Me and Dad
We're posing in the "living room" of my efficiency apartment in Capital Hill. :)
My parents came out here to visit me in June of 2001, about six months after I moved from Austin to Seattle. They did the classic touristy stuff you'll see below, but they also did so much more! They went above and beyond the duty of loving parents when they were here. They bought me meals and groceries, bought me a microwave, and even helped me clean the apartment building I managed! Amazing! And, they put up no complaints about sleeping on a matress on my floor (it was UW's graduation weekend and all hotels were packed)!
Me and Dad
We're posing in the "living room" of my efficiency apartment in Capital Hill. :)
Space Needle
Any trip to Seattle must include a trip to the Seattle Center and a picture with the Space Needle.
Pacific Science Center
While at the Seattle Center, we went to the Science Center. They have tons of cool stuff to see and do, including bicycle around a track high above ground. They also hosted a limited engagement of the Titanic traveling exhibit. We went and it was pretty cool history...
Puppet show
These guys have been out at the Seattle Center for years doing puppet shows to earn a few bucks. Here their puppets play a Pearl Jam tune for the crowd. Very nice!
Family Fun
This little girl seemed amazed by the puppets and all of their lifelike gestures. I was too, so I guess the amazement isn't that unusual.
Pike Place Market
Rachel is the bronze piggy bank that serves as the mascot for the Market's charitable foundation.
Dad watches the fish guys
Pike Place Fish has the best people watching and the best antics in the market.
Lovely!
They've also got the best looking guys... this one in the organge is my favorite fish boy. I'm never going to buy his fish, but I still like to watch.
Bear throws a fish
The "Caution: Low Flying Fish!" sign is there for a reason... all fish sold is thrown from the front to the counter. Makes it fun for the tourists. :)
The Underground Tour
Seattle's Underground Tour is pretty fabulous. The city buried the first level of town and rebuilt higher, so an entire series of shopfronts and bars is still underground a 100 years later.
Bathroom Humor
Not only do you get the full history of the city's beginings around the Pioneer Square district, you also get lots of bad puns, funny stories, and bathroom humor. Seattle trivia: The city's first toilets were rigged with hallowed out logs for pipes that sent waste downhill into the bay. However, it didn't take long to realize the back-flush came back up the pipes daily as the tides came in. Yuck!
Early Pipes
The Northwest had tons of logging, and some of the logs were turned into the first pipes for the city's plumbing. More trivia: The term skid row came from Seattle. The loggers brought their logs to town and the street they skid down was called skid row. Why the negative connotation we now know? Well, when the loggers were between jobs, they'd hang around this skid row area and find bars, sleep with hookers, and get in fights. Not the classiest group apparently. Their reputation stuck with the logging industry's skid row and the term lives on today.
Rubble a story down
This sign and rubble are typical of the Seattle that was buried. Not too fancy, just dusty and destroyed for the most part.
Mom and Dad
Mom and Dad get their photo taken on the tour!
Pigs on Parade
Mom liked seeing all of the painted Pigs on Parade. They were all over town and we going to be sold for a Pike Place Market benefit.
The End!