Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Snowless to Seattle

It had been some number of years since we trekked to Seattle.

Spring break came fast upon us this year and the mountain passes (Homestake, Lookout and Snoqualmie) cleared early of ice and snow, so we packed up the minivan and headed west. The biggest change of note in the Emerald city since our last visit is an immense building boom (see first picture below) in the South Lake Union area, just above the Space Needle, where Jeff Bezos is re-building the Amazon corporate campus and Paul Allen (Microsoft co-founder, and Seahawks and Trailblazers owner) has become a high rise residential real estate magnate. Bill and Melinda's foundation is somewhere in there too. 

Seattle's "progressive" political establishment's attitude about this? They are oligopolistic billionaire corporate icons, but they are our oligopolostic billionaire corporate icons. After all, these guys don't own and operate real industrial enterprises, producing real things for real people, and creating great middle class jobs, like say, the evil Koch brothers. 

One thing we got to do that we had not done since attending the Seattle's World Fair in 1962 was take a round trip on the Monorail. It's kind of a clunker version of the sleeker and more scenic setup in Disney World, but a nice little diversion, nevertheless. Here are pictures of sights we have taken in.


The Space Needle from Lake Union.


Space Needle from the grounds of Seattle Center.


Chihuly Garden and Glass, indoor exhibit.


Chilhuly Garden and Glass, Outdoor exhibit.


Space Needle from Chihuly Garden and Glass.

Gas Works park, Lake Union.





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