I didn't have an alarm set, but I woke up at 5:50 AM. That was 7:50 AM according to my body, which meant I slept 2 1/2 hours past my normal wake time. My body didn't feel like I had slept in, but my brain was up. Once my brain is up there's no sense fighting it, so I got out of bed.
Today's agenda didn't involve any riding. I think this was the first complete non-riding day I've had in almost 20 years of motorcycle trips. Instead, Shawn and I were going to go into Seattle and see the sights.
Shawn was scheduled to work the previous night until 3 AM. He said he was going to try and get done with work a little early so he could get home and get to bed, get a few hours of sleep, and then be up a little earlier than normal. I didn't expect him to be ready before 10 AM, so I had a few hours to kill until then.
I showered and shaved, then made a couple of the frozen breakfast sandwiches I had bought the previous night. I briefly considered going out and finding somewhere to have a more "proper" breakfast, but wasn't motivated enough to get back on the motorcycle.
One of the perks of this Airbnb was they provide six local eggs, along with some local coffee. I'd already eaten my sandwiches, so I decided to save the eggs for another time. Coffee sounded kind of good though. I'm the type of coffee drinker who needs cream and sugar. I rummaged through the basic condiments and cooking supplies in the fridge and pantry, but didn't find any cream or sugar. So no coffee for me.
I passed the time by downloading photos off of my time lapse camera, and doing some work on my website. In the first three days of the trip I already had 5,100 photos. I was going to have to do a lot of picking and choosing.
While I didn't turn on the TV during my stay, I did watch some YouTube on my laptop computer. I have a handful of channels to which I subscribe, and had fallen behind in my watch queue. So I worked on catching myself up a bit on those videos.
When 10 AM came and went, I still hadn't heard from Shawn. My goofy sleep schedule along with the time change was messing with me. I contemplated taking a nap, but was worried that if I did I would sleep through Shawn's text.
It was almost noon when Shawn finally messaged me. As it turned out, he didn't get to bed early. He had an incident coming home from work where he ran out of gas, and had to walk home to get a gas can, then walk back to his car. He didn't finally get to bed until almost the same time I got up that morning.
Around 12:30 he pulled into the drive to pick me up. I gave him a tour of my Airbnb, including the weird spot for the kitchen light switch. Then we hopped in his car and took off for Seattle, which was about an hour away not counting ferry crossing time.
We pulled up to the ferry right as a ship was pulling out of port, which meant we had a half an hour to wait. Shawn pulled into the line of cars and parked. Rather than just sitting there waiting, we got out and walked around.
Considering my website is all about me (that sounds really narcissistic, doesn't it?) it is remarkably devoid of photos that show me. I don't feel I'm that picturesque, so I prefer to be the man behind the camera. Plus, I'm often traveling or working alone when I take my pictures, so there's no one else around to take the photo.
While I was on Whidbey, Shawn was around to take my picture. I was reluctant, but he insisted, so I handed him my phone. Here I am standing on the dock. You can see the outgoing ferry in the background. I'm wearing my Peanuts Steely Dan shirt.
This year's trip probably includes more photos of me than all my other motorcycle trip pages combined.
We started to explore. The floor of the ferry dock was made from glass squares. I found that intriguing, so I snapped a picture.
As we were walking around, Shawn ran into a friend. He used to work with the guy at the grocery store where Shawn is employed. The friend had changed jobs and now worked for the Boeing plant that I had ridden by the previous day. While they were catching up, I walked around and took photos.
This is what the ferry docking station looks like without a ferry in it.
This is the ferry lot, with the town of Clinton behind it.
Across the water I could see Mount Baker. It was more than 100 miles away.
There are Killer Whales in the Puget Sound. I didn't see any myself, but there was a poster basically telling people to leave them alone.
The next ferry was arriving, so we made our way back to the car.
When it was our turn to board, Shawn drove onto the ferry. After we parked, we got out and started to explore the ferry. This was a different ship than the one I had been on the day before. It was very similar, but not the same.
We went up to the sun deck.
It was a very beautiful day. The temp was in the mid 70s, the sun was out, there wasn't any wind and the humidity was low. The water was extremely smooth.
