Seattle, WA - July 18-22

Seattle Skyline from Gasworks Park

So I woke up in the morning and got some breakfast. There was a ferry I wanted to catch which would give me plenty of time to get ready before the wedding, but also have some time to wander beforehand. So I started heading towards downtown with no real destination in mind. As I was driving over a bridge, I looked to my right and saw Gasworks Park in the distance.

Welcome To Gasworks

Gasworks is literally and old gas processing plant that got shut down and turned into a park and play area for kids. They painted all the machinery different colors, made a big park with a kite hill, and opened it to the public. When I was a kid, everytime I visited Seattle my grandparents would take us to Gasworks. Back then I thought it was a singularly magical place, mainly because I thought it was cool to crawl around all this old rickety equipment. There are also all these like valves you can turn and stuff that moves, which was also fun to play with. The place is like a kid's dream. Now I find it magical for a lot of other reasons. Nostalgia aside, and there is a lot of that, it is totally a product of the past. There is no way in this day and age a place like Gasworks would ever get created because, frankly, the place is kind of dangerous if you're not careful. You can fall a good 20 feet to a concrete floor. There are signs everywhere saying not to climb onto the equipment, but come on. In the modern era, any city government would be so scared of the lawsuits that they would just not build it. What a shame.

Yeah, Right

Anyways I hadn't been to Gasworks in about a decade. Nothing had changed at all, which is perfect. I wandered around and took pictures, although a typical overcast Seattle day made this less than ideal. A few pictures are below and the rest can be found here. Then I climbed onto an out of the way shelf and just sort of hung out for a while watching the day pass.

Eventually I had to get up and make my way down by the ferries. I looked on my map and planned a route. I wanted some time to wander around down in that area, and realized I had spent too much time at Gasworks to see my friend Lee. Sorry Lee! So I drove down by the piers and looked for a place to park for an hour or so before I went over to the ferry. There was a LOT of meter parking down there which I could have found eventually I'm sure. However I found a CHEAP garage, and to make matters better it had first hour free. Again, my mind was reeling, since I'm used to first hour being $8. I knew I wasn't going to be more than an hour so this was perfect. I was parked by the aquarium, and wandered around that area for a while. That whole feeling of deja vu and weird nostalgia I had at Gasworks kept up here as I wandered more places I used to wander with my grandparents as a child. This whole seafront area is pretty nice, although its fairly touristy. A lot of kind of souvenir shops and semi-cheesy restaurants.

Street Pig

One thing I noticed was that Seattle had ripped off the Chicago public art cow exhibit and done their own using pigs! I don't care how cool Seattle is, they still need to come for us for the really good ideas (yes, I'm aware we ripped off the idea in the first place from the Italians.)

I picked up a gift for Bethany, and headed back to the car. It was a very short drive over to where the ferries are from where I was parked, and I went and got in line for the ferry. Now as I sat there looking at this line, I realized I was in a very long line, and that I would not get on the next ferry. This is when I realized that ferries are only very cool when you actually get on them and when you miss them, well, it pretty much blows. I had an hour and a half to kill, so I got out of my car and wandered out to a dock and called Bethany and chatted for a while. While walking back towards my car I heard a yell, and a bunch of college buddies waved me over. They were also headed to the wedding and had also missed the ferry. I hung out with them for a while before making my way back to my car. We finally got on the ferry, and realized that by the time we got to the hotel there was going to be very little time to get ready. After the ferry landed it was a race to the hotel, quick shave and change, asked the guy at the desk for directions, and I was on my way.

More Gasworks Gasworks Kite Hill Pontoon plane taking off right over my head

Words to live by

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