The weather forecast for the day was gloomy at best. Clouds. Heavy rains. Thunder. The forecast for the mountain we were scheduled to hike up called for as much as 2 inches of snow at the summit and heavy rains for the climb. Although I most certainly do not melt in the rain, the thought of navigating a boulder field and attempting the scramble to the summit in snow and poor visibility didn't appeal to me. Color me chicken if you wish, but I like this whole 'life' thing and have grown rather dependent on breathing. It was decided, therefore, to push the hike off a day. That left me with time on my hands and zero desire to clean house. I needed a few items from REI and decided a trip to the flagship store in Seattle was necessitated. As Evie had never been to the flagship store, and rarely visited Seattle, I sensed the opportunity for an adventure.
Evie lives in North Kitsap, so we met at the ferry terminal in Bremerton, where we walked on the ferry. Let me re-phrase that... we misread the schedule so ended up RUNNING onto the ferry, trying not to spill our Starbucks as we jogged our way down the ramp. Laughing about the mistake, we found seats and enjoyed the conversation of friends. The Bremerton-Seattle run takes roughly an hour, so there was plenty time for girlish giggling, updates, life stories and stress-relieving venting.
Once we arrived in Seattle, we looked up at the sky, pleased that it was only grey, and not overly threatening. We then began our trek uphill (as most treks in Seattle are) to the opposite corner of downtown. My mother worked downtown Bon Marche' (now Macys) throughout my childhood and I spent a great deal of time exploring the streets - which was safe to do in the 60's. I shared stories about changes I'd seen, historical facts and trivia. We stopped at a Starbucks (they suck you in like quicksand, they do), then laughed when we encountered another one two blocks down.We zig-zagged our way along the city streets towards our destination. Along the way we met a dog named Charlie who was taking his human for his daily walk. I strategically routed us so that we entered through their main entrance, which requires shoppers to wander through a beautifully landscaped 'forest', complete with trails and a waterfall.
I watched with great pleasure the look of amazement on Evie's face as we finally walked through the big double doors. It was like seeing Charlie's face when he took his first steps into WonkaLand. Now, Evie and I each have an REI store near our homes where we typically shop, but they don't hold a candle to the Flagship store. She wanted to hit every display ... and we did. After two hours we had only made it through about half the downstairs, but both budgets were pretty much maxed out, so we headed towards the cashiers. I would like to point out that I had four must-have items on my shopping list, and I left there with precisely zero items on my list. I do, however, now own an awesome backpacking chair on which to rest my butt and a waterproof headlamp, the later of which I am assured will endure our PNW rains out on the trail.
From REI we wandered west towards our lunch destination, which was directly across the street from Cactus, which offers incredible southwest cuisine. Without so much as a second thought, we made a sharp bee-line. They have decent gluten-free items on their menu, my selection from which paired nicely with a mint-ginger beer drink.
After lunch we again headed west towards the water. Shortly thereafter the skies opened up with a deluge. Fortunately the planners who designed the older buildings downtown engineered sizeable overhangs on a large number of the buildings, which meant we were able to mostly stay dry. With each block we travelled, the rain fell harder. As we faced a block with no overhang (oh, the horror!) the decision to call Uber was made. We were entertained by a wonderful street musician while we awaited our ride. It was during this time I came to the revelation that every fifth car in Seattle is a Prius. Way to counter my oversized carbon footprint, Seattleites! By the time our Uber ride found us, the rains had subsided and the sun began to peek through the clouds. Such it is with weather in Seattle.
Our driver was great and had us to Colman Dock in no time. We were making our way up to the passenger terminal as they announced the last call for Bremerton. We looked at each other and launched ourselves to the ticket kiosk, made our way to the turnstiles then sprinted down the ramp to the ferry, laughing all the way. They closed the rails right behind us and the boat was underway before we even found seating. Our ride back across the water was filled with talk of upcoming hikes, our July backpack trip, and initial plans of another pack trip in September. We both expressed our enjoyment of our 'hike' through the urban jungle of Seattle. Before we knew it, we had docked on the west side of the sound and it was time to bid each other farewell ... until tomorrow.
Hike 28:52
Distance: 3.5 miles
Elevation gain: approx. 275'
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