The only waves were the ones created by the boats.
Each ferry ship has a name plate posted on the front. Shawn has a tradition of taking a selfie on every ferry trip with the name plate in the background. I didn't do a selfie, but I did take a picture of the name plate.
Shawn did grab a selfie of the two of us as we were sailing.
The ferry was approaching the other side, so we went to the front of the boat to grab some pictures as we arrived in Mukilteo.
As we approached the dock, a ferry worker was shooing us away from the front area. I quickly grabbed one last photo, then Shawn and I went back down to the car to get ready to exit.
Once off the ferry Shawn started driving towards Seattle. It was now pushing 2 PM, and he was getting hungry. I had eaten breakfast, but that was at 7 AM. Seven hours had passed, and I too felt like I could eat a little.
Shawn pulled into a McDonalds. I laughed because prior to this trip I hadn't eaten at a McDonalds in a long time, but this was now going to be the third time I'd had it in the last few days.
Shawn ordered nuggets, fries and a shake. I didn't want to pig out, but when I heard him order a shake it sounded really good. I ordered a Big Mac and a shake. I opted to skip the fries, even though my mouth wanted some. I wasn't fasting today, but that didn't mean I needed to go hog wild on calories.
After getting our food, Shawn momentarily pulled over to dump extra salt on his meal. He's always eaten a ton of salt on his food, ever since we were kids. Even in grade school he'd bring salt in his lunch box. Oftentimes he would eat it right out of the shaker. It was good to know that the tradition hadn't died.
I hadn't had a Big Mac in years. I bit into mine and had to admit, it was pretty tasty. It's a good sandwich, although I still think the Whopper is better. Also, the beef patties on the Big Mac have gotten noticeably smaller than they were when I was younger. I know McDonalds disputes this, and claims that the patties are within an ounce of their original size, but anyone with eyes and a memory can see the difference. The patties used to be the same diameter as the bun, but now they are obviously smaller.
We continued on our way towards Seattle. We got onto I-5 heading south, and traffic was thick as we drove. I attempted to take some pictures of the Seattle skyline and the space needle as Shawn navigated the car.
Not remembering exactly where we should get off the interstate, Shawn picked an exit at random. Fortuitously, it turned out to be the correct one. We found the Pike's Market, and parked in a nearby parking ramp. We walked out of the ramp and started to explore.
The day was clear so Mount Ranier was visible. Shawn said that some days there's clouds or fog so you can't see it. Today it was clearly poking up to the south of the city.
I snapped photos as we walked along the riverfront.
We entered the Pike's Place Market from the back side. The market is full of vendor booths. It reminded me a lot of the French Market in New Orleans. There were lots of local artists selling their work, and local farmers selling their produce.
I would later learn that Pike's Place is on the national list of historic places, and is the 33rd most visited tourist attraction in the world, with more than 10 million annual visitors. That averages out to over 27,000 people per day. It was pretty crowded as we walked around.
Across the street was the first Starbucks coffee shop. Apparently this wasn't the original location; it originally was located in a different spot a block away. At some point it moved to this location, and then after that moved to every other street corner in America.
It would have been kind of a novelty to order a coffee from the first Starbucks. Everybody else must have felt the same way, because there was a long line. I heard someone say it was a 45 minute wait.
Shawn asked if I wanted a coffee. This late in the day I would have to get decaf. I decided I wasn't going to wait 45 minutes for a decaf coffee. That's a long time to stand to get a cup full of disappointment.
Pike's Market is a popular place for fresh fish. Well, it's not popular from the fish's point of view. But popular nonetheless.
Someone was giving out free samples of smoked salmon. I'm not a huge fan of fish. The best fish is the kind of fish that doesn't taste like fish. Despite not being a fish guy, I tried a sample. I have to admit it tasted really, really good. Then I saw the price at $50 per pound. Yeah, it better be good for that price.
We saw Pike's Place Fish Market, which is one of the most recognizable shops at the market. They're famous for throwing the fish across the shop rather than just passing them around.
I tried to get some video of them throwing the fishes. None of them turned out especially well, so I didn't bother linking them here. Instead, here's a static photo:
We continued to wander around and explore. I noticed quite a few people were carrying bouquets of flowers. Upon inquiring I learned that flower vendors are another popular type of shop in the market.
