As if we didn't burn ourselves out yesterday with Citypass tourist sites, today we ventured down to the harbor to finish the remaining Citypass tickets. In addition, we wanted to do a little exploring of the city in general, and we also wanted to take the famous underground tour. Pier 55 to Pier 59 is where all the action is in the Seattle tourist business. It houses the Argosy Cruise Terminal, the Miner's Landing Carousel, the Seattle Great Wheel, the Seattle Aquarium, and lots of interesting shops and restaurants. The problem is that it's about a mile and a half away to walk, but parking would be too difficult, so we put on our shorts and hiking boots and set off for the pier.
     The Citypass included a 1 hour Harbor Cruise on the Argosy Cruise Line, so we headed there first before it got too hot and too crowded . We arrived about 9:30, with the first tour boarding at 10:15. That gave us time to explore some of the little shops, though in fairness, most of Seattle does not even begin to come alive until late afternoon. The cruise was fun, and the narrator was funny. Since we were there early, we were able to get seats on the top deck where we could take the best pictures. It was a bright clear day, so it was easy to see Mt Rainier from the harbor. He went over some of the history of Seattle, the 1962 World's Fair, and the rise of Starbucks. There are 138 freestanding Starbucks stores in Seattle alone, not counting those in bookstores and supermarkets. They say if the line gets too long out the door at one Starbucks, you just end up at another Starbucks.
     After the Harbor Tour, we really wanted to head over to the Bill Speidel Underground Tour. We had seen some pictures on a documentary somewhere about the underground Seattle, and wanted to see what it was all about. It tuns out that Seattle was originally built too low above sea level, and the plumbing used to back up regularly based on the tides .There was a Great Seattle Fire on June 6, 1889, and all of the downtown area burned to the ground. The town fathers saw this as an opportunity to remedy the problem by backfilling the city before rebuilding. Unfortunately, the local business owners couldn't wait the 8-10 years needed to backfill the city, so they began to build brick and stone replacement buildings at the same ground level.
     By the time the city got its act together, they started building 10 foot walls at the edge of the sidewalk, and filling in the space with dirt. This left the streets 10 feet above the sidewalks and the entries to the buildings. They used ladders and stone staircases to go between the buildings and the street above. Eventually, everyone came to their senses, and bridged over from the road to the side of the buildings, but this made the street level even with the second floor of the buildings, and all the building entries below the street in tunnels. The tunnels ended up condemned and new entries built on what used to be the second floor, but the original entrances remained in the tunnels below the streets . This is where we went on the tour.
     The tour was a lot of fun, a lot like some of the cave tours we have been on, except these are man-made. There were basically 3 sections that we toured, Some of the steps were the original, and some were later. The skylights in the tunnels were glass in the sidewalk above, so it gave us a good perspective of where we were in relation to the street above. The tourguide was knowledgeable and funny and kept us entertained the entire time. It's amazing that these tunnels still exist, as I've noticed that the West doesn't seem to have as much historical preservation infrastructure as I'm used to seeing in the Northeast.
    Finally we wound our way back down to the Piers again to take in the Seattle Aquarium. Again, this aquarium tends to be geared more towards children, but still it was very entertaining. They had a number of exotic fish, along with sea otters, river otters, and harbor seals. We managed to get a number of interesting pictures.
     As we headed back this time, we were determined to get a decent meal in Seattle as we had not had much luck in that department since we arrived . This time we made it to a place not too far from the hotel called The Crow. It wasn't too expensive, but had a very limited menu. I had the lasagna, and Jody had a pan seared chicken wrapped in prosciutto with green beans. Both were exceptionally delicious, so Seattle is redeemed as far as dining goes.
     Since we finished most of the real touristy stuff today, tomorrow will be mostly spent taking it easy around the hotel, doing laundry, and maybe a little exploring around town. We have tickets for a dinner and show tomorrow night called Teatro Zinzanni which promises to be great fun, so we will need to rest up. Today was another zero miles for the motorcycle, but this time it was over 20,000 steps walking!

0.0 miles today
8507.5 miles total

0.0 gallons today
202.233 gallons total

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