Seattle, Washington

"I wanted to move to Seattle, sell my ass, and be a punk rocker, but I was too afraid."
-Kurt Cobain

Every part of all this soil is sacred to my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove has been hollowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished. The very dust you now stand on responds more willingly to their footsteps than to yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch.
-Chief Seattle

"I grew up in Seattle, but I always knew I wanted to leave."
-David Guterson

I lived in California for more than half of my life, but until this week I had yet to get up the coast to Seattle, Washington. What a terrific city! I can hardly believe it took me so long to get to the upper-left-hand corner of the country... Known for rainy weather, grunge music and Microsoft, Seattle is a large city with a rich history. The air smells like pine trees and the sea, the coffee is strong, and there is interesting art and architecture everywhere - my kind of place....

A college friend - Viv Hutchison - has lived here for years and is one of Seattle's biggest fans. She was a terrific host and was pretty dedicated to making sure I saw and enjoyed some of the best her city and the region had to offer. Viv works for the USGS (United States Geological Survey) and was kind enough to not only give up her weekend to entertain me, but also took Monday off to show me around.

Here is a nice photo of Viv at the Pike Place Public Market:

The first morning after I arrived, Viv and I met up with some of her hiking buddies and we headed out into the Cascade Mountains just west of the city. Because it is early in the season and most of the trails on the western side of the Cascades are still snowed in, we drove two hours over to the Eastern side where the snowfall totals are lower (and the trails are passable earlier in the season).

Our goal was to hike the 4th of July Pass trail in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness near Leavenworth, Washington. I know that Viv was trying to make sure I experienced a challenging hike with pretty views, but she almost killed all of us. The hike was seven miles up with a vertical elevation gain of 5,000 feet. Yep, we started at 2,000 and hiked straight up to the top at 7,000 feet. It took us five hours to get up there and everone didn't make it to the summit.... Thanks Viv! Actually, I had a great time, but my legs were totally spent by the time we staggered into the parking lot at the trailhead at 7pm that night.

Below, Viv and I rest about 3/4 up:

The country is beautiful up there:

There was a big fire up here a few years ago and there were large groves of burned trees - pretty dramatic.

About half way up, I take a few moments to enjoy the view!

The next day was Mother's Day, and what better way to celebrate than to watch the Yankees lose a baseball game (pink bats and all). Ok, it was nice to see the Mariners win too...

Safeco field is right downtown near the railroad tracks and has one of my favorite features - a retractable roof - useful in such a rainy place...

Good views of the city skyline from the upper-deck. Here is a shot of Viv and I. Our seats were down by the Yankee dugout.

Jorge Posada, one pitch away from striking out as A-Rod and Jeter look on. There was a great deal of choking going on that day, and the Mariners won 2-1.

Viv and I met up with her friends Rebecca and Carrie at a local Vietnamese place called the Tamarind Tree - delicious! (Order the spring rolls with fresh herbs to start)
http://www.tamarindtreerestaurant.com/

We got an early start on Monday as Viv had a lot to show me. Lake Union is one of the smaller lakes around Seattle - it is connected to the Puget Sound through a ship channel.

There is this old abandoned gas works on the lake surrounded by a park.

Everywhere I looked in Seattle there were sea-planes - either taking off, landing or crusing off toward the islands north and west of the city.

Taking off from Lake Union:

Landing past the gasworks:

Either there is a ton of public art in Seattle or Viv just decided to expose me to a lot of it - either way, here is a Calder stabile on the Puget Sound with the Olympic Mountains in the background:

The sculpture park also had some less known pieces, but dramatic in their own way:

For reasons of decency, I photographed this particular sculpture from the back. For the record, this bronze gentleman is anatomically correct from the front.

The famous Pikes Place Public Market in downtown Seattle, where one can buy fish, flowers, vegetables and get a coffee at the very first Starbucks...

Right out of the sea:

Huge and fresh Dungeness Crab:

This is one of the most interesting pieces of public art I have seen in a long time. Located in Magnuson Park on the shore of Lake Washington, the Plowshares Project is a number of tail fins from de-comissioned nuclear submarines planted in the ground along the lake. At the base of each fin is the name of the vessel it came from, and the name of a protected Orca Whale currently crusing the sound (since the sub fins resemble a pod of Orcas...)

Lake Washington in the background:

another view:

With spring blooms in the foreground:

There are a number of important buildings around town. The Seattle Public Library's main building in the city center was designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. This exterior photo speaks for itself:

The reading rooms are bright and airy.

The stacks are tucked here and there on various levels:

...and there is a ten story atrium with symetrical and asymetrical lines:

Just across town, in the much funkier Fremont neighborhood, at the end of Troll Lane...

This piece of public art lurks below the 99 Freeway bridge over the shipping channel between Lake Washington and the Puget Sound. Note the VW under his Troll paw...

Also in Fremont is a statue of V. I. Lenin - it seems that he is endorsing the Taco Del Mar in this photo.... Apparently a local resident came across this statue in Slovakia soon after the Wall fell in 1989 - he was able to purchase it for a a thousand bucks...

In another installment of "You never know who you are going to run into..." - I had the opportunity to hear Jhumpa Lahiri speak on my last night in Seattle. The Seattle Public Library has a series called "Seattle Reads" where they invite prominent authors to town for readings and special events.

Many of you might be familiar with her most recent book, "The Namesake", which has been made into a film. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 2000 for "The Interpreter of Maladies" - a collection of short stories. I have really enjoyed her writing and I found her talk very interesting. She is bright, articulate and breathtakingly beautiful.

The moderator asked her a number of questions about her work in general, but she shied away from any attempt to categorize her writing as a reflection of the "immigrant experience", or representative of Bengali families in general. She made it very clear that her work is the result of her own experience and that of her relatives, but fundamentally, "The Namesake" is a just a story about a boy who grows up with a funny name....

After an early morning flight, I bid Seattle goodbye and headed for San Francisco...