Seattle has hills!

After grabbing the mandatory cup of Starbucks (you can’t tour Seattle without Starbucks), I set out. My first goal was to get a picture from Kerry View Point Park. Evidently, on a clear day you can see Mt. Rainier from here too. I think it is just a myth, because since my arrival I’ve not seen one of those days. When we get one, I may venture back to this spot to find out for myself.

I then headed to Pikes Market. It was crowded and it had started raining (as opposed to "just" misting). So I opted out of the stop. I’ll return some other time.

I drove around for a long time with no goal. I know it is an odd thing for me to be without a goal, but it was fun to just take in the flavor of the city. I discovered that Seattle has lots of restaurants that smell really good, people in Seattle actually use their turn signals (yes even if they are already in the turn lane), and more importantly to this particular discussion; Seattle has hills. In fact, Seattle has hills with stop lights at their peak. To understand why this is part of my blog, you have to understand that I recently gave into my preference for a car with manual transmission. This would have been no big deal had a car not pulled up onto my bumper before the light turned green. After ten thousand very loud heartbeats the light turned green. I was suddenly 15 sitting on a hill learning to drive our ugly, brown Datsun 510 hatchback with my dad in the passenger’s side. His words were echoing in my ears. “Let out on the clutch and push in on the gas all at the same time.” While it took what seemed like 100 tries to get it right at 15, I am happy to report that I made it through the stoplight on the first try. I guess it is like riding a bike . . . it all comes back when you need it.

I ended up near this park I had read about earlier so I stopped. The location used to be a gas plant, but after it was shut down it was turned into a park (aptly called Gas Works Park). Only in Seattle !!!