A case of flying fish
On
June 22nd 2006 we boarded the plane in Copenhagen Airport (Kastrup) and 4.30 PM
we took off. 9 hours later, at 5.30 PM local time we landed in Seattle.
Getting through immigrations was fast, so we went to the Avis desk and got our
prebooked car, and drew to our hotel, that was located right next to the airport in
City of Seatac. We got our room, and unpacked some of our things. Then we walked
to a nearby Denny's and had a bite to eat. When we returned to the hotel we had a
cup of coffee and then went to bed even though it was only 10 PM, but we had
been up and about for more than 20 hours. By the way it was at the arrival to
this particular hotel, that Dorte invented her "geography quiz". When the lady
at the counter, asked us where we came from, Dorte replied: "Denmark. Do you
know where Denmark is?" The Hispanic lady didn't so Dorte explanied it to her.
For the rest of this trip, every time someone asked where we came from Dorte
replied in the same way. A few happened to know, but most didn't, so Dorte did
a lot of explaning on that trip.
The next morning the vacation started for real. We left the hotel quite early and went to the Denny's for an early breakfast, then took the U.S. 99 to Seattle. We drove to Seattle Center and found a place to park the car. We the walked to the Space Needle, the 1962 World Fair landmark building of Seattle. We bought a ticket and took the elevator to the observation deck more than 500 feet above grounds. The views fron up there were spectacular, and as it was a really clear and sunny day, we actually could enjoy the views of the city, Mount Rainier in the morning haze, Cascade Range, Puget Sound with all the ferries crossing it, and also the Olympic Peninsula in the distance. Seattle definately did not live up to it's nickname, Rainy City, on this our first visit.
When
we were finally done enjoying the view from the top, we took the elevator back down to the
bottom of the tower and the mandatory souvenir shop. Here we bought a few
bottles of water for the further tour, but
that was all we bought. No souvenirs on that occasion. Our plan was to ride on
the monorail to Downtown, but operations were suspended due to renovation works
in progress. Instead we chose to walk to Downtown. We followed the monorail
tracks above our heads, which proved to be a very good decision, because we passed some interesting
places,
including a small square, Tilikum Place, where a statue of indian chief Noah Sealth,
for whome the city is named, is erected. From there we continued to Victor
Steinbruek Park where we could once more enjoy the view of Puget Sound, but this
time from the ground. Here were placed large totem poles, a tradtional northwest
coast native american tradition.
Right next to the Vicor Steinbruek Park is one of the entrances to one of
Seattle's major tourist attractions: the Pike Place Market. This is America's oldest Farmer's Market
established in 1907. Today, 200 merchants has fixed stalls on the market, where various artists
entertain, some more tolerable to listen to than others, and the traders are
no longer exclusively farmers. Food of all kinds, such as meat, fish, bread and fruit
are sold together with flowers and more. We entered the market here and walked past a lot of
stalls, including some with some beautiful flowers for almost no money. Dorte was sorry that the flowers
wouldn't keep fresh until we returned to Denmark, otherwise she probably would
have bought some bouquets. Instead, we bought some nuts from a vendor who didn't sell
anything but. In fact, he sold only hazelnuts from his own orchard. He explained
that hazelnuts from northwestern USA were far better than the Turkish nuts, that you could buy
elsewhere, partly because they were larger, and certainly not nearly as bitter.
Now I'm not an expert in hazelnuts, but in my opinion they were ok, and large they
were. I prefer Danish hazelnuts though, directly from the bushes in season.
Eventually we came to the market's biggest attraction, Pike Place Fish Company. That a fishmonger
has become a
market attraction, is in itself an achievement, but Pike Place Fish Company
(World Famous) was not content with that. Today the shop is famous all over the world
and people will travel from afar for taking pictures and filming the staff
and their goods. Why are they so famous? Well, they throw fish! That is not the
main reason, they are famous though. The key is the company's belief that it shall be fun to go to
work and that you have to do something for your customers, for example, be
present, not just physically but very much also mentally. We looked at the activities and we had
a tasting of a wonderful
smoked Copper River salmon, and then I bought a T-shirt, so I could brag to my colleagues when I got home.
We use the fish-philosophy in our teaching.
Then we visited the lower floors of the
market before we ate our first American lunch on this trip at one of the
restaurants in the market. After lunch we walked down to the waterfront, where we visited the city's aquarium. Here it is especially the wildlife in and
around Puget Sound and the North Pacific, which is on display. We of course saw many
different fish, but also seals, sea lions and sea otters. Then we returned to the market
and climbed the steep staircase to the upper floors. Underway we refreshed
ourselves with a glass of freshly squeezed lemonade, which was nice because the temperature at this time was
around 80° in the shade and
significantly warmer in the sun.
From the market we went up to the city's business district to find a bookstore
that was shown on our map. Here we
bought 5 or 6 books each, so we had something to read for the rest of the trip. We drank a cup of coffee at a Starbuck's,
and then we returned to the car and drove back to the hotel again.