On Saturday, I was up, bright and early, at 4AM, after falling asleep after dinner on Friday. By 6AM, I was at
Tully's Coffee, in the courtyard between the 4 apartment buildings that make up the
Harbor Steps complex. Then I walked down to the waterfront, which is only 2 blocks away, and took a long, leisurely stroll.
It's cloudy in these pictures, but, by noon it was sunny and absolutely gorgeous. At 4 PM, when I got out of
Uwajimaya,it was raining and actually hailing, too! The weather in Seattle kind of reminds me of Mark Twain's description of the weather in New England. Among other things, he said that;
"There is a sumptuous variety about the New England weather that compels the stranger's admiration -- and regret. The weather is always doing something there; always attending strictly to business; always getting up new designs and trying them on the people to see how they will go. But it gets through more business in spring than in any other season. In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four-and-twenty hours..."
And;
"Yes, one of the brightest gems in the New England weather is the dazzling uncertainty of it. There is only one thing certain about it: you are certain
there is going to be plenty of it -- a perfect grand review; but you never can tell which end of the procession is going to move first. You fix up for the drought;you leave your umbrella in the house and sally out, and two to one you get drowned. You make up your mind that the earthquake is due; you stand from under, and take hold of something to steady yourself, and the first thing you know you get struck by lightning. These are great disappointments; but they can't be helped..."
Actually, he also says something I like even better, to wit;
"The people of New England are by nature patient and forbearing, but there are some things which they will not stand. Every year they kill a lot of poets for writing about "Beautiful Spring." These are generally casual visitors, who bring their notions of spring from somewhere else, and cannot, of course, know how the natives feel about spring. And so the first thing they know the opportunity to inquire how they feel has permanently gone by."
You know, Mark Twain
lived in my home state of Connecticut ( Which, actually, is not
really part of New England - at least not in my mind. I think of it more as part of the "Tri-State Area", which is a euphemism for "almost as cool as NYC", and I was incredibly insulted once when a friend from NY claimed that "New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania are the
new Tri-State area!" ). Anyways, joking about offing some poor poetry dweeb, like Joe Pesci casually shooting a waiter in
Goodfellas, seems very "Connecticut" to me. I know,
Goodfellas was not set in CT, but I like to think we've got a little of that vibe going on.
Check out
this link, for more of what Twain had to say about
our weather. It's pretty funny stuff.
Alright, enough with CT, we're supposed to be talking about Seattle here!
I think the waterfront is beautiful, even when it's not sunny, and I really enjoyed the walk. I'm thrilled to be living so close to the harbor. I feel like Frasier Crane, living at "Elliott Bay Towers"!
Safeco Field and Qwest Field to the left, Port of Seattle shipping cranes to the right.
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Seattle-Bainbridge Island Ferry
Seattle Aquarium on the dock in the foreground, downtown Seattle skyline in the background.
Crunchy Seattle biker Dude having his morning coffee at a waterfront cafe.
Ship loading at the grain elevator on Elliott Bay, seen from Myrtle Edwards waterfront
park.
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Cute dog, and his owner, enjoying the walking/biking trail along
Elliott Bayin Myrtle Edwards Park.
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