South Seattle

Seattle has sort of stumbled into mass transit - delays and compromise have finally produced a trolley when what we really need is a subway. Heavy rail, not Lite. Not that it isn't a nice way to get around - it just seems like so little, so late.

Sound Transit's new Central Link, from downtown to the airport (well, almost), isn't likely to become part of my regular commute, but maybe in twenty years it will be part of the commute of many others. Right now, there are plenty of seats and everything is nice and new, including the ticket vending machine at Westlake that scanned my Visa, but locked up before giving me a ticket. A real person at the nearby booth gave me a round-trip pass.



Tukwila. The end of the line, until they finish the airport station at the end of the year.
































Rainier Beach. Next time, I'll bring my bike and ride over to Kubota Gardens or one of the parks on the lake.

































Othello. Another brief stop to wander around. Close to lots of new housing and a growing business core.



























Columbia City. A five minute walk from the center of the Columbia City business district and a pleasant lunch at the Columbia City Alehouse.





































Beacon Hill. Deep in the ground, too deep for escalators, so fast elevators instead.

























SoDo. That's SOuth of DOwntown.






































Pioneer Square. Last stop for me today.

Pike Place Market

Weeks ago I decided to take Friday off. What's amazing is that I actually managed to keep it free and really did take it off. And what a great day for it. Most of it was spent in urban exploration - beginning with a bus downtown. The market was packed with the normal crowd plus a big cruise boat contingent.

Ganges

Sort of a strange name for a town on Salt Spring Island, until you think about Victoria and the British Colonies and the fact that there was a Royal Navy ship called the HMS Ganges that pulled up here around 1860 in search of free trade coffee, garlic dill goat cheese, and tie dye t-shirts.

It's a busy harbor with sail boats, sea planes, enormous yachts, and kayaks. On Saturdays during the summer, local crafts folk come out of their tree house studios, hobbit holes, and million dollar waterfront homes to sell clothing, art, food, and just about everything that fits in a booth at the market.

Fulford

Tuesday night we drove back to Fulford and to Rock Salt for dinner. It was a big hit last year (hshipman: Fulford, 2008) and seemed worth visiting again.

Vancouver International Airport (VYR)

It's the Friday night before we catch the ferry to Salt Spring Island. We've tried different options - the Sandman (previously the Delta Pacific and the Ramada Plaza) with the big water slide, the River Rock Casino, and the Coast Tsawwassen, but this year we found a good rate at the Airport Fairmount. It's fun to flirt with the travel scene - the hotel is located above the International Terminal - but a little strange to not actually be flying somewhere.

VYR is not just about flying to exotic places. It's also the venue for some neat First Nations art, including Bill Reid's The Spirit of Haida Gwaii. His overcrowded Jade Canoe is filled with a strange cast of characters with no clear destination or purpose. No life jackets, either, although many are good swimmers. Better they chose the canoe and not a small float plane.

There's a great new display - a double-facing totem pole and a blue-green sky, in the center of the airport where the skybridge from the new Canada Line enters the terminal. There is supposed to be a neat piece by Susan Point in the train terminal itself, but that is still a week from opening. Good reason to come back.

Seattle

Another cold, drizzly summer day in the Pacific Northwest. Well, not quite. SeaTac hit 103 late this afternoon, beating the old record by 3 degrees. The Davis weather station at our house reported 105.1 at 4PM. Today, Phantom Ranch was 107, not really all that much different.

Seattle, the new Phoenix!

South Rim

We spent a touristy day at the south rim - eating ice cream in front of the Bright Angel Lodge and staring down over the edge like everyone else (there were lots of everyone elses), checking out the IMAX, and taking the shuttle bus out to Hermit's Rest. We looked for glimpses of the river - from Pima Point we could see the tail end of Granite Rapid and all of Hermit, though they were an awful long ways away. It was neat seeing the Wen, one of the original Nevill's cataract boats, on display at the visitor's center, although I suspect we were mainly remembering riding in the Sandra with Greg during the previous two weeks.

Desert View

We had breakfast at Cameron, then headed into the park. The first view of the canyon was from Desert View, where we could see the broad bends in the river between Tanner and Unkar. I could see a couple rafts with my binoculars. D is not impressed - the distant views and the scenery just aren't the same as being down there.

Cameron

We left the north rim at dusk and drove back to our motel in Cameron in the dark. We stopped at Marble Canyon and walked out onto the bridge and peered down into the darkness at the river (470 feet below). We floated beneath this bridge just over two weeks ago (Navajo Bridge).

The Cameron Trading Post is perched above the canyon of the Little Colorado River, 20 miles or so above it's junction with the Colorado.

North Rim

We looped into Utah and over to Kanab and Fredonia, then back down to the North Rim for dinner and D's first view of the canyon from the top. It's nice to be back in the trees and more pleasant temperatures ( it was over 100 at the Glen Canyon Dam earlier in the day). We ordered pizza and ate it in front of the lodge - the view was better than from the dining room and the line was much shorter.

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After spending two weeks in the Grand Canyon, it is only reasonable to go back to the source - which in this case is the big concrete plug across the bottom of Glen Canyon. The dam is just 15 miles upstream from Lee's Ferry.