9/3/2015

After spending one quiet day in Port Townsend, we spent the next whale watching. This was a birthday gift for Alex, but since I hadn’t gone since I was a kid, it was also a gift for me!

We left right from downtown Port Townsend. The area near Seattle is known for its orcas (among other wildlife), and we actually saw some porpoises the day before from a pier in town. There was a nice boathouse nearby, with a ton of crew shells in it – a surprise to me – and we talked to a really eloquent six-year-old about his dog while buying breakfast.

The weather was nasty – squalls of rain throughout the morning. Actually I kinda liked it, except for the stress of not knowing whether it would prevent us from seeing whales. The little boat we were on was filled with elderly couples and wood paneling. They had a good deal for bottomless coffee/hot chocolate. It was cozy.

We saw some crazy gyres of birds around schools of fish – usually a sign that whales are nearby, but we didn’t have any luck. It was still cool to see – just a ton of birds diving around.

Eventually the weather cleared up a little, and we saw what we came for – two orcas just outside the San Juan islands. It’s amazing that you can recognize these orcas by their markings, so we got a whole family history. Orcas are organized into pods, other whales that they travel with which have their own culture. But these two were basically loners, male and female siblings.

They didn’t get too close, but it was a blast to see orcas in the wild. We even got to see some tail slapping (it’s unclear why orcas do this).

Pulling through a narrow inlet on the way to lunch, we got to see a small rock island completely covered in seals and sea lions. The stench was unbearable… but I do like sea lions.

Letting us off for lunch, we wandered around Friday Harbor, a cute tourist town that you can see in a half hour stroll. We had a big brunch before returning to the boat. Our friend on the boat, the coffee/snacks guy, who looked like the prototype of 40-year-old distance runner, had suggested we check out a local mascot: a seal named ‘Popeye’ (so named because he was actually missing one eye). He floated in the marina, near the docks, snacking on anchovies thrown to him by locals and tourists alike.

He looked pretty worn, to be honest – one flipper was crippled, but it was a cool opportunity to see wildlife up close (even if he wasn’t that wild).

The return trip was less eventful than the trip out. There were rumors of various whales in the area. The weather had cleared up, but it didn’t help us find them. I did see a pair of porpoises out the cabin window.

That’s right, we got to sit right up front in the cabin with the captain… an honor I think would have been more exciting if I was 12.

We got back into town relatively early in the day, so we also took a walk around the downtown area (charming Victorian) and along the water to Chetzamoka Park, a garden/park with great views of the water… and lots of swings.

It was a little drizzly, but totally worth it. I’d actually never visited this park again, and it was one of my favorite in town.

8/30/2015 – 9/1/2015

We spent two more days in Seattle mostly quiet. Alex wasn’t able to take one day off, so she worked remotely from our AirBnB. It was raining that day, so I ran some errands and also went for a run at a nearby park. It was cool but not chilly. I found a baseball.

That evening we went out to meet friends – Matt, who I grew up with in NY, and DJ, Alex’s friend from college (and roommate).

We ate a Mexican place with Matt, who’s doing comedy in Seattle, before heading over to a nearby bar (stopping outside to play with the puppy statue outside Trader Joe’s).

The next day, we picked up our rental car to head out to the Olympic peninsula. I’d debated the various routes around the Peninsula… there’s a long driving route on highways that’s mostly boring. And there’s a ferry. I dislike city driving and didn’t want to drive through Seattle, but the cheapest prices were actually renting within the city center, so the ferry, which leaves from right in the middle of the city, was perfect.

Besides, it’s quicker, and has the best views.

The car rental was slightly delayed… there were some scratches on the car, so the guy filling out the paperwork (this was at Enterprise, I think) was awesome and gave us 3/4 of a tank of gas… we drove that car for half a week and didn’t have to pay for any gas.

8/30/2015

We started the second day early, with a walk through Queen Anne, a neighborhood I was growing to like (a sort of dense suburbs with some good arteries for shopping). First stop: Kerry Park (photo up top). This is the park where all the south-facing photos of Seattle are taken, and it’s a great view. There’s a steep drop below it with an apparent elementary school at the bottom.

We were looking to walk along Lake Union, but apparently that’s not a possibility along the west side (highways interfere). Curving down, we went through the tech (Amazon) district. A fruitful stop at Goodwill provided us with Subway Sandwich-branded ’12th man’ hats to blend in with the locals (also: two beer glasses and a corkscrew for 50 cents). For those not in the know, the 12th man is the fans at Seattle sporting events.

Target: a Seattle Sounders game. I’d been anticipating this game for a very long time – since we started planning the trip. A Sounders game, in Seattle, against their bitter rivals, the Portland Timbers. That’s probably the best game in Major League Soccer each year, and it coincided with our trip. (It turns out the crowd agreed with this assessment: this was the 6th highest-attended MLS game of all time, with 64 thousand people attending)!

Detouring through Uwajimaya Asian market to avoid the rain, we arrived at the stadium early. The atmosphere was great. The Sounders play in the same stadium as the Seattle Seahawks, so this was actually the first time I can remember being in an NFL stadium.

The pre-game was great (Megan Rapinoe, Hope Solo and Drew Carey did a little award routine in front of the crowd).

There was also an awesome display in the supporters section, with flags unrolled so that a huge orca swallowed up a logger struggling to swim (Sounders devouring Timbers), and the crowd went nuts. The game was good, but I thought the Timbers played better. The Sounders still managed to pull off a 2-1 win due to a questionable call, so we saw some action and got to see the crowd erupt after a score.

Near the stadium there’s a water taxi, which we took over to West Seattle, my first time to this part of the city. We stayed along the shore here, which had a spectacular view of the city, and had lunch at Marination Ma Kai, a Hawaiian restaurant right on the water, where we indulged in tofu tacos and huge shave ices. I devoured them too quickly to get photos.

We strolled a nearby waterfront park and savored the view (and the weather, which was nice this day). A skywriter was trying to write “BLACK LIVES MATTER” above the city (this was right after the Bernie Sanders incident with BLM protestors), but only 4-5 letters are visible at any time so the message was mostly lost. I hope it was cheap to hire the skywriter.

With the sun setting, we ran back to the water taxi and started the trek north to our AirBnB, passing along the tourist sites.

It’s quite a walk after a full day around town, and Uber was ~$5 to get back… so that’s what we did.