Seattle Scenes

(still sharing stories and pictures from this summer’s vacation – with sports winding down for the kids though, we are starting to collect some new nature stories for the fall)


This day, after leaving Forks early in the morning, then driving to various points within Olympic National Park, then hurrying along to catch the ferry, and then the tour of Groundspeak – we were kind of overwhelmed and exhausted by the time we got to Pike Market.  We tried to make a go of it, though.  We bought some fresh vegetables for the next week (we were eating off this salad we put together that day for a few days after this) and some supplies for meals the next couple of days at a cabin.  We checked out the original Starbucks location but did not want to brave the crowd.  We checked out some of the stores on the inside of the market, as well as some stands along the outside. We were too cheap and too tired to really get into shopping, though, and we left before our parking meter expired. Onwards to Mt Rainier from here.

Inside the Beehive

Inside Groundspeak Headquarters, Seattle Washington.  

There’s a really big cache in there to claim a smiley on, and earn the special icon.  The amount of trackables this thing held was amazing.  These pictures are from back in June 2012.  As of this writing in November, this cache has had 18, 391 trackables pass through it in the eight years it has been active.  There is 241 logged into it right now. This was one of the main stops in the journey for us.  We now had completed the GeoTriad -finding the Original Stash, this, and the APE cache in Washington (both had found the latter years back), so we purchased special GeoTriad coins from the front desk to commemorate.

Jason felt like after this whole journey we had completed to get here, the actual destination was a little anti-climatic.  But…isn’t that how it works?

I am not sure what he was expecting, maybe a little bit more like a tour of the offices – but we didn’t arrive on a Friday, the day they cater to guests a little bit more.   We only had this one day – I think it was a Monday.

While we were in the area, we also could not pass up the chance to find some of the top rates caches nearby – Totally Tubular II and III.  Then we went to visit Pike’s Market – pictures forthcoming.

You and Me Together, Yeah (Seattle version)

“You and Me”
Dave Matthews Band

Want to pack your bags something small
Take what you need and we disappear
Without a trace we’ll be gone, gone
Moon and the stars will follow the car
And then when we get to the ocean
Gonna take a boat to the end of the world
All the way to the end of the world

Oh and when the kids are old enough, we’re gonna teach them to fly

You and me together
We could do anything baby
You and me together yes, yes
You and me together
We could do anything baby
You and me together yes yes

You and I were not tied to the ground
Not falling but rising like rolling around
Eyes closed above the rooftops
Eyes closed we’re gonna spin through the stars
Our arms wide as the sky, we’re gonna ride the blue
All the way to the end of the world
To the end of the world

Oh and when the kids are old enough, we’re gonna teach them to fly

CHORUS

We can always look back at what we did
Always remembering how you and me did
Right now it’s you and me forever girl
And you know, we could do better than
Anything that we did
You know that you and me
We could do anything

You and me together
We could do anything, baby
You and me together yeah, yeah
Two of us together, we could do anything baby
You and me together yeah, yeah
Two of us together yeah, yeah
Two of us together, we could do anything baby

It’s so small
Till we reach the end of the world

(or at least Seattle)

This is the song that was in my head during our ferry ride from the Port Angeles area to downtown Seattle.  It wasn’t the end of the world, but it sure felt like it.  Surreal, romantic, dreary and yet dreamy.  We sat at benches and looked at the wet and heavy sky and sampled clam chowder and chili with crackers and warmed our feet before our journey continued, leaving behind the wonders of the mountains and beaches for the cosmopolitan journey that preceded yet another mountain adventure.  Oh, Washington, how lovely your coastlines appear just before they slip away for the prospect of your other bountiful offerings.

Crescent Lake


In between the Salmon Cascades near Sul Doc and the Hurricane Ridge viewpoint, we stopped here to complete the requirement for a virtual geocache.
This place reminded me of Bear Lake, in Rocky Mountain National Park. I think it was the way the mountains cupped the lake between them. I have a picture from my younger days of a day at Bear Lake and it looks almost just like this photo.
There are a number of trails surrounding this lake, with one of them leading to “The Devil’s Punch Bowl”, a popular swimming and diving hole. Lake Crescent Lodge nearby offers accommodations to overnight guests that are an ideal base of operations for exploring nearby areas, including Mount Storm King.
What is interesting about this lake, I think, is that its depth has proved hard to measure. I think to this day, no one really knows how deep it is. Originally, it’s depth was recorded as 624 feet by the National Park Service, because that is how far equipment could measure in 1964. However, later in this century, as they tried laying power cable in the lake, the depth was recorded as 1000 feet…because again, that is how far the equipment of the time could measure. It is officially the second deepest lake in Washington, even though the actual depth still remains a mystery.

Hiking link for Mount Storm King:
http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/mount-storm-king