Eyes up!: Seattle trip, part 1.

So a few weeks ago I went up to Seattle to visit and see some friends.

I flew up on Wednesday to hang out with Jason (Assquatch ...don't ask), and spent the next few days catching up and seeing my old haunts in Seattle. The weather happened to cooperate marvelously, the sun was out, it was clear, and not as cold as it had been for weeks. :) Perfect.

Shit ton of photos from the trip. I'll try and get them in order.
Showed up to the no-balls H3 run (end of the run, actually) on Wednesday in Tacoma, and caught up with some friends/hashers I hadn't seen in a couple years. Traditionally this is an all womens H3, but being a "visitor" I was allowed. :D And boy toy was there, since his wife was also running that day.

The next day, Jason and I took Holly's bike to Aurora Suzuki for a service check. Goddam that's a bright jacket. Then we went about shopping for motorcycle stuff.

Up in Queen Anne hill, there was this restaurant that had a "Keep Austin Weird" sign above the front door. Pretty cool to see how far that sentiment had reached. A bummer to know that the "Keep Austin Weird" movement has pretty much died off and isn't being kept up due to too many lame Austinites! lame! hahaha And wait, the hash happy hour is no longer at Lovejoys!??! WTF?!?!?! seriously?

The Triangle tavern and hotel. Favorite spot of the hash to go to before the Mariner games. This is also down in Pioneer square.

Late evening in the Pike Place Market. The weather was phenomenal, for those that know Seattle and it's weather, we were very lucky.

Elliot Bay. This used to be my view from my bay front apartment when I lived in Seattle. 2 blocks from the public market. Damn, I miss this city very much. Might have to take a job up here for the summer.

Looking down from the small park outside the public market, down the Alaskan Viaduct towards the ball park, and Mt. Rainier in the background.

The Smith Building in the background. (the pointy one below :) ) was hailed as the tallest skyscraper outside of New York city for many years. Located in the Pioneer Square district of Seattle along skid row (named that, for the logs that were sent skidding down it from the top of the hill to the mill that was located on the waterfront) Loads of history in Seattle, some more hilarious than you might expect. Like for instance, did you guys know that the Seattle Public School system was founded on the backs of whores?! No? Well, the most famous (and richest) madam of Seattle, donated all of her money when she died to the city of Seattle to establish a school system. While she gets little to no credit (for obvious reasons), it was via money made from the countless "seamstresses" in Seattle. Hear all about it on the Underground tour which starts down in Pioneer Square.
Yep, there were over 3,000 registered "seamstresses" residing in a 3 square block radius. Even a few cross-stitchers for the men who preferred to go the other way. hahaha

An old photo of the Smith Building, located inside the Underground Tour memorabilia museum.

This parking structure was built after the Seattle Hotel that used to be located here. The city said, after it demolished the hotel, that it would put up something that was beautiful and gave back to the city....instead, they put this crappy parking structure. It does look funky, and is nicknamed the "sinking ship"

A view of the hotel that used to be located where the parking structure above is now located along Skid Road.

A view along the sidewalk, on the underground tour. This used to be the 1st floor of downtown Seattle.

For many years, the existing buildings maintained their "1st floor" shops up and running, with the sidewalks covered over so that people would stop dying when they fell down these 8-10 ft drops. They added these skylights to help bring light down into the long tunnels. All these years later, the sky lights still exist, and the glass has turned to a light shade of purple due to the manganese in the glass. This area was active until about 1907 when it was condemned and no longer used. All the buildings and businesses just moved up one floor and that became the 1st floor. Tour groups now go into the underground areas, under specific permission only, and must pay each building owner "rights" to bring people through. I think it's somewhere along the lines of about 10k per month per building. sheesh!