to feed seagulls from the windows, which annoyed no end other tenants and passers-by on the street some four floors below.  The sash windows have been replaced with sealed double-paned glass, obstructing one of our pleasures but the view is still great: Elliot Bay cranes, ferries, and now the Seattle Great Wheel, a smaller version of the London Eye.

We wandered the market, full of flowers, fresh food, fish,

then back to the hotel and Key Arena for the bb game where Benny was waiting.

The ladies played well, despite the officiating (three Beaves fouled out), but faded at the end.

The Rebounders met at a Queen Anne street bar to drown their their sorrows, then adjourned to Ten Mercer for a scrumptious "Dine Around Seattle" meal (3 courses, $30):  for me, stuffed eggplant rollotini, halibut with lobster hash and sherry aioli, followed by a vanilla bean custard (actually a crème brûlée); Deb chose lobster bisque, parmesan crusted sole, and profiteroles, shown here.  Yum, yum, yum.

After, a few of us took to the Mediterranean's roof patio for the night sights.

In the morning, Deb and I went to the Seattle Art Museum for its special "Treasures of Kenwood House, London."  Kenwood House, a great house on the northern boundary of Hampstead Heath, has been undergoing restorations, and fortunately for us, much of its art is on tour.

We had been to the SAM more than once before, but I had forgotten its impressive ethnographic collections, especially from Africa and the Pacific Northwest, which we examined before and after the Kenwood exhibit.

The Kenwood exhibit included van Dyck, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Frans Hals, Turner, and a late Rembrandt self portrait—which I photographed, much to the consternation of a guard who had been after me earlier for looking too closely at a painting.

We returned to Pike Market, enjoying the sights and smells but found the antique stalls had all disappeared, so we headed down to the bay and on the way discovered another bronze pig.

At Ye Olde Curiosity shop, Deb paid Madam X for a fortune:

                                                 Round and round the ball will spin
                                                 Till it draws your good luck in 
                                                 Ah, I can foretell for you
                                                 Good luck in a month or two.
Madam X went on to say "Put another 50¢ in the slot and I will tell you more," but Deb settled for the good luck.

We had to ride the "Seattle Great Wheel," at 175 feet tall, the largest observation ferris wheel on the west coast (they claim, but still less than half the height of the London Eye), three revolutions for $25.19 (senior rate).

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Throughout, the gondolas stop to let passengers on and off so the ride is not continuous, making photographing easier for novices—and the views (though continually interrupted by wheel structure) are fine.

One of my goals this trip was to sample Olympias, Ostreola conchaphila, the only oyster native to the Pacific coast, once so plentiful that on the east shore of San Francisco Bay, shell middens were reported to be more than 60 feet high and 350 feet in diameter.  Olympias were driven almost to extinction by over-harvesting and water pollution, but are now enjoying a slow resurgence and are again available at a few specialty houses.  One of those is Elliott's Oyster House on Pier 56, where we headed next.  We sampled a number of oyster varieties, but the Olympia was by far the tastiest, and at $33 a dozen, probably the most expensive.  We tried other seafood: mussels, scallops, calamari, washed down with Genesis chardonnay and finished with chocolate souffle and Courvoisier.  Yum.

We wandered Pioneer Square, looking for antique stores that used to be scattered through the neighborhood but alas, have with a few exceptions shrunk or disappeared.  We found that the State Hotel was still advertising rooms for 75¢ but I suspect that the sign has been left more for atmosphere than for clientele.

We found Pacific Galleries antique mall on South Lander, 30,000 square feet of stuff that kept us busy for an hour or so.  Nothing leapt out at us but at least we found where some of the dealers have gone.

Back to Amtrak and a smooth trip, this time in daylight the entire way, along the shores of the East Passage, the Columbia, and finally the Willamette to Albany and home.