Seattle, washington
Good bye Ovation
One final view from our balcony as the ship docks in Seattle, WA
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just walk across the parking lot to this ship? Not nearly as fancy as ours, but we won’t be picky.
This is the Smith Cove Cruise Terminal at Pier 91. Opened on June 30, 1962.
What a shot that mommy took? Front row seat awaiting for the ride. Overall, this port was trash comparing to the Cruise Terminal back in Vancouver. This terminal is all outdoor, remote from downtown Seattle.
University St Station, No 1 line Airport Express to airport car rental.
Chinatown
First stop, for some food that we missed for 12 days. The streets were not very elegant, difficult to find parking, but in terms of a feeling of security it was way better than Vancouver Chinatown.
Space Needle
This is the iconic, 605-ft. tall spire at the Seattle Center. The full-service rotating SkyCity restaurant is no longer in operation, in its place is the Loupe Lounge that is super expensive for nothing more than drinks and snacks. Click here for the Space Needle Fact Sheet.
Adult admission: $35 USD
Address: 400 Broad St, Seattle, WA 98109, United States
April 21, 2022 marked 60 years since the Space Needle's grand opening for the Century 21 Exposition (Seattle's Worlds Fair). To kick off the year-long anniversary celebration, the Space Needle's roof was painted its original colour — Galaxy Gold!
Chihuly Garden and Glass
Adult admission: $32 USD
Right next to the Space Needle.
Amazon Headquarter
At 2111 7th Avenue, Seattle, Washington, U.S. The Amazon Spheres are three spherical conservatories located along Lenora Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, under Day 1 in Amazon's Seattle headquarters campus.
Amazon Go is a new kind of store featuring the world's most advanced shopping technology. No lines, no checkout – just grab and go!
Shoppers scan a smartphone app to enter the store. Cameras and sensors track what's taken off shelves. Items are charged to an Amazon account after leaving.
You do need a US delivery address already set up before the Amazon App will allow you to scan in the store code.
The In-Store code showing on my App is a QR code that can be used for payment in all Amazon fresh stores, Whole Foods Market, and Amazon Go like this one.
I took the product I wanted off the shelf and just went and left the store. That’s it. No lines and no checkout. The sales receipt came on my phone around 10 minutes after exiting the store. But I can tell you that it was a very weird feeling walking out without paying. Silly me actually stood outside for a minute waiting for the security guard to come chase after me, but no one did.
Pike Place Market
This market opened on August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the United States. More than 10 million visitors come here every year.
One of the Market's major attractions is Pike Place Fish Market, where employees throw three-foot salmon and other fish to each other rather than passing them by hand. When a customer orders a fish, an employee at the Fish Market's ice-covered fish table picks up the fish and hurls it over the countertop, where another employee catches it and preps it for sale.
This was done in slow-mo. I waited 30 minutes for this shot. They usually does the throw fish when either there is sufficient crowd or someone actually buys a fish. I loved the effect. Talking about getting the right angle, this couldn’t get any better.
Here is another throw fish from another angle. Watch the older gentleman at the end of the video.
This photo was taken at another vendor, the lobster tail is much bigger and cheaper than the Pike Place Fish Market ($89.99). I guess when you are that famous, you can charge more than the other guy. But whether anybody would actually buy is another story.
These are huge suckers.
Funny story. The mouth of this fish is hooked to a rope that extends to the counter. Many tourists would knee down to pose for a picture in front of the fish, and this is when the employees would pull on the rope, making the dead fish move its mouth, and that scares the shit out of the tourists.
I wished we had a place to cook this. It sounds delicious.
My backup plan for retirement? They have PTO.
Read the sign above my wife. This is Pike Place Market's unofficial mascot, Rachel, a bronze cast piggy bank that weighs 550 pounds (250 kg), has been located here since 1986 under the "Public Market Center" sign. See next picture.
Across the street from the fish market, at Pike Place and Pike Street, see the road signs behind me, and just a few steps to my right is the famous and first Starbucks that is still in operation today.
The first Starbucks store, founded in 1971, was originally located at 2000 Western Avenue. In 1977 it moved one block away to 1912 Pike Place where it has been in continuous operation ever since. I guess saying it this way is better than to say that this is in fact the second store and the first store is no longer there! This first/second store was opened by three partners: Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker.
See the line up outside, that’s the lineup to get inside Starbucks. Personally I am not a Starbucks fan. But once in a while I wouldn’t mind a large Vanilla Bean Crème Frappuccino.
Across the street from the market is the waterfront full of eateries.
This is the Great Wheel at pier 57 - Miners Landing. The Wheel is a 53-meter tall giant Ferris wheel. At an overall height of 175 feet, it was the tallest Ferris wheel on the West Coast of the United States when it opened in June 2012. The line up was always over an hour long, regardless day or night. The reason being the pods were too small, maximum of 8 people in each of the 42 pods, for about 336 people together, and it was taking too long to offload and to get on. Each ride is 3 rotations at about 12 minutes long. Comparing this to the London Eye, the London Eye has 32 air-conditioned capsules representing the 32 Boroughs of London. With each capsule on the London Eye holding 25 passengers, this makes a total capacity of 800 people. And by the way, you can see the Big Ben and the Parliament from the capsules. That view alone is priceless. Also, the tickets are timed, so you never have to stand long in lines to board.
Fun fact: The London Eye does not stop to take on passengers; the rotation rate is slow enough to allow passengers to walk on and off the moving capsules at ground level.
The wheel does not go this fast. But just imagine if it did. There would be no lineups, but instead lots of people throwing up.
Next we found this cosy little place by the water that sells the Dungeness Crab for $45 USD. We have never had one before, it was very meaty and delicious.
The Garage where Jeff Bezos started Amazon
10704 NE 28th Street in Bellevue, Washington
Not too far away
Bill Gates’ house
1835 73rd Ave NE, Medina, Washington, USA
Only 9 minutes from Jeff Bezos’ house
Well, the house is so big you can’t see much from this entrance. It is reportedly 48,160 sq ft (4,474 sq meter), with 24 bathrooms.
This was his workplace in Redmond Washington, 17 minutes from his house. The entire campus was very plain. The only thing to tell its Microsoft are signs like this.
Photo Credit for photos below:
Deanna Teske
Circa: March 2011
The Speed Needle back in 2011. This is the original colour. It was painted white in December 1961.
I was trying to take some night scenes with my Nikon D2X, but the ISO available on this camera was too low for the job. I couldn't get a single shot.
These were taken by my colleague with her Canon Rebel t2i, and a few on her digicam.
The Pike Place Market back in 2011. Notice any changes since?
Outside the original Starbucks. My colleague used to work in a Starbucks, so this place has a special meaning to her. While inside, she asked to see cup tossing over the counter.
This was my dinner at the SkyCity restaurant that is no longer there. I had a Tomahawk steak.