Hometown Tourists

ON THE WATERFRONT: Every once in awhile we take time out to be tourists in our own city. Today was one of those days.

We decided to cash in tickets we'd won for an Argosy tour to Tillicum Village. (We won these by carting a cardboard Elvis all around Seattle Center and taking photos with it/him.)

We went down to the waterfront about a hour before boarding time in order to get a good parking spot, check out the shops, and procure good seats on the boat. We had time to kill, so we took the kids in to Ye Old Curiosity Shop, a crazy, kitschy store that's been here on the Seattle waterfront since 1899.

In the store you'll find shrunken heads, and a couple of mummies, including Sylvester, a miner found buried in the Arizona desert in the mid 1850s.And then there was Sylvia, a 30-something woman found in South America, apparently a victim of TB. Not sure if they were freaked out or indifferent about the mummies; the kids were WAY more interested in the store's plastic toys and trinkets than they were shriveled humans and shrunken heads.

We also visited the Ivar's statue, where Ol' Man Ivar can be seen feeding seagulls a bronze French fry.And they posed next to a really big sea otter named Elliott (after Elliott Bay) outside a t-shirt shop. About 10:30 we made our way back to the Argosy dock.We watched jellyfish blob around in the water while we waited to board Lady Mary. We were sooooo lucky weather wise - the water was glassy, the skies were partially sunny and there was no wind. We decided to sit on the top deck rather than inside the boat. It was a good choice. On our way out, we noticed that Qwest Field has been officially transformed into Century Link Field. I suppose we'll get used to that.We also saw this enormous white ball on Harbor Island. I've been wondering what's up with it since it appeared a few weeks back. Our 'cruise director' told us this white dome is some kind of missile detector - and that from where it is now (Harbor Island, Seattle), it can detect a live missile the size of a softball as far away as Yankee Stadium. I'm not sure I believe that. ... I do believe it is a Sea-Based X Band Radar unit (SBX) that's at Harbor Island for maintenance work. It reportedly belongs to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

I found a clip on YouTube with a military man talking about what it does.

We saw, for the first time today, the lighthouse on the westernmost tip of West Seattle/Alki Beach.We also learned that instead of being pronounced Alk-EYE like it is now, it was Al-KEY, until the Prohibition. Interesting. And I was reminded that the settlement there was supposed to be the new New York - but the weather scuttled that idea.

Would you believe aboard Lady Mary they served Fremont Brewing's Interurban IPA on tap? Delish!The putter from the Seattle waterfront to Blake Island took about 50 minutes.

As we approached Blake Island/Tillicum Village, we spied a man in Native American attire awaiting our boat. He would later be one of the performers in the "live" show while we ate lunch.

We were greeted with clams in nectar (no, not a peachy drink, but clam juice). I was happy that Annabelle tried it.CJ would have none of it.

The lunch was salmon cooked old school style (on sticks, by a fire). That probably accounted for the inconsistency in it. The rest was mediocre at best (green salad, a bad bean salad, undercooked stew (stew meat should not be tough) and average store-bought tasting bread. Oh, and a tart cherry cobbler in a paper petri dish was dessert. But other than that, it was good. ;)

The "live" entertainment. Well, what a surprise. It was so odd - our 'cruise director' introduced the show by saying how awesome it was to have this esteemed Native American expert as its host and then ... the VIDEO of him came on. :0 I suppose if I listened more carefully to her, she probably didn't promise he was in the flesh, but geez, why pump him up like that if he's not even there? And the movies continued to roll.

Yes, there were three men who did some Native American dancing, but the majority of it was projected people. :/ We did get to meet the dancers afterward. CJ wanted to try the mask on, but was told it was too heavy, which I'm sure it was. The dancer did let CJ and Annabelle pull the cord that made the beak clack. They got a thrill out of that.After lunch, we had about 15 minutes to poke around the island - not enough time. I would have liked to seen more of it.And then it was back to the boat. We had a lovely ride back to the mainland. Look - here's our neighborhood! And here's a view of the waterfront, including the Seattle Aquarium (it's green).
And the Smith Tower, which was a really big deal until ...The Space Needle came along.