Next: October 5 to 11 - La Grande
Below is our Amazing Traveling Entomology Exhibit, which we sometimes use as
our car. After 24,000 miles of travel through 44 states and Canadian
Provinces, we have carefully collected species from all over North
America. We have not washed it since May, while on Ocracoke, in order to
preserve the high quality and diversity of the exhibit. We have
quite a collection embedded in the radiator grill -- perhaps we will donate the
van to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History when we return.

One evening, Jordan and I caught up on our pool while Jody visited with her
brother. We played a new game: "Eyes Closed Any-ball". This
way the games lasted quite a while, maximizing our fun-factor-per-dollar.
It was OK to have eyes open while lining up the shot, but you had to hit the
ball with closed eyes. We also took several hot tubs, and played 2 full
games of "Hand and Foot", which Monika had taught to the ladies during
our stay at the cabin in Polebridge.


The next day, Adam agreed to be our guide for a walk about the historic Pike
Street Market area. We got started around 9:30, and drove to the Seattle
Space Needle, which has a station for the only municipal monorail system in the
country. Below is the monorail pulling into the station. Those are
the actual colors; the building in the background is Paul Allen's
"Experience Music Project", of which we did not have time to partake.

We walked downhill to the Pike Street Market, which is an institution in
Seattle. Hundreds of vendors selling all sorts of flowers, produce, fish,
meats and jewelry set up their wares bright and early each
morning. We walked about, and sampled some of their offerings.

We discovered one produce stand with these beautiful, incredibly huge
apples. We bought the one pictured below, and it fed all four of us.


We next dashed across town to catch the 1:00 PM "Underground
Tour". We made it by the skin of our teeth. The tour starts
above ground, with a quick history of Seattle. A considerable part of that
history was driven by one Thomas Crapper, who invented the flush toilet.
You see, Seattle had been mostly built at the water line, often on 'fill'.
Fill was anything they could throw into the water to make more buildable
land. This was often sawdust, which had to unfortunate tendency to decay,
causing potholes so large that they formed deep and dangerous pools. A
child even fell into one such 'pothole', and drowned. But I digress; the
main problem were the flush toilets installed very near the water line. At
high tide, these toilets ran backwards, spewing fountains of sewage. The
patient residents lived with this situation for 8 years, when providence
intervened: Seattle burned to the ground. Rather than assuming that this
was a godly indictment of their ways, civic leaders took this as a more positive
sign, and wisely took action: they moved the entire district straight upward,
abandoning the ground floor of the fledgling city. This abandoned first
floor was the subject of
our tour.
Below is one of the offending -- offensive? -- toilets, located about 10 feet
below the current city's ground level.

Above ground, I took this shot of one of the historic buildings. In
front on the sidewalk, when the city was elevated, they built in some beautiful
colored glass containing manganese...

...which you can see here, from below. Often, the tour took place along
the original sidewalks, now completely underground and largely unused.

The tour took us through some pretty grimy spaces. This highly
processed photo, taken in natural light under the city, gives you some idea of
what the passages looked like.

Jody, passing through a retaining wall. Each intersection was walled
off to prevent the underground spread of fire. The tour operators were
able to open passageways through some of these.


After the tour and a quick lunch courtesy of Adam, we continued our
exploration of the waterfront area. Adam directed us into a bizarre store
that was half tourist T-shirt shop and half old time amusement gallery. We
poked nickels and quarters into the old machines, included "Laughing
Jack", on the left. At right, Jordan poses with a smile mask.


We bought flowers to give to Chris and Jennifer, with whom we were to have
dinner that evening. Jordan bought her own bouquet, as well.

We said our goodbyes to Adam, and then Jody, Jordan and I walked South along
the waterfront to the ferry landing, where we just missed the 4:40 ferry.
Oh well...

Chris Mosio and Jennifer Louden are friends from Santa Barbara who up and
moved themselves to Bainbridge Island in the Puget Sound this past summer.
Bainbridge is a quiet, wooded island where residents cherish their watery
isolation from the mainland. Only a 30 minute ferry ride from downtown
Seattle, it is no wonder the Louden/Mosio family chose to settle there.
Below are Chris and Jennifer. Jennifer has an acutely sharp instinct
for closing her eyes when photos are taken -- this was the only way we could get
a shot of her baby-blues.

The Louden/Mosio family generously made a lovely dinner for us, followed by
pie and ice cream. Below, Lillian, who is Chris and Jennifer's only child,
enjoy seconds of ice cream along with Jordan.

A group shot of our little gathering. We had only this one night visit with them -- far too short. However, we were aiming to be back in
Santa Barbara before Halloween, so this was all the time we had. It was
really, really good to see them again. We had missed them greatly.
We expect to see them in Santa Barbara next; after all, we traveled last to
visit them, right?

October 5 to 11 - La Grande