Categories

Seattle

By Daniel Leventhal | Published May 11, 2022

The Northwest – Seattle & Tacoma.  

In a final series before I put the blog on hold for an extended period we are going to do a drive starting out in Seattle, Washington, in the northwest of the United States.  The northwest has been a region of the country heretofore wholly absent from this blog about my journeys on roads less traveled.  This post and several to follow are meant to remedy that before I shut down the blog for an extended time to free myself up for some other photographic projects.

We start in Seattle and Tacoma in this first post.  Thereafter, in a few additional posts we will cross over to Washington’s beautiful Olympic Peninsula by car ferry from Seattle and make our way south in Washington state.  We will then cross over the great Columbia River to Oregon – not far from where Lewis and Clark reached the end of their explorations – and stop off in the lovely agricultural Hood River Valley before continuing on to Portland via the unforgettable Columbia River Highway Scenic Byway along the Columbia River Gorge. Finally, we will take the Oregon Coast Highway (US 101) from the north coast Pacific Ocean beaches all the way to the California state line in the south.

I did this epic drive back in 2015 with some good friends from my hometown, Berkeley, in California – a rare road trip with fellow travelers (most of them have been solo).  It was my first long US road trip after I returned to the USA from the UK in 2014 and started all this road tripping. Let’s say it was a warm-up trip.  So seven years later I’ll be going back several years and showing images from my very first big drive in what later became a grand plan to explore the back roads and byways of the USA over the ensuing years.  Back to the future.

This initial road trip was and remains a big favorite.  Let’s go.

First a note about the photos:  most days it’s hard to take photos in Seattle (and Washington and Oregon generally).  It’s no secret:  there are a lot of overcast days, and it rains.  That makes for a lot of flatter images – soft and low contrast. Look at the photo of the Space Needle at Seattle Center above – typical.  Also, the colors just don’t jump out. The constant overcast doesn’t need to ruin the shoots, and it can be played to one’s advantage.   It’s good for people, for example.  It’s not so good for landscapes or other subjects (such as the Space Needle!) needing some contrast.  Bear with me in this series if the colors don’t have their usual pop.  As it happened, the sunny days were few and far between (especially at the coast).  I will say, however, that when the sun is out in the Pacific northwest, it is glorious!

I should dispel a myth while I am on the subject of weather.  In Seattle, for example, it doesn’t actually rain as much as people think.  Chicago, Boston, Houston, and New York City (to name a few other US cities) all get far more rain than Seattle.  It’s overcast a lot in Seattle, however, and it tends to drizzle rather than pour. 

In this first post, we will take a look around Seattle – the Emerald City – and also head down to nearby Tacoma.  Seattle is beautifully situated on the Puget Sound.  It’s a green city with many parks.  It’s a top “foodie city” with lots of places to eat and very diverse cuisines and also a big craft beer destination. There are many beautiful residential neighborhoods.  Several good museums. For coffee drinkers, this is the place. Check out the photos below of the very first Starbucks store by the Pike Place Market!  It’s  the birthplace of grunge rock – Nirvana and Pearl Jam got their start there.  So did Jimi Hendrix, born November 27, 1942, in Seattle.

The greater Seattle metropolitan area (which includes Tacoma, Everett, Seattle, Redmond and Bellevue) is one of the top 10 largest regional economies in the U.S. according to the most recent information I have seen.  It has a booming tech sector (including Microsoft and Amazon) which sure helps with that sort of ranking.  It’s quite a contrast with some of the economically struggling US cities we have visited in this blog.

The highly regarded University of Washington is in Seattle.  It’s one of the oldest public universities on the West Coast of the United States. Go Huskies!

There’s a lot more I could say about Seattle and why it gets consistently described as one of the best large US cities to live in. Let’s pause a minute for a digression, however, lest I be accused of sugarcoating. I probably should say a little something about some of the news reports these days about Seattle.  Let me get that out of the way now. There’s been a lot written lately about the challenges currently facing Seattle, including the increase in the unhoused population in the city and a rise in crime as well (especially in the downtown).  I am aware of these disturbing reports. Over the years – both on business related visits and otherwise – I have been to Seattle frequently.  2015 was my most recent visit.  I have had so many great stays there, and I generally have felt safe in the city. There are several photos in the set taken in the center city. On my many visits I have had no hesitation walking around the downtown, the Capitol Hill district and elsewhere (with the exception of the area around Pioneer Square which even in past days seemed a bit too sketchy for me). These posts are about my personal experience visiting places. Since I have not been back since 2015, however, in the absence of more recent firsthand knowledge I can’t really comment on the public safety situation there or otherwise on Seattle currently.  So I won’t, except to say that Seattle is not the only large US city in the news these days and not in a good way. 

Back now to more cheerful topics about a city I like. 

If mid-century modern is your thing, then don’t miss Seattle Center on a visit to the city.  You’ll see a number of photos below I took there.  It’s the site of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair (also known as the Century 21 Exposition). There are still many extant structures from the 1962 Fair, including the Space Needle.  Even the 1960s monorail linking downtown Seattle and Seattle Center still operates (using the original “fleet” of two West German made Alweg trains from the 1962 Fair). Read more about the World’s Fair relics here and check out this fantastic 1962 souvenir program I found online!

The glass artwork on view in Seattle and Tacoma is pretty amazing.  An easy trip from Seattle – it can be done as a day trip – is Tacoma where a visit to the Museum of Glass there is a must.   Right in Seattle at the Seattle Center is the Chihuly Garden and Glass gallery right by the Space Needle.  

Pike Place Market (since 1907!) is a fave.  Today’s factoid:  it’s oldest continuously operating farmers market in the United States.  Don’t miss it if you are in Seattle.

Driving from Seattle to Vancouver, BC (Canada) takes about three hours under normal driving conditions with traffic moving and with no excessive back-up at the international border.  Alternatively, the passenger only Seattle to Victoria Clipper ferry ride connects the United States with Vancouver Island in 2 hours and 45 minutes, traveling directly between Pier 69 in downtown Seattle and the Belleville Terminal in downtown Victoria, BC’s Inner Harbor.  I have never driven from Seattle to Vancouver, but I have taken the ferry from Seattle to Vancouver Island which is a very enjoyable trip and visit. 

Seattle is also a great starting point for a coastal drive southward which is what we are going to begin in the next post.

Let’s have a look around Seattle first.

Click on (or tap) an image to expand it (and use the arrow to the right on an expanded image to go through the set, if preferred over scrolling down in the post).