Challenges

Physical:

Hills!  Did you know Seattle is super-hilly?I didn't know. It is. It is super, super-hilly. 

Everything is steeply uphill, and then everything is downhill, and now repeat. As the concluding event of a two week hiking-heavy trip, this has been a challenge (for me). 

Non-physical:

There is a very visible, very large presence of homeless people in the downtown part of Seattle. Homeless, near homeless, mentally ill--desperate or otherwise wretched in one way or another. 

It's a challenge to one's sense of humanity to walk past so many who need so much, or maybe who need so little. I know this is too serious a topic for this site, but it contributed a lot to my experience here. 

Ok, moving on. 

Today was the first day that was completely clear--no overcast, no haze, no clouds--and what do you know, Mt. Rainier exists! We could see it from the hotel, but we got a really good view from the observation deck of the 75-story Columbia Center (because ONE of us preferred seeing the city from the structure that didn't have the word "needle" in its name.)

There's that other, more famous observation tower. 

A few more architectural highlights from today's walking:

This is the new Seattle public library, designed by Rem Koolhaas. Very kool-looking, inside and out. 

 

This guy outside the Seattle Art Museum:

A crowd taking pictures and standing in a long line to order at the ORIGINAL Starbucks (when there are ten other Starbucks within spitting distance).

We ended the day at a place called Von's 1000 Spirits. I think that's literal. Here's part of the bar: 

When in Rome, right?, so I had a Ricochet Rabbit (no idea why that name) and my Sherpa had tequila:

and we shared this delicious sourdough crust pizza:

And tomorrow we get up very early and head home. Hopefully it will not take 23 hours. 

So ends our Northwest Passage. Thanks for coming along. 

(My Fitbit says I walked 271,388 steps in the last two weeks.)