September 1, 2010 – Day 20 (32 Miles).
Today we lucked out; the day started out cold & misty, but got warmer & the sun came out some times. We went downtown early to find an economical parking spot. We went to & through the Pike Place Market. This area is the “city’s heart and soul, a market that opened in 1907 as an experiment in bringing together local farmers and consumers”. The market has fish markets, bakeries, restaurants, and many other businesses. Once through, we went to the waterfront & caught the Waterfront Streetcar Bus (a free ride) to Chinatown. We decided to walk rather than jump on the bus. Stops we made were Union Station, Occidental Park, Pioneer Square (a park with sculptures, mostly totem poles), and the Post Office. We made it back to the Alaskan Way (Waterfront) until we toured the Olympic Sculpture Park. After backtracking a little for lunch we found the Seattle Space Needle (this was the main attraction at the Seattle World Expo in 1962). We spent time looking down at other landscape of the Expo and other sites. On our way back to the car we discovered Seattle Glassblowing Studio. A nice young gent gave a private tour of behind the scene massive inventory (various sizes, colors, materials, etc.). We watched a couple of skilled working on items (no glass blowing). The gallery of products was beautiful pieces of artwork. Back at the motel Jan did laundry and the paperwork necessary to leave the car for the 2 weeks at the motel. We repacked for tomorrow trip. We got our exercise today by walking 9.6 miles up & down hills & stairs. A very good day.