SEATTLE

The flight down was only half an hour long – long enough for me
to spill a cup of coffee onto the (fortunately unoccupied) seat next to
me. I was sitting at the very front, and they didn't give me a tray...
The Dentons were waiting, and on our way to the car we stopped to look
through a window at the security control centre for the vast Sea-Tac
airport. The far-flung arms of the place are all connected by a computerised
underground railway, and everything is monitored by closed-circuit television.
Presumably everything goes smoothly most of the time, because the two
security staff were sitting back reading novels.
The Dentons lived in a very comfortable modern house, all flat to
the ground. Civilization at last! After blackberry cobbler for supper I retired
to a spare bed which had been occupied by all sorts of famous people at
various times.
Carey and John Berry had arrived from the trans-continental trip,
and proposed to go down to Eugene on the Wednesday, giving them a couple
of days in Seattle with the use of John's cousin's car. On Monday they
picked me up about midday and we went to Pikes Place Market. This was
a real market, with butchers, greengrocers and delicatessans, and stallkeepers
doing a bit of spruiking when trade slackened, It was in fact a fairly quiet
day, so that you could actually move about the place quite easily. As well
as the traditional market stalls there were people selling handcrafts of
all kinds and weird little health-food and imported goods shops. We ate
at the Soup and Salad Manufacturing Co., which appeared to be run along
collective lines, and which served huge sandwiches made with decent bread.
(All American sandwiches are huge, but most of them are definitely not
made with decent bread), They had a folk-singer; it looked as though the
numerous street musicians took turns at coming in for a while. After lunch
we explored, until Carey had worked up enough appetite to have a frozen
yoghurt (then unknown in Australia) and a freshly-made crumpet with strawberry
jam. Nothing is mare fascinating than the sight of Carey Handfield nobly
stuffing himself with food in the interests of tourism!
We went for a ferry ride. We took the one hour trip over to Winslow,
on a gigantic ferry much bigger than the ones on Sydney Harbour. The
view of Seattle was wonderful, and we had a great time watching the cars
roll on and off. After disembarking we stopped at "The Legacy", a gallery
of Indian arts and crafts – definitely not a tourist trap – where I bought
a print. Looking back, I wish I had spent more on good-quality souvenirs,
particularly regretting that I did not buy a piece of Eskimo sculpture, but
at the time I didn't have much money (I was carrying my entire life savings
around in $US travellers cheques) and anything I bought usually had to
be justified as useful, or at least a gift for somebody else.
That evening I went out with the Dentons to a dinner farewelling
one of Anna Jo's teacher colleagues. This was at a restaurant overlooking
Puget Sound. The sunset was just too beautiful for words! The sky and
the sea were turquoise and in the middle was a luminescent orange band
silhouetting the mountains, and it lasted for ages... The dinner was excellent
and they certainly didn't skimp on the food. Before dessert the waitresses
came around and planked little plastic bags on the tables. Well, I knew
aboutdoggy bags, but this was the first time they had been provided as
a matter of course for everyone.

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