Seattle (day 3)

As mentioned, the cool parts of Seattle are in the districts outside of the city centre. So we head for one called Queen Anne (or Green Eggs, as we've affectionately dubbed it).

Unlike Portland where each district had its own vibe, this one feels about the same as Capitol Hill. In fact, the whole of Seattle seems to be lacking any distinctive culture at this point. Maybe they are still in a grunge hangover and waiting for the next thing. Maybe we just haven't had a chance to get "it" yet.

Either way, it's raining (it's been drizzling for the last 3 days straight, but today is worst so far) and the place we were aiming for for breakfast is packed. We wander up and back down the main street looking for an alternative when we spot a diner with a line up - always a good sign. We wait for a seat and are not disappointed. Massive serves and another great start to the day.

Onwards we go to the next district, Fremont - home of the Fremont Bridge Troll statue. We trek in the cold rain and arrive. It's pretty cool. Plenty of people there checking it out.

Ok, time to get out of the rain. We get an Uber and head to the ferry dock in town. We want to check out Bainbridge Island. We dry off in the dock and wait for the ferry. It's a cheap ride and we are looking forward to the views of the city from out on Puget Sound.

We arrive at Bainbridge Island after taking in the views. Lots of cool beach "shacks" on the shorelines.

We are exiting the ferry dock when Jeff spots a complementary shuttle bus to a nearby casino (Indian, of course). We graciously accept the offer since it will give us a better feel for the island - oh, and a chance to get another chip for the collection.

The casino is massive and modern. We park up at a $3 blackjack for a bit and sample a local Bainbridge Island brewing Grapefruit IPA. It's fresh to death.

We head back to the dock and ferry back to town. We step outside for some photos of the city on the way in and freeze our faces off, and manage to butcher most of the pics. Totally worth it though. The city is actually pretty from here. Better from far away, it seems.

We walk the length of the waterfront. It's very touristy but not very good. The fact that there is a lot of highway infrastructure around makes it hard for it to be too fancy. The waterfront abruptly ends and we head back into town when we spot a Seattle craft brew shop where the best of Seattle's brewery are on show. We order 2 flights and are pretty disappointed, to be honest. None of them really hit the mark and are trying a bit too hard, it felt.

Seattle was built by Asians, and it makes sense that their Chinatown (or International District) should have some good authentic food going down. We aim for a dumpling place and catch them just before they close. Their English is very shakey, which is usually a good sign. Maybe we caught them too late, but we weren't overly impressed.

We head for home. About a 20 minute walk away. There are a number of missions open in the area attracting a lot of homeless. And unfortunately a bit of trouble as we've just realised we are in the middle of something - there are police walking behind us, next to us and towards us. They are targeting someone with a weapon, maybe. Looked more like a drug related issue to us, but still pretty disconcerting. We Uber home instead.

We're finding it hard to put our finger on the Seattle vibe. When I ask people if they like Seattle, they are only ever 95% committal from what I read between the lines. It seems very working class. The high-viz green in the Seahawks kit may be testament to this. The people are friendly enough, but there is something lacking. The home of the counter-culture feels like it's ended up more like the place without any. There is still an obvious left-leaning aspect to the city politically (green energy advocation everywhere etc.) , but we don't see it anywhere in terms of culturally or artistically. We look forward to reflecting on the city after we've had time for it to sink in, and maybe seeing it again in the future.