Well praise the gods, my feets didn't fail me. Thank you, feet! I was so appreciative of them giving me this break, that I stomped around on them all day long, yesterday, in, on, and throughout the positively, and for me, totally surprisingly beautiful campus of the University of Washington, aka "U-dub", as it's known around here.
I hadn't planned on visiting the campus, or maybe at all. When asking the owner of this rental property the other day if there was anything interesting to see on the campus, he had said basically, no. I can only assume he thought someone my age would have no interest in cute cafes or boys. He knows, however that I love architecture, because in our very first email about this place, I'd written saying that one of the main reasons I was considering the place was it's mid-century design, (true), and he and I discussed architecture generally when he visited here to drop off Maryann's sheets and linens. Or maybe he was ignorant of the the campus, or wasn't, but thought old buildings would hold no interest for me?
Anyway, initially yesterday, I wasn't thinking about the campus. I had intended, despite the rain yesterday morning, to take the ferry over to Bainbridge or maybe Vashon Island, so taken was I with witnessing the little darling going back and forth from the Fauntleroy terminal in West Seattle the other day ... however when I looked into it, I learned that it cost fucking $16 each way! Damn, that be expensive! I would have done it for $16 round trip, but not freaking $32.
Btw I wanna mention how much I love the name Fauntleroy. It just has a beautiful, evocative ring to it.
Checking online just now for any info re the origins of the name, good old Wikipedia actually has a page entitled "Fauntleroy, Seattle" - are they not amazing? - which gives you some interesting tidbits:
Fauntleroy is in the southwest corner of part of West Seattle, situated on Puget Sound's Fauntleroy Cove (into which the Fauntleroy Creek flows from its source in Fauntleroy Park). The neighborhood adjoins Lincoln Park to the north, Fauntlee Hills to the east, and Arbor Heights to the south. Within Fauntleroy is an area known as Endolyne (the "end of the line" of the Fauntleroy Park streetcar route in the early 1900s). The neighborhood, creek, and park all take their name from the cove, itself named by one Lt. George Davidson of the U. S. Coast Survey in 1857, in honor of his fiancée, Ellinor Fauntleroy, of Indiana.
Holy crap ... you had me there, then you threw me. The origins of this beautiful, to me, French sounding name, are to be found in ... Indiana??
I do surely love the "Endolyne" story - that is just wonderful. Mothertruckers doing away with streetcars. Damn them.
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Here I am trying to talk about my UW visit, and instead I sneak right back to West Seattle ...
So ... after learning of the disappointingly/weirdly pricey ferry charge (mind you, it's $7 each way when you don't have a car, but still - do people actually pay $14 a day to commute to work? Okay, probably not - there is undoubtedly a break for a monthly pass, or whatever). And btw I didn't opt to skip out on the car and simply take the bus to the ferry terminal, because mid-morning to mid-afternoon - remember, nothing opens before 11am - the ferry runs only once an hour, and there's nothing to see right at the dock, and I didn't wanna have to stand there in the rain for an hour. It's a shame. I had been intrigued by driving south on the island a mile or two, to visit an area with restaurants and shops, but oh well ...
So instead, I took a gander at the rental car map, and seeing that he UW campus is just a few miles north, over a bridge, from here, I decided to give it a whirl, intending to then visit Gasworks Park, then to take a spin over to the lower Queen Anne neighborhood, however I never got to the latter. There was too much to see on the UW campus.
So I drove east, over to 24th Ave, and as you drive north it turns into Montlake Blvd, which takes you over a bridge and basically directly onto the south part of the quite large campus. I had done literally zero research on the place, which is unusual for me on this trip - normally I look up at least one thing, usually a bookstore, and then try to find it, and hit whatever else might be around it, on the way.
I intended when crossing the bridge, no idea why, to veer right, as that just seemed like the correct way to go, but ended up in the left lane, and the turn arrow went off, so I followed traffic and ended going up 15th Ave NE, which inadvertently was perfect, as it took me into the area just on the very edge of the campus grounds itself. I then took a turn for the hell of it, left onto NE 42nd Street, and right there I spotted a bookstore - Magus Books - since 1978 - so I pulled onto University Way NE, I think, found a spot easily on the street, right in front of a really neat, old fashioned newstand called Bulldog News, which was wide open, and had a small takeout window for coffee and muffins on the sidewalk.
I put I think a dollar into the meter, which gave me I think 42 minutes, thinking that was how long I'd maybe spend at the bookstore, and then rounded the corner and ... wow. This place is lovely on the outside, to begin with
and on the inside, as I've said numerous times ad nauseum in this blog, it was like something out of Boston in the 80's, when we still had hugely stuffed used bookstores, aisle after aisle, funny cartoons and pulp fiction novel covers on the walls and edges of bookshelves, several staff members working their arses off re-stocking, sorting, hefting and hauling, etc.
This place was a total, absolutely wonderful throwback, and man, the size, the SIZE, just of the fiction & literature section!! I always check Jane Austen, then at the other end of the alphabet, Oscar Wilde, and firstly, there were literally about ten, okay, I just counted - seven books on Jane in some way - bios, critical analyses, the history of the places she'd lived, things like what her writing had to say about propriety, etc. Nothing trashy. Then her books, themselves, began. I couldn't freaking believe it.
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Next I went hunting for Oscar, and literally went down the store's entire back wall, and I think up two more aisle before I found the W's. Incredible.
I was good, and bought only one book, for 6 bucks, because it was old, had a cool cover, and I'd never seen it before:
The staff here was very friendly and helpful, btw. Young kids, working in such an old place with stone floors, filled with dirty germy books - this is the generation that have actually grown up with computers, and now e-readers and Twitter and such - must feel to them like they're working in an antique shop.
