I had a choice when I woke up: go back to Portland to hang out with friends, or drive into Washington state to Cape Disappointment, and then on to Seattle. You would think that after 10 days on my own, I would have chosen Portland, but I still felt like I needed more time in solitude. I wasn’t fully ready to be a human in society again. I had tagged a bunch of trails in Cape Disappointment, but somehow completely missed Dead Man’s Cove! Heck, I went down the wrong trail for a good half mile before realizing I was walking away from the lighthouse rather than towards it. All the mistakes were made.
You can just barely make out some mountains in the distance.
The weather was befitting of the location, flat and grey. I wandered around and it was a nice walk, but the opportunities for photography were limited. The woods along the coast were busy and messy, and the coastline itself was largely endless and flat.
It had been raining off and on all day, so I forged ahead to Seattle. I had to return the car to the airport and then take the light rail into downtown, which I hadn’t really researched ahead of time. I spent some time stumbling around trying to figure out how it all worked. Once I got to my station in downtown, I went to the map to figure out where the exits were, and made quick friends with another woman who was going in the same direction. My hotel overlooked the ferry terminal, and she needed to get on the ferry to visit family on Bainbridge Island. I was pleased that my urban instincts kicked in, and I was able to orient myself in the city quickly, leading the way like I’d been in Seattle dozens of times before.
My hotel is worth describing, because it felt like some kind of futuristic pod experience. The rooms were TINY but incredibly well laid out. I had a massive window overlooking Bainbridge and the ferry terminal and a king size bed that felt comically oversized in a room that was scarcely larger than the bed. Definitely too small for long term living, but it did give me a good sense of how much you can do with a minimal amount of square footage if you design the space intelligently.
I was hungry and it was raining, so I grabbed a bite to eat before heading out with my camera. It was already right around sunset when I left the hotel, so I didn’t have much daytime to work with, and no real light.
Shiny objects! My inner crow had to stop and take a picture.
A couple days later, I would take a different composition of these murals and it would turn out to be one of my favorite pictures of the trip.
By the time I got to Pike Place Market, most of the shops had closed, but there was something quite charming about wandering around while it was mostly empty. Even after hours, all the lights were still on. Bright, joyful neon signs lit up in barren hallways still littered with debris from the day.
I knew I wanted to revisit Pike Place when I had more daylight to work with, and wandered further down just to get a better sense of the downtown Seattle vibe. The vibe, it turns out, is that Seattle is HILLY. Everyone talks about San Francisco, but good god, I think the reason everyone drinks so much coffee isn’t just to combat the big dark, but also to have the energy to get from place to place. I’ve been on mountain hikes with less elevation gain than some city blocks in Seattle.
Intentional slow shutter to show some movement. Should’ve slowed it down even more, to be honest.
This is a walkway that goes directly to the ferry terminal, which I didn’t realize at the time.
I headed back to the hotel when it was already well dark. It felt like an underwhelming day all around, but I had high hopes for the next two days in Seattle. I didn’t know it yet, but the city would end up pulling out all the stops to try and charm me.
