Yesler Way in Seattle, Washington - Round America 50-State Trip.
Movie Tour in Seattle
Day 99 – July 8, 2003 – Tuesday
We spent the day in Seattle, and we drove to Bellingham, Washington in the evening. Headed for Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada first thing on 7/9/2003.
The houseboat where Tom Hanks lived in the movie “Sleepless in Seattle.”
We visited several Seattle movie locations today — the houseboat in “Sleepless in Seattle;” Space Needle — the home of “Austin Power’s” foe Dr. Evil, and used in “Cinderella Liberty,” “Frasier,” “Georgia,” “Harry and the Hendersons,” “It Happened at the World’s Fair,” The Parallax View,” and many more; the DigiCom Building from “Disclosure;” the Alaskan Way Viaduct used for a high-speed chase in “Assassins;” the Elliott Bay/Washington State Ferries used in “Disclosure” and “Tugboat Annie;” the monorail that Elvis rode in “World’s Fair;” the Triangle Pub used in “Get Carter;” the Waiting for Interurban statue used in “Say Anything;” Alki Beach used in “Sleepless in Seattle,” “American Heart,” and “Life or Something Like It;” the Fremont Troll used in “10 Things I Hate About You;” Safeco Field used in “Life or Something Like It;” Seattle Center used in “Cinderella Liberty,” “Scorchy,” the 100th episode of “Frasier” and more; Pike Place Market used in “Sleepless in Seattle” and “Fabulous Baker Boys,” and others. Seattle has certainly been an extremely popular movie location! It’s an incredibly beautiful city with a wide variety of sights.
In addition to our movie “tour,” we also saw the Experience Music Project at Seattle Center.
Dahlia Bakery for lunch and three (3) pieces of pie. Best in Seattle, and certainly among the best of the trip.
For lunch, we visited the Dahlia Lounge and Bakery — home of what is widely regarded as the best pie in Seattle — Triple Coconut Cream Pie. The Triple Coconut Cream Pie was excellent, as was the Bing Cherry Chocolate Pie and the Blueberry Brown Sugar Pie. This was the best pie in Seattle and among the best pie on the trip.
One of these guys is a famous photographer of rock stars. The other one rides in a Radio Flyer wagon with a special infant seat.
While we were enjoying our three pies, we saw the cutest little guy ride by in his Radio Flyer Wagon with a special child seat. We met one-year-old Spencer and his dad, Charlie. Spencer just enjoyed his first birthday on June 19, so he is exactly a week older than Miss Madison. Spencer enjoyed his Dahlia’s cookies as much as we enjoyed our pie.
We had a nice chat with Charlie, and we came to learn that he is a photographer. Charlie has taken photos of a wide variety of rock groups and performers over the years, and his photos have appeared many times “on the cover of a Rolling Stone” magazine. We probably drove Charlie crazy with all the questions we asked. He really enjoys his art, and he told us that he has enjoyed too many of his clients to name one favorite. He almost always enjoys his projects, but he did indicate that Kenny G was his least favorite client. His next big project was with Garrison Keeler’s Prairie Home Companion.
Charlie is a really talented big-time photographer! And Spencer is the cutest — big smile and wonderful laugh! What a treat it was to meet Charlie and Spencer! Here’s a link to one of Charlie’s photos — http://www.rollingstone.com/photos/bigphoto.asp?gid=7313&s=11&e=15&seq=11&cf=&bc=&afl=frnd
Pioneer Square building where I used to have a company office.
After lunch, pie, Spencer and Charlie, we saw the sights in Pioneer Square — the old part of Seattle. It’s a beautiful area with great old buildings. I was CEO of a company with a division in Seattle a few years back, and our office was in one of the great Pioneer Square buildings on Yesler Way.
We saw the most unusual national park we have seen — a storefront in the Pioneer Square area — Klondike Gold Rush National Park. We drove by Smith Tower. It was the fourth tallest building in the world in 1914. We visited Waterfall Park in Pioneer Square.
Soon after leaving Seattle, near the town of Arlington, we saw a herd of wooden cows out in a field. I stopped to take a photo. We have no idea what the story was with this, and we have not been able to get any information on it.
We met a lot of nice people today. Tom (not Hanks) came to our aid as we searched for the houseboat that Tom Hanks called home in “Sleepless in Seattle.” Heidi helped us at Dahlia’s. Nathan took care of us at Comfort Inn.
Then we had a ball tonight at dinner when we met just about everyone working at and eating in the Olive Garden restaurant in Bellingham. Hostesses — Summer, Katy, Emily; our excellent waiter — Deran; Culinary Assistant — Mr. Josh; Manager Kevin; waitress Alisa; customers Mary Ann, Guy, Suzanne, and Glen (the Canadians), Candy, Laura Lynn, and Jamie. Deran has given us some great spots in Nevada to visit when we take our next trip Round America, and the Canadians suggested several pie places between here and Vancouver. Then when we returned to the hotel after dinner, Nathan had two Bellingham area suggestions for great pie.
If the people we’ve met so far are any indication, Bellingham must be a special town!
The thought for the day is how special it is to be able to bring a smile to the faces of others. We’ve seen it throughout the trip, but it was especially enjoyable tonight in Bellingham.
Random Comments:
Today marked the start of Week 15! Hard to believe. 20,500 miles in the rearview mirror. I’m estimating another 7,000 to go — but it could be as many as 10,000 ahead of us. We’ve burned almost 1,200 gallons of gas. 26 states down and 24 to go. We’ve taken almost 10,000 photos. We’ve probably met 1,500 people.
The Daily Journal of Round America:
Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we’ve seen and done as well as about life in general.
You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this website. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest, and the full itinerary is shown.