On July 1, 2026, Wendy and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary and my first day of retirement, and I wanted to spend that day in Victoria, British Columbia where we spent part of our honeymoon. Ten years ago, our visit to Canada began and ended in Portland, Oregon. This time, we shifted to Seattle, Washington, which I had visited in 1999, 2005, and 2008. I turned in my work keys and fob and disabled my district account a few days before Wendy and I boarded our flight out of Tulsa.
In Seattle, our rental car turned out to be a red Nissan Sentra, which I drove north from the Sea–Tac airport to a condominium in Belltown I had booked via VRBO. Belltown is now the most densely populated neighborhood in Seattle, situated on the city’s downtown waterfront on land that was artificially flattened as part of a regrading project. Formerly a low-rent, semi-industrial arts district, in recent decades it has transformed into a neighborhood of trendy restaurants, boutiques, nightclubs, and residential towers as well as warehouses and art galleries.
Belltown has been rated as the best place to retire in the Seattle metro area, characterized by CNNMoney as “a walkable neighborhood with everything you need”. I have no intention of retiring to Seattle, which is too big and dense, with winters that are mild but overcast and wet. However, the climate of the Pacific Northwest is my favorite escape from Oklahoma’s sweltering summers. The high temperatures during this stay would average 66°F. I also wanted to experience a walkable neighborhood with bike lanes, public transit, and oodles of nearby restaurants and corner stores as a contrast to the life I have always known in the Sooner State.
Before leaving the rental car facility, Wendy had loaned me a USB C/A cable to connect my iPhone to the Sentra for Apple CarPlay. My 2014 Toyota Camry lacks that feature, although we use it with Wendy’s 2019 Honda Odyssey minivan. I had pre-programmed my TomTom GO app with various destinations, and it helped us navigate downtown. The scene was lively with World Cup fans since Egypt was playing Iran the next day at Seattle Stadium. We stopped in at a lobster rolls restaurant for soft drinks while we waited for check-in at the condo, and I watched a guy grab his vuvuzela and run out to the sidewalk to toot away at cheering fans.
During this trip I had to repeatedly adapt to modern technology such as the keyless car with its CarPlay configuration and start-stop system, as well as ticketless parking garage payment systems. When we drove to the condo, there was a fob for the parking garage and other entry doors and elevators, plus a numeric code for the condo corridor door. I understand the changes, but I sometimes miss physical keys and tickets.
The condominium had been built in 1994, and I had checked that it had air conditioning, which is important to Wendy. Only about 1/3 of the residences in Belltown have it, versus 99.8% of the homes in our part of Bartlesville. I wasn’t too surprised to find it was a retrofit, with a loud portable air conditioner sitting in a floor pan in the bedroom. It did the job, but its cycling interrupted our sleep until we set it to run continuously.
Our tiny balcony had a view of many other units, reminding me of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, although many units had short-term renters like ourselves, rather than long-term tenants I might classify as Miss Torso, Miss Lonely-Hearts, etc. I’ll refrain from sharing anything I saw there, as Hitch’s film showed how voyeurism can be problematic.
West Seattle
Our honeymoon stay in Astoria a decade earlier had sparked Wendy’s interest in tracking container ships and other vessels, so on our first full day in the city I drove us over to West Seattle, parking along Harbor Avenue at Seacrest Park. We walked over a mile back along the shore of Elliott Bay to Jack Block Park for a viewpoint which provided a closer look at the container ship operations.
We walked past a scuba-diving class, and Wendy used her maritime tracking app to identify cruise ships like the Royal Princess, both fast and slow ferries, and the Coast Guard’s Storis icebreaker.
We walked past the Pacific Titan, a huge shear-leg floating crane with a 300-foot boom that can lift 2,000 tons. It was docked next to a couple of old barges.
The park’s viewpoint offered a glimpse of forklifts shifting containers at Terminal 5.
Making our way back to the car, we stopped in at Salty’s on Alki Beach for lunch. That turned out to be one of the best meals of our vacation. Our waitress, Chrissy, was one of the most skilled and friendly servers we have ever encountered. She took our photo, had Wendy shoot a fun photo of her grinding pepper for my King Salmon, and was simply delightful.
The overcast cleared, improving our view of downtown Seattle across Elliott Bay. The difference is shown in the shots from before and after lunch of The Luna Girls by Lezlie Jane, which memorializes the amusement park that once graced the northern tip of West Seattle.
We had dinner at Hatch, one of several restaurants in the blocks about our condo. They were showing World Cup matches on televisions, which were of no interest to me, since I don’t follow any sports.
Our next two days in Seattle would feature more typical tourist traps.
Meador Manor 