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After I left, right outside the door on the sidewalk was one of those A-frame signs, advertising a cafe in the alley next door that said it was Seattle's oldest espresso bar, which wouldn't normally impress me as I'd figure espresso's only been around, what, since the mid-80's? But it turns out the place has been around since 1975, so off I went.
This place it turns out is one of those old fashioned coffee shops almost from the beatnik era. It has 3 separate rooms - the main room, on the other side of the above windows,
And then you walk across a hallway to get to another room, which I didn't take a picture of, which had booths and stools like in a diner. The hallway had a bulletin board, and I always love looking at them when I travel. Here is one thing on it I found interesting:
If only because someone has written on it in pen: "shielded by my bloated pension and healthcare". Very interesting.
I purchased this:
Which was zuccini and cheese quiche, and when I saw that they also had seating upstairs, headed up there. You had to follow the signs, which actually took you outside, and immediately up a steep, narrow staircase, and even then, you weren't in the upstairs room. You then had to walk about 6 feet down a hallway, and then up 3 or 4 more steps, through a french door, and then you were in their upstairs, which had a balcony overlooking the alleyway below, and indoor seating. Turns out this upper room is where they have live music - sounds like folky type stuff - and apparently also knitting get-togethers:
One cool thing I didn't get a shot of was that there were three anti-Bush bumper stickers on the wall inside the kitchen area. This, I thought to myself, is what Hannity and O'Reilly go on about - 'liberal' colleges, or what they would think of as 'the elite', even though both of them went to college themselves. I always think, if it's even true that most colleges will tend to be liberal (no idea if it is, but if it is), it's because, by design, this is a den of brains, right? Smart people? And I think it's certainly truth that the more educated you become, the less black and white you see the world, the way the neo-cons do.
Anyway, I had the quiche, and was even devlish enough to take a bite of the large chocolate chip cookie I'd purchased from them - and it was SO fucking good I ate the whole thing, then went downstairs and not only bought two more to take with me, but picked up one of their retro t-shirts
Which looks so authentic, I would swear it is actually from that era. I'm actually wearing it right now - too big - 'universal sizes' always mean men's sizes - but it's way soft and comfy, and this place was just too cool not to commemorate.
Oh, and before leaving, I visited their tiny bathroom - only one for both men and women, and absolutely loved the look of this graffiti covered brick wall:
Btw just want to mention that despite what I expected, I was not by any means the only old fart inside this place, in fact, it was sort of the same thing you see at Woodstar cafe in Northampton, Ma - people are either 50, or they're 19, with nobody in between. I supposed the middle agers work in some capacity for the university, teachers, or staff or whatever, or they maybe own businesses in the immediate area. I'm neither, but I could pass ;)
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So I left the cafe and headed across the street onto the campus itself, having no idea what I would find. I've just looked up the place since - enrollment is just under 40k students, accepts on average just 57% of those who apply, which seems odd for a state school, and this is the kicker: fucking place was founded in 1861, so it's just had it's 150th anniversary. This is during the gold rush era for god's sake. I had absolutely no idea the place was that old, hence I was unprepared for the fantastically beautiful buildings I encountered. No joke - parts of the place (I only saw a fraction of the campus) resemble freaking Oxford.
Nor that their library, the Suzzallo, was this ornate, and that the Suzzallo Reading Room would be this incredible:
The place, in short, was spectacular, and so well worth the visit. These kids are so lucky, but why do I think vast majority don't even notice or care about the history or beauty of the place.
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Afterwards, I headed west to Gasworks Park. My initial entry into this blog gave a history of the place, so I won't go into it here. When I was last here ten years ago, it was sunny, and that reflected better off the rusty remnants of the Works. Yesterday it was cloud covered for most of the day, but still, it's a fantastic spot in the city, jutting straight out into Lake Union, overlooking the city skyline, the Eastlake houseboats, and is a great place to take pics and walk your dog.
Ironically, there is a large stone sundial thing embedded in top of the highest point at Gasworks, in a city which, most of the year, is about as sunny as you see in these photos.
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One side note: I had parked the car in a no-parking area, just next to the beginning of the park itself. There was no one else parked there, and basically only a few folks at the park at all, being a weekday afternoon. Anyway, I didn't think too much of it, but I noticed when I was walking back to the car that the next piece of land over is owned by the police, and furthermore, that there was large flat bed tow truck heading straight down this same lane I was parked on, as I was leaving. As mine was the only car anywhere on this lane, I have to believe I narrowly escaped being towed, by leaving when I did. Damn! Boy, that wouldn't have been pretty, had I returned to find no rental car. Ouch.
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Afterwards, heading home, I drove along/around the top of Lake Union trying to make my way back over to the University side, so I could simply drive straight south into Capitol Hill and go home. I got a bit lost in the traffic and drove around more than I wanted, but on the way, I stopped, simply to take a photo of this rather dramatic bridge, when I totally by accident happened upon this gorgeous little miniature park, right on the water's edge, featuring the most ungodly beautiful curved wooden bench, flowers, etc. Again, all basically underneath some big iron bridge. Ridiculous.
Right next to this little park was a seafood takeout place, basically closer to and nearly directly underneath the bridge, so I decided to pick up some salmon for dinner.
And when maneuvering my way home, thanks in large part to the Waze app I downloaded prior to the trip, which I've used many, many times, on the way I pulled over to snap a shot of this sign, which made me go, awww, and sniff ...
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