Beyond the Paintbrush Divide: Seattle!

So now for Part 2 of our western vacation! After wrapping up in Montana, we boarded the Amtrak at the station in Whitefish. The train station was a bit of a step back in time with pew-style seating, old ticket window, and they even had the original floor baggage scale. We reserved a sleeper room since our train boarded around 9 PM and went through the night. As we boarded, the attendant asked "Mr. and Mrs. Millspaugh?", I guess we were the only ones boarding his car at this stop. Each sleeper car had its own attendant who tended to the guests.

Empire Builder! all the way from Chicago to Seattle.

As we got to our room on the upper level, the bunk beds were already made. Now these rooms are not very big, maybe 3.5 ft by 6.5 ft, and the beds are about 2.5 ft by 6 ft. So there was not a lot of extra room to move around. We settled in and the train left the station on time. Our first order of business after days of camping was to take a shower. There was a communal shower on the lower level that was clean and even had hot water. The shower was great and then it was off to bed.

At the station in Whitefish

Diana ready for bed on the top bunk!

We woke early since breakfast closed at 7:30, and made our way to the dining car. The food and service were great and we were able to get our first glimpse of Washington as we were going through the dry region east of the cascades. Then we went through an 8-mile tunnel - the longest tunnel on the Amtrak system - and came out on the east side of the Cascades. The difference was crazy as we entered wet, almost rain-forest like terrain. We returned to our room and the beds were converted to seats for the remainder of the trip. There were a few stops, and then we were in Seattle, which had a very impressive train station.

Our Roomette.

Relaxing as the world flies by.

Inside the station in Seattle

We arrived in Seattle around 9 AM and had all day to spend in the city until friends picked us up after their workday. So we checked our bags at the station and headed out. Our first stop was... the Klondike Gold Rush national historic site! This is probably not a key destination people think of when they visit Seattle, but they told us about it on the train and it was only a few blocks from the station. It was actually a very interesting and well put together site that outlined the historic significance that Seattle played as an outfitting destination for individuals looking to head up to Alaska in search of gold.

From there it was on to Pike's Place public market, which was quite overwhelming. It is a massive market that spans several blocks and extends several floors underground. Other than food, there was a massive amount of trinkets and random things for sale. It is a hoarder's holy grail. It is also worth the visit. This is the location of the original Starbucks that had a huge line. I get that people might want to say they went to the original, but there must have been 6 other Starbucks within half a mile... with no line. We did not wait.

Pike's Place!

After the Market was lunch and then off to the aquarium. On the walk there we passed the "gum wall," which is of course, a wall covered with gum. I couldn't understand why there wasn't someone there selling packs of gum.

Gum Wall!

The aquarium was pretty good, lots of fish, some seals and otters, and one enormous octopus. Also worth a visit.

At the aquarium!

Some of the aquatic wildlife

After the aquarium it was a walk to the space needle. Once we got there we debated going up to the top due to the high cost. Since we walked pretty far and were on vacation we decided to go up. Overall, the view from the top was nice, but most of the time was waiting for the elevator to go up and then waiting again to come down. So we checked it off the list, but not sure it was worth the cost.

Space Needle!

Seattle skyline from the space needle

Canned picture from the space need of an ideal Seattle view. Fortunately, we did get to see Mt Rainer several times.

From the space needle we went next door to the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum. I had no idea what it was, but Diana did and said it was not to be missed. We checked it out and it was quite impressive. It is a museum of blown glass in all sorts of different configurations. This is worth a visit.

After the glass museum we got some Starbucks and walked back to the train station to get our bags and get picked up. Overall, I think we did a pretty good one day blitz of the city and that was good enough for us. We were picked up and went out to our friends apartment out in Redmond, east of Seattle.

The next day our friends went to work and were nice enough to leave a car for us to use for the day. We wanted to do a hike and looked to my cousin's blog who is spending the summer living and working near Seattle. We narrowed it down to hiking in the Snoqualmie pass region and then got some recommendations from our friends. The hike we decided on was Denny Creek. It was a moderate hike that starts right off of I-90. The interstate actually crosses above the trail about half a mile into the hike high overhead in an impressive piece of construction. The trail crossed the creek a few times and passed a few nice waterfalls. At the top we crossed the ridge of the mountain and the other side was in a cloud and cool and wet. There was no view of the mountain peaks but we did have a nice view of the lake.