I just got back from a little vacation to Seattle, Washington and northern California. While in Seattle area I helped my brother pack up his flat, as he is storing his belongings while he is out to sea (he is in the US Navy on board the USS Alabama) for the next 90 days and then will be discharged from the service when this tour of duty is complete. He and his wife, who is Mexican, plan on moving to Colorado and my brother will go to university to become a civil engineer and my sister-in-law will work as a nurse.
While my brother worked, I rode the ferry multiple times across the Puget Sound into the heart of Seattle. I took the Bill Speidel’s underground tour of the city – which was really cool! During the late 1800s the Bubonic plague hit Seattle and was spread as a result of rats roaming the street, which were at sea level. At that same time a fire burned most of downtown Seattle and the city council at the time decided that when the city was rebuilt it should have 1) raised streets to keep the rats at bay and 2) building constructed of brick or stone. The city began to rebuild and business realized what was the ground floor would eventually become the basement. It took twenty years to raise the 32-square blocks, but finally the task was complete. In the end more dirt was moved than in the construction of the Panama Canal. Most of the former ground levels were sealed and later became popular as heroine dens in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s Bill Speidel a newspaper writer and historian began purchasing many of the former ground-levels and created this tour to show folks what Seattle looked like prior to 1907.
Seattle is a beautiful city and in some ways reminds me of Edinburgh, or perhaps a cosy fishing village, though the population far exceeds a couple million in the Puget Sound area, though the fog, rain and copious amounts of islands, inlets and nautical mystic makes Seattle resemble something between San Francisco and Dublin. One of the most famous markets in the United States is Pike Place Market in Seattle and it is famous for selling fresh fish (from the fishermen or their agents themselves), tea, coffee, fresh flowers, and produce from the local inland farms. Starbuck’s first shop opened in Pike Place and Seattle is headquarters to three of America’s largest coffee companies – Starbucks, Peet’s Coffee, and Seattle’s Best, along with Market Spice Tea, which is an orange-spice black tea that is very popular in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. I ate way too much fish, but had to try the salmon, halibut, and cod (on different days of course ;-) )
From Seattle I headed south along US Highway 5, which is more commonly known as the Pacific Coast highway. As the name on the tin suggests, it runs right along the coast of the Pacific Ocean. I stopped a lot to walk on the beaches and take photos. I continued until I reached Redwood National Park, home to some of America’s tallest, largest, and oldest trees. One tree was so big that I actually drove my car through it – one of the more random things I did on my travels. The Coastal Redwoods are amazing and I spend time hiking/walking through them. It is very relaxing to walk though nature.
The next stop in California was Napa Valley – home to America’s largest wine producing region. It is also famous for two mineral water companies and many farms which produce fruits and nuts. My uncle and aunt have been living there, but are currently moving to Virginia, where my uncle has accepted a position as a facilities and maintenance manager at Mount Vernon – the home of George Washington. I obviously had to try the wine, which definitely has a different taste than French wine or Colorado wine. Touring wineries is really fun, but you have to be careful not to sample too much.
I skirted around San Francisco and then to Sacramento, where I toured the State Capitol Building and saw the home of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (who happens to share the same date of birth, though he was born 37 years before me). From Sacramento I raced back across Nevada and Utah to Colorado to attend a biometrics appointment for my student visa for the UK.
While my brother worked, I rode the ferry multiple times across the Puget Sound into the heart of Seattle. I took the Bill Speidel’s underground tour of the city – which was really cool! During the late 1800s the Bubonic plague hit Seattle and was spread as a result of rats roaming the street, which were at sea level. At that same time a fire burned most of downtown Seattle and the city council at the time decided that when the city was rebuilt it should have 1) raised streets to keep the rats at bay and 2) building constructed of brick or stone. The city began to rebuild and business realized what was the ground floor would eventually become the basement. It took twenty years to raise the 32-square blocks, but finally the task was complete. In the end more dirt was moved than in the construction of the Panama Canal. Most of the former ground levels were sealed and later became popular as heroine dens in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s Bill Speidel a newspaper writer and historian began purchasing many of the former ground-levels and created this tour to show folks what Seattle looked like prior to 1907.Seattle is a beautiful city and in some ways reminds me of Edinburgh, or perhaps a cosy fishing village, though the population far exceeds a couple million in the Puget Sound area, though the fog, rain and copious amounts of islands, inlets and nautical mystic makes Seattle resemble something between San Francisco and Dublin. One of the most famous markets in the United States is Pike Place Market in Seattle and it is famous for selling fresh fish (from the fishermen or their agents themselves), tea, coffee, fresh flowers, and produce from the local inland farms. Starbuck’s first shop opened in Pike Place and Seattle is headquarters to three of America’s largest coffee companies – Starbucks, Peet’s Coffee, and Seattle’s Best, along with Market Spice Tea, which is an orange-spice black tea that is very popular in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. I ate way too much fish, but had to try the salmon, halibut, and cod (on different days of course ;-) )
From Seattle I headed south along US Highway 5, which is more commonly known as the Pacific Coast highway. As the name on the tin suggests, it runs right along the coast of the Pacific Ocean. I stopped a lot to walk on the beaches and take photos. I continued until I reached Redwood National Park, home to some of America’s tallest, largest, and oldest trees. One tree was so big that I actually drove my car through it – one of the more random things I did on my travels. The Coastal Redwoods are amazing and I spend time hiking/walking through them. It is very relaxing to walk though nature.
The next stop in California was Napa Valley – home to America’s largest wine producing region. It is also famous for two mineral water companies and many farms which produce fruits and nuts. My uncle and aunt have been living there, but are currently moving to Virginia, where my uncle has accepted a position as a facilities and maintenance manager at Mount Vernon – the home of George Washington. I obviously had to try the wine, which definitely has a different taste than French wine or Colorado wine. Touring wineries is really fun, but you have to be careful not to sample too much.
I skirted around San Francisco and then to Sacramento, where I toured the State Capitol Building and saw the home of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (who happens to share the same date of birth, though he was born 37 years before me). From Sacramento I raced back across Nevada and Utah to Colorado to attend a biometrics appointment for my student visa for the UK.
