Northwest Adventure Part 1: Riding the Bus

SSG & I went to Seattle/Vancouver for last weekend. We managed to get from the airport to downtown pretty quickly & then proceeded to get confused in the transportation tunnel for about an hour. We figured out which bus we needed and even which station to get it from, but actually finding the stop was a little more complicated (really, it was kinda complicated!). After two conversations with metro transit employees, we finally found our bus stop. I was excited enough to document it.

After meeting two youths of questionable gender & learning how to remember the cross streets of Seattle ("Jesus Christ Built Seattle Under Pressure"), we finally arrived at my aunts' street. Once again, documentation was in order.

The next day we braved the buses again. We boarded Bus 3 near the beginning of its route & headed off to explore the city. We decided on all day bus passes ($4 each). The Southeast Asian bus driver said to put the money in the bus meter, but I slide a bill into the feeder, he yelled, "Oh dear, sweet lord! Was that a $20?" Turns out, the bus meter does not give you change. We needed $12 back so as each new rider tried to put their money in the machine, our bus driver snatched it out of their hands saying, "How much money do you have? Give it to me. The lady already paid for you." By the time our stop arrived, we had managed to make back $11 and provide a mixture of confusion and amusement for our fellow passengers.

As I was trying to keep track of how well we were recouping our $12, SSG was engrossed in conversation with one of the very friendly Seattlites we met. After giving us a long list of places to visit (complete with bus routes to get there), he said, "If you go to Starbucks, I'll be deeply offended. If you must go corporate, Tully's is acceptable. But really, you need to find Pete's Coffee. It is the best." Other gems from this helpful local included: there is good Irish music in Pioneer Square, the "dive-iest" Little Saigon is the best. the others are just rip offs, KBXP is the best radio station. we will probably want to listen to it online when we return to Atlanta, Pagliacci is the best pizza, and the Queen Anne neighborhood is rich but down to earth, which is "an interesting contradiction".

Bonus Notes: We did got to Tully's (it has better pumpkin spice steamers than anywhere else we tried) and Queen Anne, which has a lovely view of the skyline. I am about to try out KBXP right now.

the view from Queen Anne