Trip Introduction – Alaska Cruise on Holland America
Lodging Review: Element Seattle Downtown
Our Time in Seattle
Ship Review: Holland America ms Noordam
Our Time in Kodiak, Alaska
Our Time in Anchorage, Alaska
Our Time in Valdez, Alaska
Our Time in Juneau, Alaska
Our Time in Ketchikan, Alaska
Our Time in Prince Rupert, British Columbia
Hullo Ferry Between Nanaimo and Vancouver
I hadn’t done any real planning for things to see in Seattle other than asking AI to give me some suggestions of things to photograph. I knew that we’d be sleeping in since we arrived so late and that proved to be the case.
It was a gloomy morning when we set out and I decided to wear jeans instead of the shorts I’d packed – a decision I came to regret. Later in the day it was sunny and gorgeous and I was hot. Live and learn. Here are some things we saw while exploring the city.
The Troll Under the Bridge
My roomie on this trip loves to find the off-beat tourist things and she read about the Troll Under the Bridge, so naturally we had to hunt it down.
The Fremont Troll
Not only did we find that, we also found the three Billy Goats Gruff!
To reach the troll we crossed over the George Washington Bridge where we looked down on Lee’s Landing Marina.
Olympic Sculpture Park
Next we took an Uber over to the Olympic Sculpture Park which had some interesting features. The first exhibit we encountered was Ai Weiwei’s heads of the animals in the Chinese Zodiac. They were created as a re-imagining of the heads on the 18th-century Qing dynasty Haiyantang water-clock fountain, which was looted during the Second Opium War. Seven of the original heads survive and AI was used to predict what the other five would look like.
The Art Without Walls gallery is the permanent installation in the park. I liked this cool bench that was part of the display. It’s called Mary’s Invitation – A Place to Regard Beauty and is both functional (you can sit on it and enjoy the shade and views) and artistic.
The largest one is Wake, by Richard Serra. It’s composed of five waves of metal that you’re allowed to walk among.
The park is nine acres and there were plenty of other exhibits we missed but we were already late meeting our friend for lunch so we scooted through rather quickly.
The park is free and is open every day from 30 minutes before sunrise until 30 minutes after sunset. They also have a mini-golf course though there is a charge for that. On warm days it seems a good idea to buy your tickets online in advance as it was sold out on the day of our visit. I did like that art was incorporated in some of the holes though!
Central Waterfront
From the sculpture park we walked down Alaskan Way which runs by the piers. We did stop briefly on one pier that was getting ready to host a cultural festival and had locally-made goods for sale.
Alpaca Wool Blankets for Sale
We could also see the Seattle Great Wheel in the distance.
We ended up meeting our friend for a late lunch and then we visited the Pike Place Market which had all sorts of things for sale in its many shops. As we weren’t there in the early morning we didn’t see the fish vendors throwing fish around but there was plenty of it for sale.
Flowers, fruits and vegetables, collectibles, books, almost anything you want can be found in one of the many small stores in Pike Place Market.
The Space Needle
Of course one of the symbols of Seattle is the Space Needle. It was built in 1962 for the World’s Fair and at the time was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. Impressively it’s built to withstand winds up to 200 mph and earthquakes up to a magnitude of 9.0! While we didn’t go inside it, or even to the park below it, it was not far from our hotel and we had a number of good views of it during our stay.
In the end
After visiting the market we were all tired and returned to our respective hotels. It ended up being about a half-hour walk back to our hotel but it was a gorgeous day and we didn’t mind. By no means did we get to explore the city fully but it was great to get a taste of it before our cruise departed.
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