Shawn took me down to the gum wall. For those of you as unfamiliar as I was with this tourist attraction, this is an area in the market where people have stuck their used chewing gum to the wall. And we're talking about the millions of people who visit Pike's Place every year..
Over the years the gum has collected, and the layer has grown thicker and thicker.
Back in 2015, against the wishes of most people, the city steam cleaned over 2,100 pounds of gum from the wall. People immediately resumed sticking their gum on the newly cleaned wall, at which the city decided to give up and live with the gum.
There was gum everywhere. Including the ground.
I like to think I have a pretty high tolerance to "ick." After standing near the gum wall for a few minutes I had reached my gross limit, which is an impressive feat. I felt like everything was starting to stick to me even though I wasn't touching anything. When Shawn suggested we move on I didn't argue one little bit.
We left the market area and walked along the waterfront. We were browsing around a shop featuring Bigfoot and pirates (an odd combination in my opinion) when I suddenly had another intestinal emergency. I told Shawn I would be back shortly.
I saw a sign with an arrow that pointed towards restrooms. That took me through this mall area with restaurants and other entertainment options. I finally came across some restrooms, but the sign emphatically stated that it was to be used only by the customers of the adjoining restaurant.
I weighed my options. After a brief moment of deliberation, I decided that having an incident while standing at the entrance to the restaurant would probably cost them more business than illegally using their toilet. I took a chance that upon entering the restroom an employee wasn't going to quiz me on what dish I ordered in order to prove I was a paying customer.
After a couple minutes, Shawn was wondering into what dimension I had disappeared. He walked around and snapped a couple of pictures while searching for me. Here's a merry-go-round near the restroom I was defiling.
And here's an arcade also in the vicinity.
Once my personal crisis had passed, I emerged and found Shawn waiting. I decided not to expound on the details of my experience, even if it probably wouldn't rival the grotesqueness of the gum wall. I don't remember what sheepish excuse I gave him for disappearing.
We continued to walk down the riverfront area. I snapped a picture of the tallest building in Seattle.
We saw the "Seattle Great Wheel" which is a giant ferris wheel about 200 feet tall. That gets a "hard no" from me. I don't do heights.
We continued wandering and talking.
One of the things Shawn had mentioned earlier was a "Seattle Dog." This is a kielbasa sausage on a bun, with cream cheese, grilled onions and peppers. While we were walking we came across a stand selling them. While neither one of us was unusually hungry, we decided that the chance to have a Seattle Dog doesn't come around every day (especially for me.) So we purchased a couple. I also ordered a lemonade.
It was pretty good. We both agreed that had the onions been a little sweeter it would have put the dog over the top.
Forty years ago when we were in high school, long before the age of digital photography and social media, Shawn and I started a habit of posing for pictures with our food. Back then it was done as a joke. Decades later taking pictures of your food has now become a ubiquitous trend. I'm not saying that we started the phenomenon, but I will say that I'm not aware of anyone doing it before us.
Anyway, we decided to keep the tradition alive.
The afternoon was waning. We had seen most of the sights of the market and boardwalk area, so we made our way back to the car. Which took a couple minutes of hunting to remember exactly in which building we were parked.
Because I'm a sports fan, we decided to drive by Lumen field (football) and T-Mobile park (baseball.) No games were happening today, but as long as we were nearby it would be cool to see the stadiums.
After weaving around various roads, we found ourselves on the back side of Lumen field. I hopped out of the car and took a quick photo.
T-Mobile park was just a couple blocks away. I snapped some pictures as we went by and sent them to the Tundra Boy, who's also a sports fan.
We drove around to the east side of the football stadium so I could get a picture of that side. Shawn quickly pulled over in the bus lane, and I hopped out and snapped the photo.
As luck would have it, right as we stopped a bus happened to be coming. I hopped back into the car, but by this time traffic in other lanes was blocking us so Shawn couldn't merge left. We drove down the bus lane trying to stay ahead of the bus. Eventually there was a gap in traffic and Shawn was able to get out of the way. By this time I noticed another driver had entered the bus lane to incur the wrath of the bus driver instead of us.
