Exploring Seattle

Sunday was a good day. Our morning was pretty relaxed. While waiting for Steph to get ready, I went down to the gym and put in about three miles on the treadmill and got in a quick workout following the jog. After a quick shower and change, we got some of our stuff together and headed down the street for breakfast. We wandered around a bit, just trying to find a place that served something other than danishes and coffee, and eventually ended up making our way down towards the market again, where we found a quaint little bistro called Bocca tucked into the side of the hill on Stewart. They specialize in these amazing juices...completely worth the wait to get in, which actually wasn't all that bad.

After breakfast we picked up the car and headed north into a few of Seattle's neighborhoods. Our first stop was Queen Anne. We didn't really have an agenda, so we drove up the hill and made our first stop at Kerry Park, a small overlook suggested by my buddy Glen. After checking out the skyline for a few minutes, we decided to drive around and explore. This brought us to Queen Avenue books, a cozy little bookstore nestled behind a small cafe on the main strip. I picked up a book about weird washington facts and a best-seller called 'Merle's Door,' a story about a man and his dog, which after reading a page or two of, I felt all too familiar with.

Instead of going back to the car, we took a stroll around the neighborhood just west of the strip, which ended up turning into this amazing walk. We were both so impressed with the houses, all of which were a bungalow/arts and crafts style, that were so detailed and well-taken care of, that it almost reminded us of something out of a storybook. The yards were immaculate and detailed with ornate landscaping, and the homes themselves couldn't have a more perfect coat of paint on them. It was a very comfortable place to be.

Soon after, we jumped back in the car and headed down the hill towards Fremont, which is widely known as the funky district, appealing to thrift store shoppers and those with eclectic tastes. Almost right away, we loved it. While Queen Anne was quaint and prestine, Fremont had a vibe to it that reminded us of Lakewood in Cleveland. There were tiny little vintage shops everywhere and the place was littered with a huge variety of restaurants. We parked the car at the bottom of the hill and almost right away came across a small street fair, with dozens of vendors set up along the sidewalks up and down the entire street. We decided to stay there for a little while and browse the tents, and ended chatting it up with a few of the local artists. One guy was selling hand-crafted leather wallets from Argentina, while another had a display of wood-carved earrings. Just before we moved on into the neighborhood, Steph found a table of homemade scented candles and picked a few of those up on our way out.

Like I had mentioned before, Fremont has sort of a "wacky" reputation, which means it has some out-of-the-box public art. Like Waiting for the Interurban for starters, a simple piece that displays a group of people waiting for the bus. The odd thing here is that the dog's face is actually the mayor's face from when it was erected there, mainly due to a legendary dispute between the artist and the mayor of Fremont himself.

Next was the Fremont Troll. Now, I don't think anyone knows exactly how this got here, or what inspired it, but wow...is it cool. It's hysterical, you walk up the hill under the bridge and this is what you see, a huge troll coming out of the ground, crushing a Volkswagon Bug of all things. ..I know, right? And the Bug is real, not made out of cement like the rest of the sculpture, which made me wonder what's actually inside of it. You almost can't help but clamber all over it...just watch out for the bums that make their home behind it (some little Rasputin-looking fellow with a staring problem was standing directly behind me during this photo). Very wierd, but very fun.