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Our Weekend Trip to Seattle Washington

This past weekend Chris and I drove to Seattle, Washington for a qigong retreat.   The three hour drive to Seattle ended up being closer to 6 hour drive.  We had slow traffic around a six car pile up brief stints of heavy rain and had more slow traffic due to road construction. We ended up driving into Seattle at the early end of Friday’s rush hour.  So we weren’t surprised at slow traffic entering town.  After navigating with the help of our cell phones to the hotel, I was grateful that we were greeted by a rainbow outside our window (see my Share Your World post for photo of the rainbow).  I figured the rainbow was a great sign for our weekend.

042815seattle_4The next morning we got breakfast at the hotel.  Came back to our room and made a couple of plans to see some of Seattle before our class started at 1:30 pm.  We decided to go see a park and eat lunch at the Red Mill Totem House since it was real close to where our qigong class would be held.

We left ourselves about three hours to stroll through a Gas Works Park at Union lake and lunch.  We thought we had plenty of time.  WRONG.  The traffic in Seattle is horrible and scary.  We got lost, even with our iPhones for navigation.  Most of the drive was literally .2 miles turn right, .3 miles turn left, 500 feet gentle right.  I didn’t have time to take my normal drive by shooting photographs even with camera in hand.

I did happen to get this mural, although I didn’t notice a right turn in 200 feet.  And that ended up with about a 15 minute detour to get back to the same point.

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There would have been lots of opportunities to take photos, but with traffic and directions so crazy, I was only able to get this photo.  The roads are extremely narrow in Seattle.  There were times I had to make sure Chris didn’t knock off mirrors on parked cars.

We never did make it to the park.  We did however make it to the restaurant, we both just sat in the car for about 10 minutes before we got of the car.  We just sat and tried to catch our breath.  We were that frazzled from the traffic.  We have both driven in large cities before, but none even came close to this type of crazy roads and drivers.  Here is a photo of the outside of the little restaurant we had lunch at.

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I got some pretty cool photos inside this little restaurant too, which no doubt will end up on my blog at some point.

Once we got to where our qigong class was we were able to sit outside and enjoy a nice Seattle day.  One of the class members was sitting on a bench playing some music.

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And another person arrived to class in a taxi cab.  He was actually quite smart, he took the Amtrak train from Portland and took a taxi everywhere in Seattle.  Now that is the way we would like to travel in Seattle.

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We left Seattle early on Sunday morning and headed back to our little city about 1 hour south of Portland.  We stopped for breakfast at a Denny’s in Lacey, Washington.  Chris immediately noticed this wonderful Military Honor Table for POW – MIA – KIA.  She grabbed her iPhone and took some photos.  See her post for full details.  Chris is a Vietnam Veteran and this really spoke to her.  Her post is worthy of being read.  She talked to the Denny’s employees and they said that single rose is taken a lot.  Chris came home and ordered a dozen fabric single roses to help keep the rose there.  We are assuming people who were really touched by this display would take the rose as a remembrance.

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Needless to say we won’t be going to Seattle a lot if ever again.  Our stop at Denny’s and the wonderful employees there made our whole weekend worth it.  Our qigong class was great too.

Qi (energy) hugs

Cee

42 replies »

    • I would too. There are so real cool sites to see and places to visit in Seattle. We are still trying to figure how to make that trip again and be smarter about it 🙂

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        • We won’t be staying downtown again. We’ve heard of others places that are better to stay at. Taxi’s work well too. We would always take the amtrak to Seattle and just cab it otherwise. I wouldn’t want to drive in NYC either. Yikes!

          Liked by 1 person

  2. …. and you think Portland is bad. 🙂 I guess it all depends on what we get used to. Actually I don’t drive much in Portland either. I’m about 45 minutes south and rarely go to the “Big City”. I will definitely be back to Seattle someday. Just don’t know when yet. 🙂

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  3. HI Cee,

    I somehow missed this post–I am so sorry about your experience in Seattle. I enjoy driving–maybe because I’m originally from The Motor City–but I know we have terrible traffic in Seattle. I get around it mostly by avoiding the freeways during rush hour or taking alternative routes when it’s bad, like driving on Highway 99 when I-5 is backed up, and allowing extra time to get where I’m going. But that’s not usually an option for people who are new to the city and don’t know the back roads. When I’m in Portland, I am always a little tense driving because I find all the bridges and one way streets confusing, but I still like to go there. I hope you do come back!

