|
Part 2: The view in the sound is spectacular, as though the landscape splits open to admit the sea.
By Greg Breining — Spring
2004
Seattle itself could keep you entertained for years even without leaving the dock. To start, take a cab to Pike Place Market. Shop at one of three fresh-fish markets (but watch for flying salmon!). Taste plump Rainier cherries and juicy local oh-my-God peaches. Cross Pike Place for a sweet cream cheese blueberry vatrushka at Piroshky Piroshky and savor it with coffee a couple doors down at the first-ever Starbucks, opened in 1971. On your way to Pioneer Square, stop for two scoops of sour cherry gelato at Bottega Italiana.
For souvenirs beyond the belly, check out Northwest Tribal Art, selling the works of the Haida, Salish, and other Northwest tribes, whose ancestors carved the totem poles that dotted the shores of the Pacific Northwest. Find your way to Alaskan Way and check out the Elliott Bay waterfront, including more than 360 species of critters, from sharks to sea lions, at the Seattle Aquarium.
Eventually, of course, you’ll want to cast off, and just as much entertainment awaits on the water. During the day that I had to explore before my blackberry bumble, I found more fun in and around Lake Union than anyone might discover during a weeklong cruise in many other destinations.
KAYAKS TO GO
Contrary to everything you’d expect in Seattle, the sky is clear blue. Temperatures are forecast for the mid-90s, a near record. We rent three kayaks—two singles and a tandem—just down the shore and paddle to the boat. We hoist them aboard and head north on Lake Union, past the old shoreside gasification plant, now Gasworks Park, where kids fly kites on a grassy hill.
We glide down the Lake Washington Ship Canal, a corridor of industry, dry docks, and shipyards. Kayaks and rowing skulls ply the channel. We scoot beneath the low girders of the Fremont Bridge, pass the fleet moored at the Fisherman’s Terminal, and await our turn at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks (better known simply as the Ballard Locks), which will lower us some 20 feet to salt water. As we wait and then slowly proceed to the lock chamber, my wife, Susan, who is both a fly-fisherman and an extraordinary cook, watches gleefully as lustrous migrating sockeye salmon break water around us.
We toss our bow and stern lines to the lock attendants. Soon the locks fill with boats and drain of water. The seaward gates open and we motor down Salmon Bay, which quickly opens to the brisk chop of Puget Sound.
The view in the sound is spectacular, as though the landscape splits open to admit the sea. West, across the channel, the Olympic Mountains rise behind Bainbridge Island. Northeast, Mount Baker peaks over the horizon like a white thunderhead. To the southeast sits the Seattle skyline and, beyond that, the glistening cone of Mount Rainier.
>> Next page >> Part 3: We return to Winslow the next morning after breakfast, passing a brood of children paddling their bright kayaks into the harbor. Page
1,
2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7, 8
|
