Okay, going back in time a little relative to the previous post, last week we made our way briefly through Portland and then stopped in Seattle for a few days — the urban leg of the trip.
The first three shots in the gallery below are from Portland. We only spent a few hours there on our way through, but we found it to be a very pleasant city. Our favorite landmark, which I did not really get an interesting picture of, was Powell’s Books. It’s an absolutely huge book store, which requires a map to navigate. I could spend an entire week just exploring that. But the city as a whole was very friendly and inviting. We spent a few minutes listening to live music (“Noon Tunes”) in the Pioneer Courthouse Square, ate lunch at a local brewery, and walked through a local park with a giant Elephant sculpture.
After that, we moved on to Seattle, where we had more time. In particular, we spent an entire day in downtown, split between the Seattle Center, where the Space Needle lives, and the waterfront area (including Pike Place Market — you know, where they throw the fish). We ate lunch in the restaurant in the Space Needle which rotates once every 47 minutes, affording great views of the city and surrounding area. We enjoyed live music in Pike Place. We took a harbor cruise and got some great views of the sky line.
