Seattle Addendum

I haven't commented on economy lately, so here's a comment on Seattle's.  As far as I can tell, Seattle is booming.  It might be because of Microsoft, and secondarily because of Boeing, but we saw construction and shopping everywhere.  The construction was of shopping malls rather than homes.  The day we went to Pike Place, the market that is similar to the Reading Terminal Market, we walked up to Nordstrom.  How can you go to Seattle and not visit the Nordstrom flagship?

 

It was busy in the store, and people had shopping bags.  The shoe section was especially busy, and everyone seemed to be buying boots, at  $200-$300 a pair.

I know some of you will ask, "What about the REI flagship store?"  Well, we did see it.  We drove by it several times, but it was not quite as convenient as Nordstrom, so we didn't stop.

Which reminds me, that same day we visited the Seattle Art Museum.  It's not nearly as large as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but has some interesting collections.  Its largest collection is of Asian Art, with 7000 pieces.  I enjoyed their aboriginal collection as well, which one wouldn't necessarily expect in an art museum.  (I asked - visitors are allowed to take photographs.)

There is one especially beautiful piece - an emperor's coat made of army dog tags.  The tags are not from real soldiers.  Some are rejects - names (personal or place names) were misspelled.  The artist found them at a military surplus store; others were blank, and the artist spent many hours typing gibberish to complete them.  The artist, Korean, says he expects and hopes each individual will interpret the meaning of the piece differently.  He calls it "Some/One".  I interpreted it as a Samurai coat, perhaps comparing the modern soldier with the Japanese Samurai.  How are they the same?  How are they different?  No matter how one interprets it, it is a stunningly beautiful piece.

After Seattle we drove to Gig Harbor, just north of Olympia.  Gig Harbor was ranked in the top 5 beautiful harbors to visit in the Northwest by Sunset Magazine.  And it is a beautiful spot, with cute shops and a few very good restaurants.  It supports a large artists' community.

Here's the RV park where we stayed:

Today we drove from Gig Harbor to the north end of the Olympic Peninsula, to a small town called Sequim, pronounced "Squim" (rhymes with "swim").  We backtracked to Port Townsend, where I took these photos of islands in the Puget Sound.  The water was still and peaceful, as it often is in the late afternoon:

 

Although the Olympic Mountains are very close by, we have yet to see them because of the rain and clouds.  Perhaps they will come out tomorrow?    

Now, for something I should have been doing all along.  I insert here a cropped map from Google of our path through western Washington thus far:

A = Bellingham        B = Anacortes

 C= Friday Harbor, San Juan Island

 D = Bothell         E = Seattle

F = Gig Harbor        G = Port Townsend

H = Sequim