Seattle trip, part 2.

So on Friday my friend Rachel flew up to Seattle to hang out and come to the Seattle Hash Stuperbowl party. Being that she'd never been to Seattle, I offered to play tour guide and show her around the sights. Especially since the weather turned out so well.
Took her down to the market for a bit of lunch at Kells Irish Pub in Post Alley. Then tooled around taking photos and seeing the sites.


From the market, we drove up to Gas works Park
"This 20 acre point on Lake Union was cleared in 1906 to construct a plant to manufacture gas from coal - later converted to crude oil. Import of natural gas in the 1950's made the plant obsolete."

It does however, have an amazing view of the downtown skyline of Seattle. In the summers, we used to go out on my buddies boat and race in the Seattle Duck Dodge right here on Lake Union. Loads of fun, and with a couple of cases of good beer, it made for an amazing day of sailing, racing and drinking once the boats were tied up in the center of the lake. Lake Union does not allow for any ship to anchor up in it's waters, except for the officials boat. Which everyone tethers up to, when the racing is over.
After gas works park, we made our way up and under the Hwy 99 bridge and I had a little conversation with this fella. Seems he's quite lonely under the bridge, eating VW bugs. He did mention that some miscreant had painted his finger nails pink, but he was comfortable with it. ha! The Fremont Troll has some interesting history, (located in the Fremont neighborhood, self proclaimed center of the universe) and was sculpted here in 1990 by four Seattle area artists. One of which was also an architect, named Steve Badanes. What is even more coincidental and funny, is that I was lectured to by Steve Badanes, when I visited Vermont in 1993 and attended an extensive summer course on Sustainable Design and Build Course. Pretty cool. Quirky dude, and hilarious to boot. When he lectured us in Vermont, he was winding down a tour of all the cities where he had an office, and was celebrating his 50th birthday in each city. Genius. haha
After visiting the troll, we headed out to the Ballard neighborhood to check out the Ballard Locks.
A system of locks seperating the fresh water lakes, from the salt water of the Sound. Maintaining the level of the Lakes at about 22 feet above sea level at all times. It also includes a Salmon run keeping Salmon moving in and out of the area. We've run several hash runs through here, always a cool spot to run through.




Dicks burgers, a Seattle institution. They're quick, cheap, and small..I can usually down about 6 of them on a good night of boozing it up. :D They are open until 2am, and there is usually a police cruiser parked in the lot watching to make sure things go smoothly. And yes, they're always packed and have a line of people ordering food. Today's special was .10 cent cokes with your burgers.
Forgot to add these two photos to the Underground tour posting. Just some castings that were down in the tunnels that I saw while on the tour.

After a pretty long day we decided to go and visit my friends Jimbo and Karen, who live in West Seattle. Last time I was here was a little over a year ago, and there boy was still pretty small. He walks, talks and is a bruiser these days. Always laughing and smiling, cute kid. Got to playing with him, and while it may not appear like it, he's laughing his ass off in this photo.
This is him right after I put him down, asking for more.
Instead, we decided to down a beer and settle down. haha j/k. no beer for the little guy, but had to keep an eye on him, cause I don't think he would have hesitated to take a good swig. good man. Had a blast, and I'm always reminded of how cool it is to be in Seattle, when I visit. I didn't get any photos at the superbowl party, but it was a great game, and I got roped into cheering for the Steelers, cause I don't like the Arizona Cardinals, and of course, Assma had an extra steelers jersey.

I laid a hash trail run (5 miler) along the water way, up a large hill, and then down through a park. Pretty easy run, to me anyway, but got lots of bitching for making it so "long". wtf?! hahahaha too funny. either way, it was great hanging out with friends I hadn't see in years and catching up.
I'll be back. Working on a trip out of country, hopefully it comes through and I can make it. (crossing fingers)