 | Seattle Space Needle |
Our second day in Seattle started out partly cloudy, and fairly chilly. Maybe mid 40s. Not much wind. We walked from the Gaslight Inn up 15th Avenue toward Mercer, to head for the Center for Wooden Boats. From the top of Capitol Hill, you can see right down to city center, and the Space Needle.
We have been members of CWB for several years now, actually since Zach and Tab moved to the West Coast, and our first visit through Seattle took us to see this non-profit community service organization. They have a wonderful selection of wooden boats that are available for sailing on Lake Union. Click on their link to read more about this fine organization.
I had emailed the Center, hoping to be able to reserve boats for a day of sailing, only to find out that the center begins it's winter schedule during Thanksgiving Week, and therefore would not be open on Monday, the day of our visit. Doh!!
We had decided to walk down there anyway, to see if there was any activity, and maybe some hope for a boat ride "off the books" so to speak. Well, we totally lucked out. Oh his way out of the center to get some parts, Dave, a docent at the Center, had the good fortune to run into us as we arrived. We chatted for a while at the top of the entrance to the docks, and eventually Dave had an inspiration - he would check the battery charge on the Center's launch and give it a test ride! Did we want to come along? Well, yes, what a good idea!
Here are some images taken while on Lake Union.
 | Dave driving, with me in the foreground. The CWB docks and south Lake Union in the background. |
 | There are many house-boat (or boat house) neighborhoods on Lake Union. Many of the homes are tricked out in a variety of styles. |
 | Some are more boat-like, but serve as homes, while others are clearly houses that are floating. |
 | This owner must have missed the Mediterranean. |
 | Sleepless in Seattle... |
 | Ivar's Salmon House |
We had a nice lunch on North Lake Union at Ivar's Salmon House. This is one of the 3 locations of Ivar's restaurants in the Seattle area. Ivar is a bit of a legend.
After our mid-day boat tour, we took the South Lake Union Streetcar down to Westlake Center. This apparently follows the route of the original electric streetcars in the 1880's. Wow! We made good use of the public transport system, riding the streetcar and buses to make our way around. Lots of walking too. Seattle is a walkable city, not unlike Boston, although hillier.
From The SLU stop, we made our way to Seattle Center, and then from there past Pike Place Market, and further downtown to Salumi, a salumeria Zach had mentioned to us. He had wanted to purchase some of their hand-cured salamis, but had never been able to arrive there during their business hours. Well, we had the same problem, Salumi is closed on Mondays. We made plans to return there by car the following morning, on our way out of Seattle for the next leg of our journey..
