Up In Seattle Mount Rainier Comes Out For Fort Worth's Galtex's In Search Of Uwajimaya

In the picture, in the foreground, you are looking at the Seattle Seahawk Stadium, behind the Seahawk Stadium you are looking at Safeco Field, where the Seattle Mariner's play baseball, behind that you are looking at Mount Rainier, where a volcano erupts every once in awhile.

Fort Worth residents, the Galtex's, are currently up in Seattle.

This morning I purloined the Mount Rainier picture from Gail Galtex when I saw it on Facebook.

When the Galtex's first visited Seattle a March or two ago, I opined that they would be very very lucky if the Mountain, as in Rainier, made an appearance. Well, they were lucky, an appearance was made.

And now, with the Galtex's in Seattle in the middle of Winter, I opined that they would be very very very lucky if the Mountain, as in Rainier, made an appearance.

Well, yesterday, the Mountain came out.

I suspect this has something to do with the upbeat natures of Mr. and Mrs. Galtex spreading sunshine wherever they go.

The Galtex's have been getting 'what to do' suggestions from natives, or former natives, familiar with what to do in the Seattle zone. One suggestion was to drive over Stevens Pass to Leavenworth.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to make it to Seattle in time to provide taxi service.

I have two new suggestions.

One is ride the Super Ferry to Bremerton. It does not cost too much to walk on. Unless the fare schedule has changed since I was a Washingtonian, you pay only one way. A Washington Super Ferry is way bigger than the ferry you might be able to use to cross Fort Worth's Pond Granger if that lake ever floats anything.

Suggestion number two is to go to Uwajimaya. I saw on Facebook that the Galtex's have already been all over Pioneer Square, which is an actual square, unlike Fort Worth's Sundance Square.

Uwajimaya is in what is now known as Seattle's International District. When I was a kid this was known as Chinatown. Seattle's Chinatown was not nearly up to the par of the Chinatowns in San Francisco, Vancouver or Los Angeles. I don't know if that is why the name was changed to the International District. Or maybe it was some politically correct thing to be more inclusive with the other Asian cultures.

If the Galtex's have been watching Top Chef: Seattle they have seen Uwajimaya  a couple times when a couple chefs went food shopping there.

Mr. and Mrs. Galtex, if you are reading this, it is very easy to find Uwajimaya . You can take the transit tunnel to the last station, that being the International District Station. Or walk from Pioneer Square to the Seahawk Stadium. There you will see the Union Station train building. Near there you will see a pedestrian bridge across the train tracks. Cross the bridge, on the other side you will come to a plaza and should see Uwajimaya.

In Uwajimaya you will find the best food court I have ever been to. Nothing like this exists in the D/FW Metroplex. Nor does anything like Uwajimaya exist in the D/FW Metroplex. Not that I've seen, anyway.

Hope the Mountain comes out for you again today!

Still Suffering From Why Bother Syndrome Even After Tandy Hill Hiking & Looking At Downtown Fort Worth

This morning I mentioned that I was over come, again, with a bad case of "Why Bother Syndrome."

I can not say my case of WBS has gotten better as I have shuffled through today.

I have no idea what is ailing me. I suspect it is an allergy. It is not a cold. But, I'm stuffed up and have this weird slight difficulty breathing.

I'd blame my breathing woe on the recent reappearance of my Chesapeake neighbor and whatever it was they were doing to their gas well. But, that would be irrational. They are gone now.

I went to the Tandy Hills thinking some semi-fresh air might help. I had no trouble breathing going up the hills, which was my concern going in. If it weren't for needing to use a nasal spray to keep my nasal system working I'd think I was being a hypochondriac.

After MLK read my lament about suffering from a bout of WBS she prescribed a visit to downtown Fort Worth to give her a virtual visit to her old hometown, suggesting something weird/good/interesting might happen. Well, it is true that I don't think I have ever been in downtown Fort Worth when I did not see at least one weird thing.

But, sadly, the closest I could get to downtown Fort Worth today was looking at the stunning skyline of downtown Fort Worth from the Tandy Hills. So, MLK, that picture at the top is the best I could do for you today.

MLK's situation is the opposite of mine. I was exiled from Washington to Texas. MLK was exiled from Texas to Washington. MLK's specific location of exile is Tacoma. I know of one or two real serious nutjobs who live in Tacoma. MLK is not one of them.

I don't know when MLK was last in downtown Fort Worth.

