K&S Invades Seattle

The Gum Wall downtown, not all of Seattle is this gross.

Two years ago one of my best friends of over 30 years, Kevin Kowalk, came to Arizona to visit all the way from South Korea and we hiked the Grand Canyon.  It was an adventure of a lifetime that I blogged about and worth revisiting if you get the chance.  Last year he and I hit Chicago and although we only had one day to hang out, we made the most of it.  And now for the third year in row Kevin was in the States and at the end of his business trip he flew up to Seattle for another K&S reunion.  Being that Seattle is my new hometown it was only fitting that the old band got back together here in the land of indie music and grunge, so we went out to explore the city to learn and experience all we could and maybe even get that elusive record deal.

Seattle's music scene is legendary and in the heart of it all is the Croc.

His first night in town we went to the famous Crocodile Club in Seattle's Belltown District.  The Croc is a tiny little venue that has been around for decades and virtually every band that got mainstream success that came out of Seattle, cut their teeth here.  My cousin Matt joined us as he was interested in seeing one of the 3 bands we were seeing that night.  Note that indie rock is not my thing, but Kevin was really interested and so was Matt so who was I to be the buzz kill, well at least for the moment.  Before we went to the club we went to a few local bars including one of Matt's favorites, Cyclops , as they have a ton of IPA's, and then a quick trip to Shorty's.

Coulrophobic?  Then don't go to Shorty's.  We left abruptly.

The concert featured 3 bands, with the headliner the main draw for Kevin and Matt.  The first band went on and I would describe them as a Sponge Bob Square Pants rock band as they had a lot of theatrics and happy music and their keyboard player was dressed as a starfish.  Yes, a starfish.  The second band was from Portland, so there's that, beyond their hometown they were more of a hipster band and trying to be ironically cool or something.  Hmmm, yeahhhh.  The headliner was really the band Kevin and Matt were fans of and they were better than the other two, but it just wasn't my type of music, maybe a bit too fem for me.  So I left out all of the band names here purposely because music is subjective, everyone has their own taste, so it wasn't for me, but I was still happy to go to an iconic club downtown and listen to live music and both of them were happy to have seen the headliner and enjoyed the show.

At the Boeing Factory with many of their jets behind us. Wait, no pictures!

The next day Kevin and I headed to the Boeing factory just north of Seattle in Everett for a tour.  I know what your thinking, a plane factory, how exciting?!?!?  But just as Michigan is, still, the car capitol of the US, here in the Pacific NW, we are the plane capitol as Boeing has been in existence and providing tens of thousands of jobs here since the inception of flight. So to actually see the factory where they make them in an assembly line fashion was actually quite fascinating.  No cameras are allowed on the tour, I guess they don't want to give away any secrets, but we learned a great deal about how it all started.  Seems William Boeing was actually from Detroit and after going to college at Yale, he went out to the Pacific Northwest in the early 1900's to further his family's prominent timber business. Around this time airplanes were being rudimentarily created and he became fascinated and decided he would go into the plane building business.  With that he and a partner formed B&W and got a contract to build two planes for New Zealand.  During the construction his partner decided he wanted out and moved back East leaving it all to Boeing who completed the contract and as they say the rest was history.  Boeing now creates their jets in the world's largest building, a nearly 100 acre building where they can build six 787's at one time as well as at other facilities all over the US and the world.  It is pretty impressive to see it in person and we were both glad to have visited.

Don't worry, explanation below.  Could someone please pass the Purel?

 

From there we headed back to downtown Seattle, met up with Matt again and since he is a local, he gave us the downtown tour starting with the infamous Pike's Market where you can watch them throw the fish that people order.  It is a fun thing to see but after a few minutes, you've seen enough.  Right down the street is the very first Starbucks store and there was a line down the block because I guess getting coffee from the first Starbucks must be more special than going to one of  the other million locations downtown. It's just coffee people!  Around the corner Matt showed us the disgusting Gum Wall which literally is an alley way between Pike's Market and the port.  For some bizarre reason this has become a poplar spot to take wedding photos, seriously.  Although not the day we were there.  It was as vile and disturbing as you can imagine and I am sure I contracted any number of diseases just being that close to the gum.  But of course just to take it up a notch I pretended to lick the wall.  A few people appeared shocked, but then again this is Seattle, probably going to take more than that.  But keep in mind, I did not actually lick this thing, although my friend Bacon says I should have made a YouTube video of me licking the wall and started a new trend.  I guess there's always next time.

The Famous Pike's Market.  Watch out for flying Salmon.

The very first Starbucks, but certainly not the last one.

