The Big City

Seattle is just across Lake Washington from us. We can be in downtown Seattle in about 20 minutes (nonrush hour traffic). Joe's vocal cord surgeon is at the Virginia Mason Hospital in downtown Seattle so we get to the big city every once in a while for his checkups. On our most recent trip we received the good news that Joe's vocal cords are clear. That means we got through 2012 with no surgery and no cancer. For this we are EXTREMELY grateful. Here's what we did while we were in the big city. 

Kerry Park has magnificent views - even on a cloudy day

We explored part of the Queen Anne neighborhood 

- many interesting houses

We went to the Mount Pleasant Cemetery to find the graves of Edgar and Ella Hall Ames. While surfing the Internet one evening, I discovered they were buried here. I have yet to find out how they ended up in Seattle. Edgar is the brother of Urania Ames Holton, mother of Caryl Holton. So Edgar is Grandpa's uncle. Edgar was born probably in Illinois, then when he was very young he and his mother Urania Howell Ames, traveled to California to be with husband/father Alson Ames who was there searching for gold. Edgar's sister Urania Ames was born in California in the 1850s. They then went back to Illinois. Edgar was in Minnesota as an adult. Why did he come to Seattle?

From an earlier email exchange I had with the cemetery, I had the lot and section number of Edgar and Ella's burials. When we visited in person, the office worker at the cemetery told me there were no markers on the graves so I wouldn't be able to find their burial spaces. She had no use for genealogists and others who take photos of tombstones and post them online. She wouldn't tell me who else was buried in the lot (clue for relatives). It was a very interesting conversation (or nonconversation depending on how you look at it). I can't remember the last time I ran into someone so uncooperative when I was doing genealogy. She must have had some very bad experiences. 

Edgar and Ella might be in this general area if I read the map correctly. 

After our cemetery experience we drove north a ways to find the SAS shoe store. It's the only one in the Seattle area. Joe's feet do very well in SAS shoes. We located the store but discovered it was closed for the week - according to a handwritten sign on the door - "sorry for the inconvenience." It would have been nice if they'd posted that information on their website. In trying to figure out how to get out of where we were, we came across the "Northgate" area which is home to a huge mall we've heard people talk about. So - we now know where Northgate is. 

A GPS certainly makes this kind of exploring a bit easier than relying solely on paper maps. Only problem is that our GPS gets very confused in downtown Seattle - always has. We don't know if it's due to the streets and bridges that are sometimes layered on top of each other. We know from sad experience that "Alice" will give us contradictory directions and sometimes just quit functioning - not even trying to "recalculate." Maybe it's time for a new GPS although our maps are supposedly up to date. 

It was getting to be midafternoon. We hadn't yet had lunch because we wanted to eat at the 5 Spot restaurant in the Queen Anne neighborhood. The first time we drove past the restaurant we couldn't find a parking space. After our Northgate excursion we decided to drive back into central Seattle and see if we could find parking close to the 5 Spot. We lucked out this time and enjoyed a late lunch. This restaurant is interesting in that the menu and decor are changed periodically to reflect a theme. They were celebrating the Carolinas on this visit. When we were here last year with the Kings, Philadelphia was the theme. The food has been very good both times we've eaten there. 

Good-bye to the big city