Seattle, Washington

I’ve chosen Seattle as the next installment in my trip blogs, for no particular reason. It is a vibrant city, full of colorful and interesting neighborhoods. It is close to the spectacular Olympic Peninsula, and not a far drive from the San Juan islands. It is a city divided by water. It is the home of grunge, the music of my most formative years. I still remember the day I found out about Kurt Cobain’s death, digesting it while sharing an illicit cigarette with a schoolmate of mine on a cold day. I guess I’ve chosen it for a variety of reasons, many reasons. There is something there that draws me, even though I had previously only visited once. Something beckoning.

The Fremont Troll was designed and sculpted by four artists. Located under the George Washington Memorial Bridge in Seattle, it was part of an effort to revitalize the area under and around the bridge.

Interestingly, as I write this midnight blog (east coast time), I note that I’m listening to Seattle native Macklemore–I didn’t choose him consciously, it’s just synchronicity I guess. I ended up driving from Eugene, Oregon, where some of my good friends live to Seattle because I had a photo gig there. One of my friends in North Carolina has a childhood friend in Seattle, and gave family photos to her as a very generous gift. Once I knew I was headed to Seattle, I was excited for a variety of reasons. I know several folks there, and I hadn’t been to Seattle except for a couple of days with my parents when I was a teenager. Reading about the Olympic Peninsula and the San Juan islands only served to increase my excitement, and I eagerly anticipated the drive up.

A public park on the site of the former Seattle Gas Light Company gasification plant.

For those who haven’t spent much or any time on the west coast, it is big. The drive from Eugene, Oregon to Seattle, Washington is roughly equivalent to driving from Durham, North Carolina (where I live) to Baltimore, Maryland. It is doable, but not inconsequential. On the way, you pass through the very flat, rural central Oregon, then on through Portland, and up through Washington to Seattle. If you’re lucky in January (I wasn’t) the weather isn’t super rainy or cold. Despite the clouds and rain and fog and endless truckers spraying sheets of water onto your windshield, despite the flatness and the farms and the sheep, the drive is not without it’s scenic moments. There is a vibrant city of food trucks in Portland, and the scenery is varied and changing as you drive. When you finally make your approach into Seattle, you can see Boeing Field spreading out under I-5 to your left, and the city skyline ahead of you, with Puget sound beyond.

Gas Works Park detail

I have to say, beyond grunge and the crab fishermen of The Deadliest Catch, I don’t have a lot of preconceptions about Seattle, other than it is a city vibrant with creativity, musical and otherwise. While there I spent time with inspirational creatives, ate fantastic food, saw a city bristling with culture, commerce, and history, and drank some of the best beer I’ve had the privilege to drink (and yes, I *do* understand that Dechutes is in Bend, Oregon, not anywhere in Washington. But it’s damn good beer, and you can’t get it in North Carolina). It was a great cultural experience, and a nice foil to my time in nature on the Olympic Peninsula, contrasting the rural with the urban, the natural with the ingenuity and craft of humankind.

Rather than ramble on, I’ll just share some of my photos from around town–Gasworks Park, Fishermen’s Terminal, The Fremont Troll are among the things you’ll see (I’ll try to caption them more than usual so that you have some idea of what you’re looking at).