Onwards we headed down to Pioneer Square to take the Underground Tour.  Yes, another tourist tour, but this was equally interesting and educational. Wow, did I just say that, I must be old.  Anyway, stay with me because it is quite a story in the formation of Seattle and it's all true.  At the turn of the century there was a massive fire that burned all of downtown Seattle, over 100 acres.  The main cause of the fire was from a local wood shop, however, remember this is the early 1900's, Seattle still had outhouses, but had just recently received a shipment of toilets from England. However, not having any sewage system they just basically had toilets in outhouses, meaning the waste just ran out in the streets and when the fire started, the sewage burned and caused many of the toilets to explode, shooting upwards like a geyser.  Upon the rebuilding of the city, they now realized they needed to build a drainage system with piping; however since most of the new brick buildings were already constructed they came up with solution to make the second floor of every building the new first floor and they planned to fill in then land between the buildings up to that level for the road, thereby all the first floors of the buildings would be underground and they would run all the drainage pipes through the original first floors.  Well an undertaking like this would cost quite a bit of money and since there was no taxes on business, at that time, the town council decided they would tax the most profitable businesses for the money.  Keep in mind it was the Klondike Gold Rush era with plenty of people coming through the Seattle port on their way to Canada in search of their own gold fortune, thus there was a fair amount of money floating around the port and many, many men in search of one or two things before they left for their gold adventure: booze and sex.  Well no doubt there were many saloons but as the town council soon learned after sending out a survey to its townspeople, there were an inordinate amount, thousands, of women that listed their profession as seamstress, which was just a cover for prostitute with one Madam leading the charge.  So after the Mayor and Police Chief conducted a lengthy investigation, it was determined that Madam Seamstress agreed to pay for all of the town to be rebuilt and each of her employees would pay a $10 a month tax as well and she was happy with this arrangement as the town's prosperity was good for her business.  Thus Seattle was rebuilt on the backs of....well you can fill in the blanks.  As the town was rebuilt it was then essentially built upwards leaving the original road and first floors of all the original business underground and you can now take the tour under the city to see some of it for yourself.

An old bank vault that at one time held over 2 tons of gold.

One of the original toilets that didn't explode.

As you go underground it really feels like you are in a basement, not really creepy or too dirty.  One of the original saloons is still intact, just a little warped after 100 years.  On the sidewalks above there are spots that are glass covered so when down below you can see people walking above, although the glass is so shadowed you can't see through it, more shadows and light.  The gold rush had brought thousands and thousands of people through Seattle daily and when there are that many people, there is money to be made and two prominent business were also formed as as result.  One man started selling hiking boots to all the travelers heading north explaining the harsh winters and conditions in Canada and the need for such footwear.  While another man sold all the warm weather clothing they would need to undertake such an expedition.  Those two men, John Nordstrom and Eddie Bauer.  And as well as there was legitimate money to be made, there are always those trying to make a fast buck as well and Seattle soon was selling gophers by the boatload.  Why you ask, well someone came up with the idea to sell to all of these eager gold rushers that gophers can smell gold, so if you have a few with you, when you get to your claim spot, turn them loose, when they burrow underground, dig there.  Hence the term Golden Gophers.  So there you have the dirty history of Seattle all the prostitutes and raw sewage that paved the way for the grunge era in the 90's.  Seems more appropriate now, doesn't it?

First time in Seattle, well you know what you have to do!

The next day Kevin and I went back downtown to the world famous Space Needle, because no first trip to Seattle would be complete without seeing it.  Built for the 1962 World's Fair the Needle still looms over Seattle even though there are many buildings taller, however none of them offer a full 360 degree view.  It was a bright, sunny day, making it perfect for going up to take a few photos.

A look south, too cloudy to see Mt. Rainier though.

Looking North at Lake Union.  Float plane in mid-flight and my office down below just north of the crane.

After the needle we went to Gas Works Park on the north end of Lake Union where Kevin got some great photos as well as some photos of Seattle overall.

A look from the North end of Lake Union at downtown Seattle.

SafeCo Field and CenturyLink Park.

Looking downtown from the South.

We also drove through the University of Washington campus which is very nice and by their newly renovated football stadium, neither of which hold a candle to MSU, but out west they are the best in the region.  We also went on a search for a Chinese buffet for Kevin.  Yes he lives in South Korea and thus he has his fill of Asian food on a regular basis, but he was looking for American-Chinese food and we sadly learned that Chinese buffet's don't exist in Seattle.  We have plenty of Chinese restaurants but not buffets so we ate at a solid Chinese restaurant, good, but it wasn't the same and Kevin was left to head home buffetless.

Lighthouse on Vashon Island, shades of Michigan for sure.

The South Beach of Vashon Island.

For our final stop we took the ferry over to Vashon Island where my cousin Matt lives.  As well as seeing the Needle, no trip to Seattle is also complete until you take a ferry somewhere.  One of the coolest things about Seattle is that you can live on any number of islands and take a ferry to downtown to work every day for very cheap, especially if you don't bring your car.  Vashon Island sits just south of Seattle and is about a 20 minute ride to downtown. The island is quite large and has about 10K residents, however it's no tourist stop, it's basically a suburb on an island with tons of parks and green space and it's own small downtown and schools for those that live there year round.

It was a great way to cap Kevin's visit as we went to the lighthouse and viewed the shores of Seattle from afar.  This trip allowed us to do and see any number of things and actually left Kevin saying that if he ever does move back to the USA, something he's been saying for years, Seattle would easily be at the top of his list.  In the end K&S may not have gotten the record deal we've been chasing for 30 years, but we were able to get together for a third year in a row and that hasn't happened, maybe ever, since Kevin first went to South Korea in 1990.  I still owe him a trip over there and would love to see that part of the world.  For now I got to completely explore my new hometown and I got to do it with one of my best friends and my cousin, making it that much more enjoyable.  So now I leave it up to you , should you ever have an interest in going up a Space Needle or seeing a half-exploded toilet underground or maybe you want to see a starfish sing, you want a Starbucks coffee, or a ferry ride,  just say the word and we'll send a Boeing Dream Liner to pick you up.

K&S three years in a row, on the ferry to Vashon Island.
This is a good picture of us, but it does seem kind of gay, not that there's anything wrong with that!