Seattle, Part Two

We had a great time in Seattle. After a mellow first night, with a walk to a great Mexican restaurant and a browse of a nearby bookstore, we picked up the pace on Sunday. We headed out before noon to the Olympic Sculpture Park, which oddly had signs up asking visitors not to touch the sculptures. It was so tempting! And most of the sculptures were sturdy affairs of welded steel, cast bronze, and the like. We couldn't understand it, and every one of us touched the steel sculptures when we were walking amongst them. We speculated that the feeling of getting away with something that came with touching the sculptures was in fact part of the artist's vision for the work, and that the signs forbidding touching were just part of the installation.

From the sculpture park we went on a long walk up the waterfront to Pike's Place Market. It was a mile in the rain, ending with a relief of a trip up a public elevator (Seattle is steep and hilly!). The girls performed spectacularly as urban hikers, their spirits bouyed by the eight dollars cash Elizabeth had, and their faith that the market contained a candy shop.

After the Market (which was absolutely mobbed -- and don't worry, the girls got candy, and lots of it, in a tiny shop the size of a walk-in closet, with a quirky proprietor), we found a place for lunch, then made the long walk back to the car. Again, the girls were as intrepid and indefatiguable as the Corps of Discovery, fueling themselves with gummy worms and sour patch kids.

We spent the evening at Anson and Alder's apartment at The Dolphin (fun fact: they've lived there for 18 years), returning to our rented house (more on that in the next post) in time enough to get the kids to bed only moderately late. It was a rich and exhausting day.

Not a great picture, but a document of how spectacular Seattle is, and how good our view was from the neighborhood where we rented the house. This intersection was at the end of our block. Seattle is a city surrounded by water and ringed by mountains. I don't think in all the years I've visited there, that I've been struck so much by the natural beauty of the area.

That tree is made of steel. At the sculpture garden.

We were told not to touch them! They're steel plate like the hull of ship. Sorry I keep going on about that.

Suzanne and Barb on the walk from the sculpture park to Pike's Place. Given that Suzanne is the same length as one of Anson's legs, she did a great job keeping up.

Alder by Elizabeth. At lunch, Elizabeth got a hold of my camera and took fifty pictures, including lengthy photographic studies of the carpet and the underside of the table. I like this one, though.

Elizabeth took this one, too. She was trying to show how steep this hill was, but didn't feel that the photograph captured it. I agree. That hill was steep!

Anson dropped by on our last morning (this morning, at the time of writing) and hung out with us for a few hours before going off to work. Elizabeth grabbed the camera and snapped this picture.