We continued north through downtown towards the Space Needle. Because of my aforementioned fear of heights I had no intentions of going up in it. However, because it's a Seattle icon it would be cool to see it up close.
Given its height, it's easily seen from quite a ways away.
We drove up underneath it, then made a right turn. We briefly discussed stopping to walk around, but then decided we'd probably already seen everything we would see on this day Space Needle-wise.
Google Images decided I needed to have a "stylized" version of my photo, so it made me one without me asking. Here it is:
Some people are worried about the direction that Artificial Intelligence is heading...
Next door to the Space Needle is the museum of pop culture. I'm not sure how interesting the contents of the museum is, but the architecture on the outside was unique.
I hopped out of the car to get a better picture. Thankfully this time we weren't in a bus lane.
Google gave me another "stylized" photo.
It was now a little after 6 PM. Shawn needed to start heading back to Whidbey so he could be at work in a few hours. Rush hour traffic meant that our return trip would likely be a little slower. So we started working our way towards the interstate.
It took nearly 20 minutes to move the final three blocks to the I-5 on-ramp. I figured the interstate itself would probably be gridlocked, but once we finally got onto the interstate it was moving surprisingly fast. There were lots of cars, but traffic was flowing.
About an hour later we pulled up at the ferry and got in line. There were a lot of cars in front of us. I assumed that we wouldn't make the next ferry loading at 7:30 and would have to wait for the 8 PM ferry.
It turns out I was wrong. We did make the 7:30 ferry, although we were one of the very last cars to be loaded.
Once again, we got out of the car and walked up to the sun deck. For this crossing we stood at the back side of the ferry the whole time.
We were engrossed in conversation so rather than walking around we stood and talked. The evening was very pleasant. Still no wind, and the temp was in the low 70s. This day was such a nice change from the previous three days in triple-digit temps.
Once we were across the sound, Shawn drove me back to my Airbnb and dropped me off. It was about 8 PM, and he needed to go home and change clothes and be at work by 8:45. We made arrangements to meet the next day, and Shawn vowed not to run out of gas this time.
I went upstairs and found myself in that in-between state; I wasn't very hungry, but I also wasn't very full. I knew I would probably want a little something to eat, but didn't need a large meal. I toyed with the idea of hopping on the motorcycle and riding to the Dairy Queen or maybe back to the grocery store, but then decided my motivation wasn't high enough.
I did have my bag of spinach, so I made myself a big salad. I also remembered the six eggs in the fridge. I didn't have any milk, but I did my best to scramble them up. Then I noticed some frozen blueberries and cherries left in the freezer, so I unthawed a bowl full of them.
Salad, eggs and fruit. It actually turned into a somewhat healthy supper. Although I later decided that six eggs was too much in one sitting.
Once I finished eating I went to clean the pan I'd used to cook the eggs and wash my dishes, but discovered I had no water pressure. I opened the faucet all the way but no water came out. I was curious if it was just the kitchen sink that was affected, so I tried the bathroom sink and discovered there was no water there either.
I wasn't sure what to make of the situation. I decided I'd just wait and see if it resolved itself. About 1/2 an hour later I tested the faucet, and got a little bit of water. Just a trickle. Not enough to really do dishes, so that would have to wait.
The next morning the water pressure was back. Oddly enough, the very first water I got out of the faucet was blue. Thankfully after letting it run for a minute the blue water cleared up.
I called home for a while and chatted with the Tundra Girl. Pretty soon it was 10 PM, which was supposed to be midnight according to my body, but really didn't feel like midnight. My body was already adjusting to Pacific time.
It was such a beautiful night outside I decided to open up the windows and sleep with the sound of nature. Except as I laid in bed I realized there were no sounds of nature. It was eerily quiet. Completely dead silent.
I wasn't used to that. Back home in South Dakota when we open the windows at night there is comparatively lots of sound. You constantly hear wind, crickets, cicadas, frogs, birds, distant traffic, etc. This was weird. I guess the good news was I would likely hear anyone trying to sneak through the window while I sleep.
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This page last updated on 12/10/2024