Off the airplane, riding the train we saw pine trees everywhere!
Tall, full, dark green, symmetrical coniferous trees cover the hills. Clean cut, Swedish styled homes and office buildings climb up in strong blues, reds, greens, oranges. We could see the suburbs of Seattle laid out from the elevated railway car as we snaked towards downtown through the sloping hills half covered by trees and half by houses.
At the University of Washington
We spent most of our time at the University district. Funky vintage shops packed one after another cater to a young college crowd. The strong colors of the shops were peppered with abundant graffiti, disrupting the overall yuppiness of the district.
Coffee shops go hand in hand with Seattle so we visited Seattle's oldest original coffee shop, Allegro Espresso bar. They've been open since 1975 and have the best chai I've ever tasted! We were told the owner turned down an opportunity to be a founding partner of Starbucks.
The weather in Seattle was fresh yet chiller then Ohio in June. I kept my sweatshirt with me all the time. It never really rained, just misted, and the sun shown every day for a few hours, either in the morning or evening. There was a luminosity to the cloud cover that never felt gray or oppressive, and a freshness in the air blown from the Pacific Ocean. The story continues...
