Drove up to Seattle for a day with my friend. Albeit chilly, the weather was decent and sunny ^^. Had a good time up there and felt great to get out of Portland for once.
The drive up to Seattle took a little over three hours with minimal traffic. Upon arrival, we had lunch at Super China Buffet. Big variety but food sorta sucked, quality>quanity any day.
Upon entering Seattle, we were greeted with a high volume of traffic… at 11 am (seriously?)… even with five lanes. Guess it’s not the 9th worst city in traffic jams for nothing. Seattle has some nice buildings ^^. The one most distinctive trait I remember Seattle by are the construction cranes all over the city. I ALWAYS see them! 3 years ago, 8 years ago… always so many!
Going to the Space Needle. Didn’t expect to see a funky amusement park around it. Kinda creepy how it was empty though.
One thing that pissed me off was where we parked. We paid $8.00 for two-hour parking but the clock on the ****ing machine did not adjust for Daylight Saving time so we automatically lost an hour already (realized this after we got up the Needle). When we came back down to check, we saw the clock adjusted one EXTRA hour past DST. It was 2:20 in DST… stupid clock said 3:20. (we bought parking ticket at 1:30 in real time, ticket shows “12:30-2:30”, we come back at 2:30, clock on ticket machine shows “3:30″… I smell something sketchy).
$16 to go up to the top of the Space Needle. Heard the restaurant, Sky City, is the worst restaurant in Seattle and the meals range from $50 up. Ahaha that’s disgustingly laughable. City photos at the bottom of this post ^^. As for the needle itself, I thought it was taller… or at least it looked A LOT taller from far away than up close. It is just “tall” but nothing “WOAH tall”.
Some funky structures around the sci-fi museum. And off we go to Pike Place/Market…
Seattle has some crazy slopes. Some cars were barely able to climb up the streets!
… So we sorta got lost and took a stroll around the waterfront for awhile instead ^^;. Nice atmosphere and vintage stores. More neat looking buildings.
Pike Place.
If you buy a fish at this place, they will throw your fish and you can catch it ^^. Very cheerful people.
Some really cool shops inside and much to see ^^. Novelty stuff, antiques, “exotics”, vintage, old school, generally stuff you don’t see in the city. Very lively atmosphere.
Top floor has fresh seafood and veggies, spices, flattened glass bottles, crafts, and other fresh market stuff. The market even leads to the outside streets ^^
Uwajimaya- a Japanese supermarket with real imported Japanese goods. No Gundams though. If you live somewhere with a real Chinatown or in Asia, this market means nothing to you and the prices can be offensive ^^;. There’s also a Kinokuniya outside. I wasn’t allowed to take photos inside.
Driving home after paying a visit to a friend.
Full moon that night. Decided to mess around a bit xD.
Well, Seattle was fun to visit but I felt robbed after having to spend so much on parking and that killed a lot of the fun. It would be nice if I could spend a few more days here to give some better descriptions and things didn’t felt so rushed. I would’ve loved to visit the International District too. Since there was a time limit on parking, we couldn’t spend as much time in one area as we would’ve liked. The biggest upset: Seattle drivers… a lot of them are a-holes (see: aggressive drivers). Some will just cut right in front of you on the highway if their vehicle can JUST BARELY FIT between you and the car in front. They also seldom let you change lanes. Even if you have the right of way to turn left, the car turning right on the opposite lane will just casually cut in front of you halfway and not even give a damn. Happened to us way too many times during the trip. And I thought I was an aggressive driver (at least I keep my sense of courtesy)… guess that’s city drivers for you /rant *ahem* My apology if you’re one of the more courteous drivers in the WA area ^^;
Now here are some city shots from the Space Needle. Photos taken with Canon XSi
ガンプラ命 
nice. doesn’t look like theres much to shop around there though…
Well, putting the amount of photos trying to rival a certain other entry aside, I didn’t quite expect this. I can’t really put anything thoughtful into this, but I will compliment you on the nice photos you took of the city from the Space Needle.
I should add that I did enjoy the entry overall, though! Including the other pictures. But I thought some of your best (not all) were the ones you took of the city from above.
lilboibastard, no… there’s A LOt to shop around. I just didn’t have time. I only had SIX HOURS to tour around the city after arriving… and that includes finding parking!
Siroh32, which certain other entry are you referring to? ^^; *doesn’t keep track*. and thanks, this is my first time taking photos outside of Gunpla (a controlled environment) and quite frankly, I was kinda clueless on how to take landscape photos ^^;. The city shots were easier because I was able to stand and adjust the settings while the rest was taken when I was walking.
I was referring to one concerning a certain something that broke your spirit until the photo-taking. :) Anyhow, I decided to have a little bit of fun with two of your images (out of boredom), and with your permission, maybe I’ll show it to you here!
feel free :D
I’ve been to most of the places that are in your pictures ^^
Thanks! This sure brings back good memories.
Here ya go, Z: http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa301/Siroh32/ZIMG_2327-Edit.png
:)
man, Seattle is HUGE compared to Melbourne where I’m in right now, let alone my hometown in Malaysia :P
No gunpla shops in Seattle? Awwwwww….
nice pics by the way.
Wow, even Z got really pissed off here ^^;
funny you said that the drivers are a-h ^^; Though, here in my country all drivers are like that (if not,most) hehehe. But, it’s fun to have trip Z. I barely have that in my entire live hehe.
Nice photos Z! Don’t worry bout the quality Z, i think these days cameras have auto-setting
Nice nostalgic pics.
Hmm seattle. I remember going there,i was pretty scared of the slopes also.
Rady, got plans to revisit again some day?
Siroh32, NICE! I’ve always wish I could do such things with some of the photos I took…
Starghazzer, thanks. there actually were a couple of Gundam shops but didn’t get to visit them. Heard they weren’t impressive anyway so guess it was worth the skip.
Eyeshield, there’s more I could rant on but this is not the post to do it. Auto-setting is exactly what makes photo look blah ^^;
Danny, when I got around to the waterfront, I thought “ah! Danny used to work and live around here for awhile” ^^. Beautiful area there.
Kami, I couldn’t imagine going up there when it’s raining or snowing xD
ah, those photos gave me a calming feeling, like I was there myself…….ahhhhh….you’re great with the photo-taking. :)
There’s really only one place i would want to go this year, that park in japan with the life size gundam!!!
lovely view from the top. personally i always believe the best way to explore any city is to take the train/subway. driving can be a pain if one is struck in traffic or looking for space to park thus time wasted when it should be used to tour the surrounding. ^^;
Lelouch, it was a clam day afterall ^^
Madmoz,count me in!
Gordon, I wish we would’ve planned that out before going so we could ditch the car in a parking lot or something xD. Much time wasted indeed.
nice photos, I’ve been to Seattle a couple of times before, but never went up the needle. love the city photos. ^^
btw I loled on the gas we pass, with the elephant ***. ^^;;;
Seattle looks like a nice clean city. I doesn’t look like a busy frustrating city. Here in LA it look completely different. ^^
talk about digging up old blogs.. xD
somehow, some parts of seattle seem a bit similar to my country, philippines. or maybe it’s because i really haven’t travelled to other countries yet, other than Japan. the absurd parking fees, terrible restaurants with not-so-good food that are unreasonably pricy, the bad drivers, heavy traffic.. haha, they’re all here! (in manila, at least)
anyway, congratulations dude. Gunpla Inochi has come a long way. glad to have discovered your site! :D
I have never been to manila but I can’t imagine food being bad there ^^;