USA Day 36: Seatac, Seattle, Underground Tour, Bellevue (2014-10-31)

USA Day 36: After 12 days, there's finally a dingy breakfast again, with even dingier coffee. We're back on the mainland now.

First on the agenda today is the Seattle Underground Tour. Seattle was once built at sea level. This brought certain disadvantages. Flooding was the least of the evils. The toilet flushes, for example, only worked at low tide. At high tide, they simply worked backward, which with an unfavorable water level ended in a 3-meter high fountain in the bathroom. And it wasn't just clean seawater. Yuck!

Furthermore, there were already settlements on the cliffs, and their wastewater also accumulated in the city center, which lay directly on the bank of the river.

In 1889, the current downtown area burned down completely because the houses were all made of wood and there were no firefighting devices. In total, that was 33 blocks.

It was then decided to rebuild the city out of stone. To escape the sewage problem, the city was raised by up to 10 m.

The streets and sidewalks were virtually connected on the first floor, and the former ground floor became the current basements in Seattle Downtown. In total, about 25 of the original blocks still exist. We were able to see 3 of these blocks, including the old bank and an underground bar.

After the tour, we continued to the houseboats on Lake Union. These are known from the movie „Sleepless in Seattle.“ Afterwards, we went to the harbor and ate delicious rockfish with a vegetable bouquet.

Off to shopping in Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle. There are exactly 250 stores here. Perfect!

It was funny that a lot of people were in costume. It was Halloween, after all. We watched the events for a while longer and then drove back to the hotel.

Conclusion: Seattle is a great city, and we'll definitely be back.