Seattle - Day 3

Underground Seattle Tour:  For our last day in Seattle we decided to take the Underground Seattle tour.  It is 60 minute walking tour of some of the original buildings left below the streets of Seattle.

The original town of Seattle was built in an area known as Pioneer Square.  It was originally built on tidewater, so it often flooded.  Seattle's first houses were wooden.  In 1889, a cabinet maker accidentally overturned  and ignited a glue pot.  In his effort to put out the fire with water, he spread the fire and the Great Seattle Fire destroyed 31 blocks. When the town was rebuilt they used stone and brick and the streets were brought up higher so at high tide the streets did not flood.  In some of the houses that were left standing, the second floor windows are now first floor.

Seattle suffered an earthquake in 1949.  A 7.1 magnitude earthquake occurred between Tacoma and Olympia.  Pioneer Square suffered great damage due to poor quality construction of buildings and homes.  

 These were actual burned out buildings.  All of underground Seattle that was left standing after the fire, survived the earthquake just fine.  They used the underground area to dump a lot of the debris from the earthquake.

Although it was interesting to learn about the history of Underground Seattle, we were not that impressed with the tour.  Only a small portion of the underground has been restored and is safe for public tours.

A few interesting things we saw as we walked along the streets of Seattle:

 Love Locks on this fence.  Public fixtures by sweethearts to symbolize their everlasting love. People put their initials on their lock, put them on the fence and lock it, then throw away the key.  It seems to be happening in all parts of the world.   This fad supposedly originated in Paris.

This very tall sculpture actually moved.  The arm with the hatchet slowly moved up and down.    It's HUGE!

 

 

This is the famous Bubblegum Wall located in Post Alley outside Pikes Place Market where people from all over the world have stuck their gum on this wall.  

Now this was just plain NASTY!

I wasn't touching the wall!

 

 

Pikes Place Market:  

The market was much bigger than I had expected.  We enjoyed watching the fish being thrown at the Fish Market and seeing the huge amounts of flowers and produce being sold through out the market.  

Here are a few of the vendors and the vast number of people!

 

 Everything Lavender!

People were waiting in a very long line to get coffee from the FIRST Starbucks coffee shop.

 

The fish is up there somewhere, but every time they threw one we could never get it in the frame!

Dungeness Crabs on left.  They are really big!  So were the Jumbo shrimp.

 

 

 

The market seemed to go on forever.  There were also shops that sold antiques, art, jewelry, etc.    It was quite an experience.  It doesn't look like it in these pictures, but it was so crowded through out most of the market that it was hard to get up close to some of the booths.  We saw so much great looking seafood that we decided to head back to the waterfront and have one of the famous Seafood Feasts at the Crab Pot restaurant.  

Before:

Ready:

GO:

This was our last meal on our last day in Seattle.  We really enjoyed both!