Our last day before heading home. Glo's was just as good this morning as it was yesterday. Angela is on something of a quest to find some hand blown glass balls. The technique is from Seattle and it involves rolling the molten glass in pigmented “dust” that then melts onto the glass in interesting patterns as it cools. We saw some of these balls in the Space Needle gift shop on Tuesday, and more of them in the window of a glassblowing studio we passed on the way back to our hotel, and then even more in a shop on Bainbridge Island yesterday.
Anyway, we stopped into the studio on our (rather circuitous route) back to our hotel from breakfast to see what else they had. While the studio was fascinating, their entire selection of ornaments was in the window and not of any interest to Angela. The quest continued.
We decided to rent a car today since the things we wanted to do were fairly spread out. First stop was the Ballard Locks which connects Puget Sound with Lakes Union and Washington. I'd never seen a canal lock work, and it was fascinating to watch the boats go in and out of the locks. There's also a fish ladder to help the salmon get upstream into the two lakes and the streams that feed them. There weren't very many fish running yet, but there were some working their way up the ladder.
The next stop was the Fremont district and Gasworks Park. Gasworks Park is at the north end of Lake Union and sits on the site of an old coal and crude oil gasification plant. All of the machinery is inert now and there is a lovely park on the site with great views of the skyline and all of the boats on Lake Union. It's said that children (and pets presumably) shouldn't roll around on the grass too much because of the contaminants still in the ground from when this plant was active. Having said that, we could not get away from a family having some professional family photos done with parents and daughter doing just that. You be the judge.
Fremont is a cool area of town with lots of eclectic dining and shopping, but Angela would not be distracted from her ornament quest. Of course, the ornaments take the back stage when it comes to tasting artisan chocolate at a place called “Theo.” Their chocolates were amazing and we snagged a couple treats for later.
Remember the movie “Sleepless in Seattle?” Well, many of the Seattle scenes were filmed at a houseboat moored on Lake Union somewhere. There are actually hundreds of boats on the east and west banks of the lake so we meandered around some of the various houseboat “neighborhoods” trying to find it. Turns out it's in a gated community and virtually impossible to see from land. I think we saw it on the west shore from the east shore, but I can't be sure. Some of the houseboats were really interesting pieces of architecture, while some of them were quite dumpy and rickety.
So, after a day of searching for those glass balls, we've come to the conclusion that the easiest way to get some is just to go back to the Space Needle gift shop and get some there. Between Lake Union and the Needle is a very nice neighborhood called Queen Anne. It reminds me somewhat of the Virginia Highland area of Atlanta, with older bungalow and craftsman houses and a main street of sorts with nice boutiques and restaurants. There was a market going on today, so we were able to experience a little of the neighborhood culture while we meandered through the shops.
We kind of “punted” after getting our balls at the Needle and ate dinner at a pizza place called “Zeeks” that was across the street from the “5 point cafe” from the other night. While it appeared to be just another chain pizza place from the outside, it was actually very good pizza, and I consider myself somewhat of a pizza connoiseur.
We head home tomorrow. I am looking forward to a lazy weekend at home. I need a vacation from my vacation.
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