Washington State 2024 - Seattle, Our First Look

 We landed 25 minutes early, however, an inefficient luggage delivery system ate up that time and more. After something of an ordeal we were finally in a cab on our way into the city.  Colorful graffiti adorned the retaining walls along the highway. I found myself thinking about the danger to life and limb the urban artists had subjected themselves to. 

We checked in and caught the elevator up to our room on the 23rd floor. We had paid a premium for a city view room. The bathroom was sumptuous, the room more than commodious and the skyline views, from the floor to ceiling wall to wall windows, expansive. 

Due to a forgotten prescription our first stop needed to be a Walgreens. There was one a short walk away. This afforded us our first view of the city. 

I had not expected the abundance of historic architecture. Due to the city's rapid growth in the later years of the 19th century Seattle boasts the largest collection of Romanesque Revival architecture in the United States. Block after block of the venerable facades line the streets making a walk a series of delightful discoveries. 

We ate at an Italian restaurant a block from the hotel. Having risen early that morning we were incredibly tired. It was all I could do not to face plant in my linguine which, by the way, was quite tasty. 





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

South Florida 2025 - A Meal With the Mob

Adjacent to our condo was a fairly large shopping center which included several restaurants. Apparently the area where we stayed is sometimes referred to as the Russian Riviera. At dinner one night this came home when we found ourselves among a large number of swarthy individuals talking at various tables about God only knows what. At one table two carried on a conversation which seemed, through volume and gestures between them, to indicate that future events would not end well for someone they were acquainted with. Huge bodybuilders, leaving the gym in the center, swaggered by with a "nice place you got here, it'd be a shame if something happened to it" demeanor, spoken in Russian of course. The group behind us was celebrating something, champagne was being downed in a rapid fashion, and their table groaned under the weight of the abundance of food. I dined on a wonderful creamy pasta with a generous amount of shrimp garnished with parsley sprigs, shaved parmesan cheese ...
Read more

South Florida 2025 - A State Park , the Beach and Fully Retiring on an Oceanfront Balcony

 At the condo complex where we stayed bikes can be borrowed, although ridable they are old, rickety and poorly maintained. Despite this we took off one morning to explore a nearby state park. It sits along a riverbank which is somehow connected to the ocean but I have no idea how. The system of channels and inlets was a mystery to me the entire trip no matter how often my patient condo mate attempted to explain it to me. It was a tranquil oasis. Birds sang and lizards scuttled among the rocks letting the sun warm their cold blood. A bright green one rested on a stone, it's brilliant hue on full display. We chatted with a leanly built fisherman casting his line along a shoreline of protected coral reef. Cityscapes loomed in the distance over the emerald foliage which grew in profusion. As we left two large green lizards, black stripes wrapped around their verdant tails, raced across the bike path.  We stopped by the condo before riding to meet the other 3 members of our group a...
Read more

South Florida 2025 - Sunday Funday

 I went on the trip with what I call my Beach Bros. We spend much of the summer months at Chicago's gay beach, 4 blocks from my apartment. During the other months we meet up for lunches or dinners, I sometimes treat some to visits at the Art Institute, a couple months back we celebrated a birthday at the indoor pool area of the building one lives in. They are part of the family one chooses, as opposed to the families you are born into. One of the BBs moved to Ft. Lauderdale several years back, unwilling to brave another Chicago winter. Plans were laid to meet up with him and his husband, who he met in Florida, for dinner and a nightclub visit on Sunday.  Having the luxury of a rental car my condo mate and I decided to get a day pass at a Ft. Lauderdale gay resort and hitch up with the others later. We registered and paid the modest entrance fee to the young, tanned desk attendant clad in tiny, tight white trunks and a skimpy black tank top. It made me wonder what he wore to th...
Read more