Black Ice
On the day that Shiran and I left the house for the trip to Seattle, it was wet and terribly chilling. Trooping along the pavement to the bus stop, weighed down by our bags, we stepped off the pavement onto the driveway of the next house.I heard an "Ooff!" from my left where Shiran was, and as I turned my head, seemingly in slo-mo, to look at her, my foot slipped out from under me as well. In that instance of 2 secs, I registered Shiran lying on the ground on her bum, and then all I could see was the grey-blue sky as I toppled backwards myself and had the breath knocked out from me. Fortunately I landed on my down-jacket-padded bum and the bag I was carrying took the brunt of my elbow's weight.Shiran cut her hand on the ground (and broke the glass of Ser Khee's picture frames, as we realised much later), but as we stood up, all we could do was giggle helplessly, breathlessly, gaspingly at the comic situation. I could barely catch my breath for want of giggling, all the way to the bus-stop and at every single intersection in Seattle, when we had to watch our step. I'd burst out into a fit of giggles and induce Shiran to do the same.Even now, as I write this post, I'm sniggering at the mere memory.
Memorable Lucy Quotes
Lucy was the hyperactive, gregarious tour guide of our Underground Tour.Some of her gems of quotes include:"Jo was funny wasn't she? Well, you're with me now, so get over it." - introducing herself as our Underground guide."If we were in this picture, we'd all be dead." - before showing us where we were standing in reference to the old Occidental Ave in a picture."Some people say... the banker is still in there!" - on why some people find it cold passing the old bank vault."I've been working for veerry long here. I've been here since 1889!" - the year of the great fire which flattened most of Seattle.
Miserable with a Capital "M-I-S"
Second Day in Seattle: We woke up to discover that Seattle was blanketed by a thick sheet of fine drizzle. That lasted the whole day. We had a good start though...
Instead of reindeer, they have... pigs??
A market that's just awakening.
Found this Mexican shop at the basement of the above market. This Day of the Dead (Dias de los Muertos) is similar to our qingming.
Shoal-ly you've seen copies of their books "CATCH!" in the stores? This is the famous Pike Place Fish Market, where they became famous for tossing the fish from monger to monger to be efficient.
Ooh, legends...
Ooh another legend...
Can't live without your Mocha Frap, Grande? Here is where it all started: the world's first Starbucks store. On the right is my 1st Peppermint Hot Chocolate of the trip. Divine!
Just to show how grey it was. This is near our 1st intended destination: the Russian Submarine, but we were put off by the utterly miserable ("With a capital M, a capital I, a capital S..." mused Shiran) cold and decided to head towards the 2nd stop, the Underground tour.
The part of Seattle where we were was actually a level below the present ground level! The tour took us beneath the city at Pioneer Square. Apparently because of the waste disposal problem and a huge fire that flattened most of the city in the 1800s, businessmen wanted to rebuild the shops as fast as possible, but the city council wanted to flatten the neighbouring mountains and raise the mudflats a little higher. The result?
Blocks with feet-high walls around them and ladders to climb those walls with! And the ladder at 5th Ave was supposedly 32 feet above the street level! Apparently citizens just climbed up and down those walls everyday. After some time, people forgot about the Underground until new generations heard tales about the "people who lived beneath the pavement" so Bill Speidel, the founder of the tour, did research on it and eventually formed the current tour.
That's the skylight over our heads while we were underground. When we were on ground level, that was part of the pavement. When we were looking at this, Lucy our tour guide madly waved her torchlight at the skylight and shrieked, "Help!"
Part of an old Turkish bank, now in ruins and neglect.
I found this sight pretty funny. This is near the end of the tour. Nearby there was a notice saying "Please do not paste your sticker here" or something to that effect. All those green round things you see everywhere are the stickers they give you as proof of payment for the tour.
Deep Cove
Scenery at Deep Cove, North Vancouver
