12-12-08 Friday (Groundhogs)

Caulkenstein, prohibited the shower use today. I think it growled at me as I walked by this morning. At the public showers, Jim and I switched stalls so he could experience the pee water pressure. We have a big day planned so we drive into Seattle today for our next set of tours/excursions.

First up was an Underground Tour. It was a good thing it was underground since it rained all day. I found this tour so amazing and utterly interesting! The tour guide, Heather, was humorous and armed with many a pun as she told stories. Anyway, the gist of it is that a lot of Seattle burned down in 1889. Due to many sewer, tide and saw dust based foundation issues, the city wanted to raise it all up. Business owners did not want to wait for the 10 year project to complete. Businesses rebuilt. The city built the sidewalks much higher than the businesses. People had to use ladders to "cross the streets". People and horses fell 18 feet into these pits. A deal was struck with the businesses to cap off the gaps from the sidewalk to their businesses. A business then had their 2nd floor become their 1st floor. Their 1st floor became basements. The sidewalks above were city owned, below, still the businesses. The underground areas were born. Drugs, murder, corruptions, etc occurred down there. Eventually the city passed a law forbidding clientele from entering or leaving from the underground. Businesses had to turn an above ground window into a door. I think I've got the basic story right. On their website, it explains the story in depth. If you have time, it's absolutely interesting to read. Click here for the full history. It's long reading, but worth it.

Oddly, Jim wasn't all that thrilled with the tour. I never read the whole history from the website. He did. Maybe he wasn't impressed because he had to hear it all again? I loved it!

After the tour, we shot over to Argosy Harbor Cruise for a 1 hour Elliott Bay cruise tour. There were only 13 passengers, since the weather has been rainy all day. It was also cold. All of us sat on the upper level. It was enclosed with plastic windows, and was cold even with their heaters. The tour guide pointed out many items along the bay, sometimes adding educational tidbits. All in all, I could have lived without this tour. Maybe because I was cold, and our views were obstructed by plastic with rain on it. I'm not sure.

We hoofed it over to the Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center. It was a long, cold, rainy walk. This place was terrible. Way too many interactive displays didn't work or if they did, not very well. We didn't stay here long. I didn't even take any pictures of this crap.

It was almost 4pm. We braved the high speed winds back to where we started. A downtown Seattle (Pioneer Square) audio walking tour was the last thing to catch. They close at 5. At 4:30, it was closed. We weren't very happy. Just as well, since a walking tour in the wind and rain wasn't very promising. We departed Seattle.

On our return home, we entered the RV park. So many of the inflatables were laying on their side. I guess they got a lot of rain and wind here too.

Ah yes, this brings me to our nightly finally. As we drove up to the RV, our awning was blown off! The HEAVY roller and arm once on the passenger side were now relocated to the driver's side. The fabric was still semi-attached to the roof and hung in front of the door. Jim called the mobile RV guy who is several sites up the street. He and his wife came over, in the rain, and tore of the remaining awning, collected the hardware and climbed the roof to inspect for damage. All looks as good as it can be at this point. We'll have to inspect some more in the light of tomorrow. It looks like another insurance claim is coming. ARGH!