Day 15: Vancouver and back to Seattle

Early Saturday there was a beautiful sunrise as we entered Vancouver Harbor.  The rest of our companions were spending a day in Vancouver, but Harry, Linda, Sue and I were back to Seattle for the day and catching a 6:45 flight back home.

 

We took another bus back to Seattle, and since on this trip we had experienced every other mode of transportation known to man except a light rail, we took the Light Rail back into Seattle.

 

Chili Dogs on the street, waiting for our Duck Tour to begin 

 

Getting on the Duck Boat 

 

Quackers 

 

Our Duck Guide, who was probably an interesting guy if he wasn’t doing the Duck Tour shtick.  He grew up on Cape Cod building boats, and after school moved to Seattle to be a carpenter and shipwright.  He was living on a 1920s rum runner that he had restored and running duck tours to pay the bills. 

 

But we did see a lot of the points of interest in Seattle in a very short time, including, the studio where many 70’s classics and grunge classics were recorded. 

 

 

World’s first automated car wash 

 

Then on to Lake Union for a tour of many of the 500 floating homes, which are distinct from House Boats since these are not boats but floating platforms with houses on top.  The number of homes is limited to 500 since the 1890s when Seattle doubled in size within a few months during the gold rush and all the loggers, pushed out of available housing, lashed logs together, pitched tents on top and used the lake as a sewer.  The subsequent limit of 500 living units on the lake has stood up to today.  This floating home has a hatch in the middle of the floor so you can actually go fishing from your living room couch.  It also has 2 kids that like to pelt the Duck Tours with water balloons and super soakers as they pass by. 

 

Many of the Alaskan King Crab fishing fleet, including many features on the show “The Deadliest Catch”, come to dray dock in Lake Union during the off months in the summer. 

 

The floating home featured in the movie “Sleepless in Seattle”.  Kinda hard to see, but it's the dark colored one just to the right of all those sailboat masts

 

The Seattle Skyline

 

Somewhere back in there is a floating home (with a basement!) owned by Tim Burton.

 

The home with the columns recently sold for a couple million dollars.  Like 6 million. 

 

Back on land, we the Edgewater Hotel where the Beatles stayed when they played Seattle and took that famous photo of them fishing out of the window

 

 

 

The shop where Jimmy Hendrix supposedly bought his first guitar.  Now it's, what else, a coffee shop.

 

So that's about it.  We had dinner in the Tap house, the one with 160 beers on tap where we started our trip 2 weeks ago.  We boarded an early flight the following day and now we're home getting ready to get back into the working world.  I hope you enjoyed the blog.  If you're thinking of a trip to Alaska, and in particular a cruise, give me a call and I'm be happy to share some suggestions with you.  Thanks for reading!