That morning, William and I packed up early and headed back to Seattle; since we didn't have much time a couple days ago, we want to cram as much as we can into one day.
We started off by heading to the southernmost part of downtown and walked to Pike Place Market, which was founded in 1907 and is where the local Farmer's Market. Everything from fresh squid to peaches were readily available. No wonder these people like to buy local, there is a fun good looking Farmer's Market right in downtown; you know you did something right when your city's Farmer's Market is a top tourist attraction!
After we got done walking around the Market for a bit, we joined in on a tour of Elliot Bay in the Puget Sound. The tour gave us a some general knowledge about Seattle and its history.
Once the boat tour ended, we walked into town and caught the underground tour. Back when Seattle was founded and being created, the town was built from the timber industry and the small town was surrounded by swampy grounds. With all the wood the town was built almost completely out of wood: everything from the streets to the buildings. Yes, the streets were created with the sawdust from the lumber mills along with the sidewalks. One big problem was that the city was close to sea level, so the city's crude plumbing would flood the city during above normal high rides. In 1889, a large fire burned down almost all of Seattle, which caused the creation of a completely new city. Because of the fire, plumbing, and other problems, the town was to be rebuilt 22ft above the current town (the height varied depending on the location). This rebuilding process didn't just happen overnight, and you can't have merchants building their stores to be almost four stories higher before the roads were even built. So the stores did end up being about four stories higher, but the original ground level was still used during and after the road construction. At some points during the road construction process, the road was built well before the sidewalk. Once you got done buying your groceries you hiked up a 15 foot ladder to get to the road and then down another ladder if you wanted to continue shopping, or eat, or drink. Its pretty interesting, a city is built on top of another city; the underground tour company has to rent out each little segment of the tour because the property owners of the building above ground also own the property below ground, almost every year the tour has to be re-routed.
As soon as we made it to the new Seattle, we made our way to a local microbrew, Pyramid Breweries. We each grabbed a sampler group of their beer and some finger food.
We then made our way to the hotel to rest off the long day.
We started off by heading to the southernmost part of downtown and walked to Pike Place Market, which was founded in 1907 and is where the local Farmer's Market. Everything from fresh squid to peaches were readily available. No wonder these people like to buy local, there is a fun good looking Farmer's Market right in downtown; you know you did something right when your city's Farmer's Market is a top tourist attraction!
After we got done walking around the Market for a bit, we joined in on a tour of Elliot Bay in the Puget Sound. The tour gave us a some general knowledge about Seattle and its history.
Once the boat tour ended, we walked into town and caught the underground tour. Back when Seattle was founded and being created, the town was built from the timber industry and the small town was surrounded by swampy grounds. With all the wood the town was built almost completely out of wood: everything from the streets to the buildings. Yes, the streets were created with the sawdust from the lumber mills along with the sidewalks. One big problem was that the city was close to sea level, so the city's crude plumbing would flood the city during above normal high rides. In 1889, a large fire burned down almost all of Seattle, which caused the creation of a completely new city. Because of the fire, plumbing, and other problems, the town was to be rebuilt 22ft above the current town (the height varied depending on the location). This rebuilding process didn't just happen overnight, and you can't have merchants building their stores to be almost four stories higher before the roads were even built. So the stores did end up being about four stories higher, but the original ground level was still used during and after the road construction. At some points during the road construction process, the road was built well before the sidewalk. Once you got done buying your groceries you hiked up a 15 foot ladder to get to the road and then down another ladder if you wanted to continue shopping, or eat, or drink. Its pretty interesting, a city is built on top of another city; the underground tour company has to rent out each little segment of the tour because the property owners of the building above ground also own the property below ground, almost every year the tour has to be re-routed.
As soon as we made it to the new Seattle, we made our way to a local microbrew, Pyramid Breweries. We each grabbed a sampler group of their beer and some finger food.
We then made our way to the hotel to rest off the long day.
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