monorail is a joke - its basically just a couple miles long - runs from center of downtown to the EMP/Space Needle area

not really useful for anything else

Unfortunately, if Seattle has any issues they revolve around a lack of a major rapid transit system - The monorail simply connects Westlake Center(in Downtown) with Seattle Center(and the Space Needle/EMP - this is just north of Downtown). So you will have to catch a cab/shuttle/bus to get from the airport to downtown

"Y'know, a town with money is a little like the mule with a spinning wheel. No one knows how he got it and danged if he knows how to use it."

why is that monorail such a turd? didn't anyone want it to be a useful system for the whole city?

They should have gotten a reference from North Haverbrook first.

washington state as a whole is in the dark ages of mass transit

It's true. And there isn't an end in sight. We keep fighting over our 'alternatives.' It's maddening. We can't get anything done. You'd think in such an eco-friendly area we'd have a proper mass-transit. Whenever I go to Chicago or NY I weep with joy. Why can't we get it done?!!?!?

i totally sympathize. LA is just the most dysfunctional metropolis on earth.

we JUST TODAY had henry waxman produce a bill which would "unblock" tunneling for purposes of a subway to the westside of LA. so, a subway from downtown to santa monica is still probably a decade or two away.

we are already in transportation meltdown here. ugh...infinitely frustrating.

Well, it'll be just like home. We have a light rail and a metro (no connecting stations, of course); neither serves anywhere useful alone, with the possible exception of the metro, which is cripplingly slow (it has to stop for all the lights; two of the five times I've been on it it's run into a car). Only sure thing we have is the fast train to DC (which doesn't run nights and weekends, for all you gig-goers out there).

DC, Boston, Chicago and NY don't seem to have preternaturally talented leaders - why can they make it work?

portland for its size has a suprisingly good mass transit system

jesus, be civilized.
get a nice room in nyc.
see a play.
hit up a museum.
eat good food.
take me with you.

I'll be in indianapolis next week unless someone can get me out of it

there are no plays or museums or good restaurants out here. we all clobber each other with sticks and eat rocks

well, yeah.

just opened up artnet.com and found this article about seattle's sculpture park. worth it to see the serra (one of my faves) and oldenburg.

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/featur ... 2-7-07.asp

A nice room in NYC would be more than the flight/hotel deal here. Plus my mad aunt lives there, a little scary. Will check the garden out for you, though. thanks for the heads-up - looks like it's shiny new.

Good choice.

Kabob is a very cool guy.

Seattle is most excellent.

I'm in Seattle as well and after a long hiatus I'm back to posting on the obner. One of these years I'll be off street teamer status.

My friends in WA came through, and here you go.

Alaska Silk Pie Company
3429 Airport Way South, 2nd FL
Seattle, WA 98134
1-800-745-5743
Website: http://www.alaskasilkpie.com

Pike Place Fish Market
86 Pike Place
Seattle, WA 98101
1-800-542-7732
Website: http://www.pikeplacefish.com

Reporting in!

Kabob is a fine host and a gentleman. Thanks, Eric. The people of Seattle generally excellent. The monorail doesn't really go anywhere, and isn't that exciting, but the ferry rides and the promised french toast are good things. The coffee was good, the beer was good, the seafood was good. I found a reference to the famed seven layer cake, but it was somewhere different, perhaps a reverse-engineered (but tasty) facsimile. I wanted to move into the sculpture garden, it was so cool. Also, they have a 'labor temple,' a collectivist bookshop, and a giant statue of lenin. And the first Nordstroms and Starbucks, peacefully coexisting. At no point did I turn a corner and think, oh shit, shouldn't have turned here, as happens in baltimore fairly easily.

And it only rained briefly, and never during the day, and it was cloudy enough for style points but you could always see the snowy mountains in the distance. Lets all move to Seattle, kids.

Cool. And this




made me laugh out loud.



edit: no pix?

good choice shelley.

no disrespect to The Dreaded Marco, but utah is really fucking weird.

Aw, are you ok e-stone?


and I always forget to take pictures. I took a few on Sunday before I left, but they're on film, of all things, and I haven't gotten around to developing 'em.