Day Trippin'
Thursday, March 27, 2008
I took a day trip up to Seattle for a few hours yesterday. It was for a meeting, but I managed to get out and see downtown for a bit while I was there.
The first thing I noticed when parking was the rates for per-hour street parking. Perhaps I've been living in Salem too long (where most downtown parking is still free) but I thought Portland was getting expensive at $1.25/hour... Seattle beats that by another quarter. I shouldn't be surprised, though. There does seem to be a direct correlation between metro population and per-hour street parking.
Of course, what would any self-respecting individual do with a few hours in downtown Seattle than immediately head for the Pike Place Market. I managed to find good food and ate lunch while meandering about, enjoying the sights and smells of the marketplace.
I also took some time wandering around outside. I stopped at the original Starbucks for a few minutes (though I didn't order anything because I was low on cash and the line was long) and took in a view of Puget Sound.
... and, of course, no trip to Seattle would be complete without getting stuck in traffic. While some studies show that Seattle is the third worst in the nation (or thereabouts) for traffic, I can only anecdotally say that it took me two hours to go 30 miles on the freeway between Seattle and Tacoma. Thanks, guys!
The first thing I noticed when parking was the rates for per-hour street parking. Perhaps I've been living in Salem too long (where most downtown parking is still free) but I thought Portland was getting expensive at $1.25/hour... Seattle beats that by another quarter. I shouldn't be surprised, though. There does seem to be a direct correlation between metro population and per-hour street parking.
Of course, what would any self-respecting individual do with a few hours in downtown Seattle than immediately head for the Pike Place Market. I managed to find good food and ate lunch while meandering about, enjoying the sights and smells of the marketplace.
I also took some time wandering around outside. I stopped at the original Starbucks for a few minutes (though I didn't order anything because I was low on cash and the line was long) and took in a view of Puget Sound.
... and, of course, no trip to Seattle would be complete without getting stuck in traffic. While some studies show that Seattle is the third worst in the nation (or thereabouts) for traffic, I can only anecdotally say that it took me two hours to go 30 miles on the freeway between Seattle and Tacoma. Thanks, guys!
posted by Burton at 11:26 AM
2 Comments:
Wow, third in the nation was hard for me to believe, having spent time in San Fran traffic as well as LA traffic. Then I checked the link... yep, San Fran is number 2! Ofcourse, New York is number 1, and LA isn't even on the list. I guess that's because there are so many different ways to get from point A to point B in LA, or maybe it's because there is SOME hour of the day that most freeways aren't gridlocked. Anywho, I heart traffic!!
DOH!
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