It has changed drastically, and not in a good way, since I moved here, with the now defunct Radio Shack corporate headquarter's destruction of the huge, free parking lots and free subway that took you easily to the heart of downtown.

Fort Worth is now like downtown Seattle, well, not quite as bad as Seattle, but it is no longer easy to find free parking in the downtown Fort Worth zone. That last time I was there I paid, I think, 6 bucks to park in one of the Bass parking lots known as Sundance Square, for a couple hours.

The last time I parked in downtown Seattle, August 7, 2008, I paid, I think, $25 to park all day on a lot in Pioneer Square. Pioneer Square is not a collection of parking lots. Pioneer Square is an actual square, unlike Sundance Square, where there is no square, just parking lots. Where a square should be.

I think maybe I should go saloon hopping with Elsie Hotpepper. That might break me out of my current bad case of WBS.

Pioneer Square Art in the Park Video

Even with a real good night's rest I've still not got the energy to talk about yesterday's shocking realization that my perception of Seattle is so last century. Yesterday, my longest dose of 21st century Seattle was a shock to me. I'm still not sure what to make of it or what I really think of it.

Suffice to say, Seattle used to be easy. Like Fort Worth. The Seattle of my memory was, well, way more modern than the Fort Worth of the present. Fort Worth seems to suffer from way too little planning and aesthetic sensibility, let alone environmental trendiness. Seattle seems to be one huge urban planning experiment. Perhaps gone slightly awry.

Anyway, while I muster the energy to finish making little movies of the video I took yesterday, below is a little video of the event I was in Seattle for, that being Art in the Park at Occidental Park in Pioneer Square.

I wandered all over downtown Seattle, Pike Place, the waterfront, Westlake Center, the bus tunnel. By the time the Gallery Walk occurred at Art in the Park and we were flooded with what looked like a parade of fashion models, my camcorder battery was dead. Darn. I missed getting video of the biggest pair of fake boobs I've ever seen. Walking on the most ridiculous boots I've ever seen outside of Texas. Next time I must conserve my battery power. Or get a back up battery. But then I'd have to figure out how to exchange the battery and since it's been 6 years since I bought my antique camcorder I doubt doing anything with the battery is anything I can figure out.

Lulu & Durango at Pioneer Square, Fremont & Lacey

This morning I went over to Lulu's, on the dark side of Tacoma. Dark, today, due to her side of town still being cloudy and dripping, while my north side of town had returned to blue skies. Lulu's zone of Tacoma is generally more gloomy than my end of town.

While Lulu and I consulted, I made 100s of these bubble magnet things til the fumes from the resin started making my throat constrict. I'd never experienced anything like it before. Perhaps it was not the resin, but rather the possibly toxic dust-laden air in Lulu's work space that put me near respiratory failure.

All I know for certain is when I left Lulu's, lung function seemed to quickly return to normal.

While I was still able to breathe, Lulu told me my schedule for the remainder of my time up north. Lulu & Durango will be making another appearance at the Fremont Sunday Market, this coming Sunday. Depending how that goes, this may be Durango's final Fremont appearance.

Then on Thursday, Lulu & Durango will be where Seattle began, Pioneer Square. We will be at Occidental Park for First Thursday's Art in the Park.

According to the Pioneer Square website...

"Discover Seattle’s most talented emerging artists at Art in the Park on First Thursdays, February through December. Grab a latte, stroll through historic Occidental Park, and immerse yourself in the Emerald City's vibrant independent art scene."

Seattle's Pioneer Square covers over 20 blocks of Romanesque/Victorian buildings. There are more than 30 galleries, over 200 shops, nightclubs, lots of restaurants. And coffee houses. Pioneer Square is sort of like the West End in Dallas, only much bigger, much more going on. And with no Presidential Assassination site.

The other appearance by Lulu & Durango will be at a show in Lacey. That's down near Olympia. I don't remember the name of the Lacey show. I think it is next Saturday. Lacey, Washington is like Fort Worth, Texas. Both have a Cabela's. Only Lacey didn't have to bend over backwards, with bribes, to get one. And, unlike Fort Worth, Cabela's did not tell Lacey that their Cabela's store would be the #1 Tourist Attraction in Washington, while Fort Worth fell for the con that their Cabela's store would be the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas. One would think real Texans would have found such an assertion somehow insulting. But they didn't.

Anyway. See you at Fremont, Pioneer Square or Lacey. Or any combo of.