![\"Downtown](\"https:\/\/huangyizhou.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com\/20200121\/DSC_9059.jpg\")
<\/a><\/br>Downtown Seattle<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Marking the end of exploring nature near Seattle, I returned the rental car at the end of previous day. It turned out to be a quite smart move as city of Seattle had been drizzling for the remainder of my stay.<\/span><\/p>\n So the plan of the day was to visit a few attractions in the downtown area, starting from Frye Art Museum to Seattle’s waterfront, then Pike Place Market and Kerry’s Park.<\/p>\n One of the few museums in Seattle with free admission.<\/p>\n <\/br>Norwegian Girl by Hans Dahl<\/br>Hans Dahl’s Norwegian Girl conveys a nostalgic longing for an imagined simpler time. The girl wears a folk costume from the Hardanger region in western Norway that, by 1905, would have been worn only on festive occasions. But Dahl presents her as a timeless vision of a young, working peasant girl. Though the nineteenth-century stereotype of Norway emphasized its harsh climate and stoic peasants, Dahl conjures here an idealized femininity that stresses connection to the land, tradition, and a cheerful disposition. This outlook was indicative of his body of work as a whole. As art historian Richard Muther wrote of Dahl’s work in 1895, \u201cEverything is sunny, everything laughs, the landscapes as well as the figures.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n It wasn’t a very huge museum to begin with (three quarters of a street block and one floor). Even worse, during my visit half of it was closed for renovation, so there’s really not much to see that’s to my taste. And for the first time, I saw bathrooms separated by “general neutral with\/without urinal”. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising this happened in such a liberal city.<\/p>\n On my way to waterfront, I passed St. James Cathedral, mother church of the Archdiocese of Seattle.<\/p>\n The Cathedral was open to the public, but interestingly, a note by its entrance said for “security reasons” its bathrooms were closed to the public.<\/p>\n <\/br>Dome Openings<\/p><\/div>\n There was some organ rehearsal going on, as the entire place was resonated with harmonious music. A peaceful shelter from the bustling and raining world outside.<\/p>\n <\/br>Altar<\/p><\/div>\n After crossing a few blocks among skyscrapers, I was at Seattle’s waterfront.<\/p>\n <\/br>The Seattle Great Wheel<\/br>This Ferris Wheel was spinning fast but empty, probably because it’s a business day in the low season of winter.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/br>View of Elliott Bay from Pier 57<\/p><\/div>\n <\/br>Corner of Pier 57<\/br>Where I took the previous pano photo. Not hard to tell that wind was pretty strong.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n Wind was high and navigating through puddles of water wasn’t pleasant, so I quickly moved onto higher grounds of nearby Pike Place Market.<\/p>\n <\/br>Steamworks<\/br>Looked like remains of some factory.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n As the name suggested, it’s an alleyway with walls full of gum. I had no idea how such a filthy place became a tourist attraction.<\/p>\n <\/br>Container Ship in Bay<\/p><\/div>\n Then it’s Pike Place Market with its famous fish-tossing stand.<\/p>\n <\/br>Fish Stand<\/br>Probably because there weren\u2019t any customers, there\u2019s no fish throwing.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n And many other stands selling produce or artifacts.<\/p>\n <\/br>Market Stand<\/br>Conditions were harsher than it seemed for these stands, with a thin layer of plastic separating them from the elements outside.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/br>Market Sign<\/p><\/div>\n <\/br>Market Entrance<\/p><\/div>\n <\/br>Market Sign<\/p><\/div>\n After that, I got word from my friends that we were to meet at Kerry Park in an hour. So I search on Google Maps and among the highest rated restaurants, picked “FOB Poke Bar” for lunch.<\/p>\n <\/br>Lunch<\/br>I was pretty content with this bowl. It’s like a glorified version of Subway, with more exotic choices and fabulous sauces, plus two very-friendly associates always asking in the sweetest possible voice “anything more?”.<\/p><\/div>\n A park on a hill in a residential area that’s famous for its views of Seattle skyline.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, it had been raining steadily since an hour ago, with gusts of wind making things worse. In one arm, I was holding an umbrella that’s about to be blown away, and in another holding a camera taking photos, while making sure the lens hood was pointing at the right direction so as to keep raindrops from lens.<\/p>\n <\/br>Seattle Harbor from Kerry Park<\/p><\/div>\n <\/br>West Seattle across Bay<\/p><\/div>\n But the view was nonetheless stunning. Even a traffic cop in his tiny tricycle joined us in admiring this impressive skyline.<\/p>\n <\/br> <\/br> After that, my original plan was to head for the observation deck of Space Needle. But, my friend at University of Washington suggested that views on a rainy winter afternoon won’t be great on top of Space Needle, and UW’s “Area 01 Community Center” with PlayStation and billiards were a better idea. The third day for the Seattle trip as I explored attractions of downtown Seattle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[481,2],"tags":[487,488,485,486],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4237"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4237"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4262,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4237\/revisions\/4262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Frye Art Museum<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a>
\nI did bump into a dance performance accompanied by Jazz music, which I couldn’t quite comprehend.<\/p>\nSt. James Cathedral<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/br>Interior<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a>Waterfront<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/br>Downtown Highrises<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/br>Ferry<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a><\/br><\/a><\/br>Harbor<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a><\/br>Ducks<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a>Pike Place Market<\/span><\/h3>\n
Gum Wall<\/span><\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/br><\/a><\/br><\/a> <\/a><\/br>Gum Wall<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a><\/br>Alley near Gum Wall<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/br><\/a><\/br>Gull<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>Kerry Park<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/br>Downtown Seattle<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a><\/br><\/a><\/br>Downtown Seattle<\/p><\/div>\n
\nSo that’s end of the day’s city tour.
\nEND<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"