Going around in Seattle

With my evangelist superpowers, I decided that today HAD to be a sunny day in Seattle (Jeff, Mike, I told you that!). Despite my best intentions, I therefore decided not to go to work (I hadn’t to, but I wanted to), shelving it for tomorrow or monday (because it’s going to be cloudy again, no doubt!).

I left my apartment around 11 a.m., and then wondered around downtown Seattle. I decided to buy a book guide (an architecture-oriented one) in a local Barnes & Noble store (please, don’t tell my boss I didn’t buy it from Amazon!!):

I took a sit nearby, and read some of it to have a general idea of the area. Seattle has an interesting story, you can probably find out more (the settlement and the Denny party, the big fire, the earthquake, etc.) on wikipedia.

I then had a californian salad for lunch, still reading the book:

Then I went to Pike Street Market, in front of the FIRST Starbucks Coffee (newspaper), where there were some friendly guys singing a cappella:

I then went to WestLake Park square, where I shot some pictures at the fountain, and to couple of guys playing chess on the red granite sculptures named “Seven Hills”, by Robert Maki (they allude to the seven hills between Elliott Bay (the bay you see from downtown Seattle) and Lake Washington, east of downtown).

Well, this is me!

Apparently, Seattle is a very nice city, with modern architecture and large sidewalks. People, good for them, enjoy going out in the streets on a sunny day.

I think that the best value you have in a city is its people, and Seattle seems to be a magnet for smart, interesting and curious people.

So, Seattleites, any suggestion for me? Places to visit? Good real italian expresso to sip? Anyone willing to have a walk with me in the next days? Thanks!