Sheepless in Seattle?

by Glen Strachan

Seattle has become a point of pilgrimage for grunge music fans as the Cobain legend gathers pace. Pearl Jam and Soundgarden have carried the style forward from there and the city's sportsmen like baseball home run king Ken Griffey Junior and basketball's Shawn Kemp have added to the high profile of this beautiful city.

The locals will tell you that this is the wettest city in the USA but our experience in June was one of clear skies and long hot summer days. In recent years Seattle has shown well in tables setting out the best places in America in terms of quality of life and the reasons for that are not difficult to see, even on a visit as brief as ours.

If shopping is your aim, then this place will be no disappointment. The kind of shopping malls that are a familiar part of most cities are supplemented by a range of craft shops that amply demonstrate the diversity of population in this part of the world.

The major employer in the city is the Boeing Corporation and over many years the company has taken on staff from all over America. As families settle in the area, so they begin to develop businesses that reflect their origins. That was cited as a reason for the wide variety of unusual eating places and the sheer numbers of such small restaurants and take-aways ensure that the quality and price are highly attractive.

On the subject of food and drink, I cannot leave the topic without mention of the wonderful Starbucks coffee empire. Espresso carts and full-blown coffee shops seem to be found on every corner and the temptation to break all known levels of caffeine intake is a severe one. A freshly-brewed coffee of the day and a nice slice of cherry pie consumed outdoors under the hot morning sun and against the fabulous background of Puget Sound and Mount Ranier is one of the great ways to start a day.

After a trip on the Monorail, a space-age fantasy conjured up for the 1962 World's Fair, we arrive at the Seattle Center - a huge complex also built for the fair but modernised on a regular basis since. We probably could spend a week in this complex but, in the interest of getting to see a little more of the area around Seattle, we limit ourselves to a visit to the Space Needle. The glass elevator and the observation platform give a panoramic view of the city but, just when we thought we had seen the ultimate overview of the city, we came across the best bargain of our entire American trip.

Kenmore Air offers stand-by seats on its sea-planes as they fly from Lake Union in Seattle to the San Juan and Whidbey Islands and on toward the Canadian Border. The fares were high, but the stand-by rates were ridiculously low - so we sat outside the office holding our breath and hoping that there would be no late demand for places. Our luck was in and we got to sit up front with the pilot as the planes only carry haifa dozen passengers even when full to capacity. Take off was brilliant and we even flew over the river-side house where scenes from Sleepless in Seattle were filmed as we took to the open sea, leaving the city far behind.

The landscape is beautiful and the frolics of the family of whales that we saw helped to make this the flight of a life-time. The pilot, Duke, was a summer-time pilot for the company and in winter he trains aspiring pilots in Wisconsin. He had a fund of tales and his commentary on our little races against the wakes of the island ferries made each landing and take-off a small drama.

Back in the city, we took one of the ferries across Puget Sound and on our return two hours later, it was off to the Kingdome, home of the Seattle Mariners Baseball team. The covered, domed stadium was rather more impressive than the local side's performance, so New York flew home with the points while the locals were left to rue the failure of their star King Ken for the first time in several weeks. We left before they blamed us. Supper on the quay-side was another excellent bowl of chowder.

Pike Market in early morning is a sight to see. Fish and local produce of all kinds is sold here but the boys who man the fish stands are the real show-offs around the market. Before packing the
fish that they have sold, they throw the fish down a line of staff, with the last man in line adding ice to the bag and preparing the fish for departure.

Across the road I decided to have my hair cut - another experience. The old girl who owned the shop was of Scottish / Irish extraction and the shop itself looks like a Victorian costumiers. Her stories took longer than the haircut, but it was worth every minute as a succession of elderly locals called on her, adding their bits to her tales. The rest of the day was spent wandering around the city and planning the next part of our journey, which involved collecting a hire car and driving through the breathtaking scenery of Washington State. Our destination was Snoqualmie and the locations of the David Lynch series Twin Peaks.

Our return journey into Seattle was illuminated by a huge electric storm and a deluge that constantly threatened to turn aquaplaning into an art form. But we arrived back in the city safe and sound. The alarm was set for early the next day as we were off to Alaska - but that's another story.

First published in VISA issue 29 (summer 1998)