All aboard!! Who wants to ride in a crate, in the back of a vehicle, through crappy traffic? So with the "city" back-pack loaded, we headed off for the furry, I mean ferry terminal. The Washington State ferry system provides water passage to a multitude of locations throughout the Puget Sound. Even up to the beautiful San Juans Islands, which Kiwi enjoyed this past April.
We enjoyed the roughly one hour ride up on the top deck. We saw power boats, sailboats, beautiful shoreline houses, while sea gulls kept us company riding the air currents along with the ferry. It was windy due to the ferry moving, but another gorgeous Northwest day. I could tell Kiwi was acting a little haughty up on the "promenade deck". She didn't interact with many of the passengers from "steerage", ala Titanic LOLThe time flew as fast as the sea gulls and before you knew it, we were arriving at Seattle.
Out the terminal exit, north on Alaska Way, our destination was the famous Pike Place Market
Here we enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the big city in a widely known tourist spot. Vendors selling their wares, street musicians providing the ambience, Starbucks in hand, ;-) , and Kiwi taking it all in. Fully alert, ears like radar and nose in overdrive.
A few pics of the market from the outside. We did see "No Dogs" signs for the indoor shops but none for the "open air" vendors. Since food and other consumable were being sold, we elected to stay out. Kinda hard for Kiwi to see it, but we were able to enjoy some of the famous Flying Fish being thrown about at their store.
Kiwi was looked at by many passerby's with the occasional "cute dog". But all biases aside, she behaved well, no barking, no lunging, while staying close by our sides. And no, she made no messes on the pedestrian walkways. Whew, good girl Kiwi. :-)While other family members explored some stores, Kiwi and I kept watch on all the new people, traffic and buildings. We when got bored, I took Kiwi into a Sharper Image store after looking for the do pets sign. But both entrances had no such prohibition. So we casually went in, sauntered around in the nice air-conditioned store with plush carpeting, smiled at the employees, enjoyed a Shiatsu massage and departed. (Just kidding about the massage, LOL)
Finally it was our turn to enjoy a Starbucks. Kiwi always has me ask for the Blackberry Green Tea Frappuccino, yum. While she let me enjoy her portion in a relaxing area, her attention was occupied with something else. Here was the first time I saw Kiwi really focus on birds. Pigeons in this case. Undoubtedly due to their lack of public fear. After Kiwi made one pigeon take flight upon her bark, she took it upon herself, as a good ACD to keep the roughly sixteen foot perimeter safe from the other feathery crumb eating competitors. (16 ft is her leash length, go figure LOL) My little girl is growing up, sniff. (wipes moisture from eyes)
After a few hours into our big city "hike", we made it to our turn-around point, Westlake Center. A little too gauche and commercial for Kiwi and I, so we stayed outside to keep the pigeons in shape, listen to the street philosophyzers, and enjoy the day. :-)
Kiwi found her a city waterfall to explore, shown better in the video.
Minding her P's & Q's at the crosswalk. She might be more familiar with the wild country, but she wasn't about to get a ticket for jaywalking. LOL Oh, by the way, not once did Kiwi try to herd anything. No cars, people, flying fish, nothing. Good on her. (look at that smile)
One final meet and greet with another four-legged friend at Pike's Place as we head back. Completely neutral encounter with no issues. Probably because the Scotty didn't smell like pigeon. :-)
Other than the video below, this post of our city-hike was cut off before concluding the trip. With yesterday's hike and today's, my pocket camera bit the dead battery bug. I was going to recharge it via my cellular, but I had used that up while at Starbucks. :-( Thank goodness that big bright light in the beautiful blue sky continued to shine on the gorgeous Pacific Northwest . :-)Yeah baby!!
Seattle Video
No comments:
Post a Comment