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  4. Pingback: State of Your Year: One Word Fabulous | Cee's Photography

  5. Seattle is one of my favorite cities in US. Lived there for a short period in 1989. You had real adventure … sad that you didn’t have time to see more of Seattle .. the Pike Market … The Blue trees … and all the good restaurants and the Union Sq area. Love the “playing” image.

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    • Seattle does seem like a really cool place to visit. I wouldn’t live there, but then I’m a small town girl. We are already thinking of how to do it better next time. The blue trees look like they would be fun to photograph.

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      • Pike Public Market … is for me the ultimate place for me .. in Seattle, with all the action – a really fun place. Seattle is a small town at heart … I really like Seattle … a lot more than SF. Hope there will be a time for you soon to go back, because there is so much around Seattle too .. like Victoria on Vancouver Island .. only a 1,5 hour away. So pretty.

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  6. I love the post Cee as I’ve been to Seattle on motorcycles with my friend in that insane traffic. We wound up spending the night because of heavy downpours on our trip. My friend used his smartphone to navigate everywhere so I just followed him, very closely. Of course we didn’t take pictures as we rode but did take a gerry boat ride that allowed us some rest from the stress brought about by the madness there. We took in Pike’s Place Market and Tutta Bella Pizza Parlor.

    I could sense the stress of your trip and sympathize with your experience. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. Yeah, driving in Seattle is a bummer. It’s a wonderful city, but we don’t go often because of the driving. As someone else wrote, public transportation is probably the way to go. Anyway, glad your weekend had enough “ups” to cancel out the “down” of driving. As always, love your photos.

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    • I’ve driven in San Francisco in a shift car and managed to get around just fine….Seattle is a whole different monster. Chris and I are already trying to figure out how to do it better next time we go. 🙂

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  10. Seattle is a wonderful city, but my oldest daughter will not drive in Seattle, she takes Amtrak up and then her best friend pick her up and does all the driving for their crazy Seattle Adventures.

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  11. Great shot and you are right it is scary and we live around 2 hours away from Seattle on a good traffic day.
    We go up every 6 months for hubbys appt and reviews with his Drs there at the VA up on Columbia.
    Great shots.

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  12. And people ask us why we don’t like going into Boston. I was hoping your west coast traffic was better than ours, but obviously not. I really don’t believe people realize what a huge impact traffic has on us and how much it impacts what we do, when we do them, where we go.

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    • I’ve driven in all the west coast big cities over the years. It is congested and LA goes on forever and you always have to plan an extra hour or so. But Seattle is a whole different creature. thanks Marilyn. 🙂

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  13. Seattle is a wonderful city, but the only sane way to be a tourist downtown is to park the car and use public transportation and feet. I live here and never drive downtown unless I have to.

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    • Our thoughts exactly. We had been to Seattle once a few years ago. We took the train from Portland to Seattle. Then a taxi to the Space Needle and took a Duck Tour. Then taxi back to the train and home. We had a blast that day. Thanks for commenting.

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  14. Sorry you had a tough time in traffic, Cee! I try to never drive around Lake Union but there are plenty of parks in easier areas if you find your way up here again. Let me know and I’ll even come meet you. 🙂

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    • We stayed in downtown and our class was close to Lake Union…..so I think you can imagine. We drove over the Fremont bridge and totally freaked out. That is narrow and so full of traffic. We have thought of easier ways to have done what we did…..and are looking forward to going back. Probably sooner than later.
      Feel free to contact me and I would gladly contact you when we go back up there.
      https://ceenphotography.com/contact/

      Liked by 1 person

  15. I don’t drive but driving in large cities would be horrible. Neither Hubby nor my sister like the idea of driving in Sydney which has a lot of narrow one way streets in the CBD. It’s much easier to just use public transport everywhere or walk. It’s a shame that the stress of driving in heavy traffic spoiled your trip. When you live in the country like we do even the noise of traffic is very stressful.

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  19. What a stressful way to de-stress. That sounds like London – I think the average speed for a car in central London was only about 5 mph while I was there. It was quicker to walk.
    I love the city where I live now – slow traffic and only 5 minutes to the CBD. You would have had to come home for a rest. Take care

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    • It has taken us a couple of days to re-coup, but we are already talking about going again (this time for fun). We learned a lot about how to get around and where to stay. 🙂

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