Sealth, Suquamish, Duwamish and Doc Maynard

No, not the names of the stars of Shrek and the Seven Dwarves - but some of the earliest workers of the Hi Ho, the American Indian tribes who were the original settlers in Washington. Maureen and I had never explored the Pacific Northwest and decided to give Seattle a shot. We learned that David Swinson "Doc" Maynard, a doctor from Vermont wanting a piece of the logging action, traveled to Puget Sound and befriended the leader of the Duwamish tribe, Chief Sealth. The friendship went so well that the settlement was renamed after Sealth ("Seattle" is an anglicized version of his name), and Doc became a founding father.

We took the Underground Seattle tour and learned more about the history of Seattle that included floods, the Great Fire of 1889 and plumbing problems that lead to the first use of gravity-assisted flush toilets. During these early years downtown sidewalks were raised 36 feet above street level and for a time, pedestrians climbed ladders to go between street level and building entrances.

Leaving the Underground we decided to go up, straight up 520 feet to the observation deck of the Space Needle, built in 1962 for the World’s Fair. The Space Needle has been used as a location for many tv shows and movies including the sitcom Frasier and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

We took the Ferry to Bainbridge, enjoyed coffee at the original Starbucks, went shopping at the original Nordstrom's, bar hopping in Belltown, witnessed fish tossing at the Pike's Place Market, and even lunched at the Athenian Inn, where Tom Hanks and Rob Reiner dined in Sleepless in Seattle. It was a great weekend!