Our beloved employer gave us the opportunity to work in the company's Seattle head office for three months.
Of course we worked hard, but we had some great weekends away and an unforgettable vacation.
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On our first day in Seattle we had lunch in the revolving restaurant at the top of the Space Needle, reflecting that 36 hours earlier we'd been in Stevenage, wondering if this was all just a big mistake, and hoping we could last the full three months before the mistake was discovered!
At work, we had a barbecue on the balcony in the beautiful May sunshine. People kept telling us it was unusually dry weather ... they kept saying that until we left in August.
Seattle's a small city really, but still boasts the usual complement of skyscrapers downtown. There's some imaginative architecture but my favourite of all is the Washington Mutual building.
Space Needle |
Seattle Skyscrapers |
Washington Mutual Building |
One typically beautiful Monday evening we had a sunset cruise on the Lady Washington, a replica of the 112-foot, 90-ton tall ship, in which Robert Gray discovered the Columbia River and Grays Harbor in the 1780s. The replica performs many educational tasks as well as being a pleasure boat, and was used at the start of the terrible Star Trek film Generations. On our "voyage" the crew outnumbered us 3 to 1 so we had the run of the ship, climbing the rigging and generally making nuisances of ourselves. Watching from our silent little vessel as the 1,100-foot aircraft carrier USS Nimitz steamed out of Elliot Bay with its escort of helicopters gave us a profound sense of ... er ... something.
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Of all the things I miss, I think I miss
Mount Rainier
the most. Part of the
Cascade range of volcanoes which also
includes
Mount St. Helens,
it dominates Seattle's southern skyline despite being over 70 miles away. It
influences the mood of Seattle dwellers too: it's only visible on clear days
and so if you can see The Mountain it's sure to be a nice day. We think
the best place to see The Mountain from Seattle is from Discovery Park in the
north of the city.
Most of the way to Mt. Rainier is Northwest Trek. They have a
free-roaming area for the cow-and-deer type animals, but the dangerous and/or
cuddly animals are in distressingly small cages. The birds, like
this owl,
all have some kind of non-flying disability - accidental, I presume.
The hills surrounding Spirit Lake were washed by a 300-foot wave which carried hundreds of thousands of dead trees into the lake, and now they lie like mutant scum along the shore.
Some areas are being actively replanted whilst others are left to recover
naturally. I don't think we should be replanting at all.
| Other USA '95 Stuff | Other USA Fun |
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