Seattle, Washington -(Saturday 8/21) cruise departs at 4:00 pm:
Tourists visiting Seattle should keep in mind that there's a lot more to this city than the famous Space Needle. Seattle has a lovely waterfront, lined with restaurants and shops, and the indoor/outdoor Pike Place Market offers enough to keep any person busy for a day. Other activities include strolling through historic Pioneer Square, visiting the futuristic Experience Music Project, or taking a day trip to the nearby mountains or port towns.
Overview of Seattle:
The city traces its history beginning in 1851, when a group of pioneers began a settlement near what is now known as Alki Beach in West Seattle. They were soon flooded out andmoved across Elliott Bay to the area that is now Pioneer Square in Seattle's downtown. They named their new home Duwamps - after the Duwamish Indians who inhabited the area. Some found the name less than attractive so the town was renamed Seattle after a friendly Native American, Chief Sealth.
Despite all its Indian-related names, the town faced skirmishes with the rea's original inhabitants, which slowed its growth for a time. Logging drovethe economy in the late 1800s and the town continued to grow despite various obstacles, the most serios of which was a devastating fire in 1889. The city came into its own in the late 1890s thanks in part to the discovery of gold in the far off Yukon Territory and Alaska. Seattle became a major point of transit for the thousands of hopeful prospectors heading north. Merchants grew rich outfitting the gold rushers and the shipbuilding trade flourished, as more boats were needed to ply the Seattle-Alaska route. As the town became an important shipping and industrial center in the early decades of the 20th century, many of its workers became actie in the organized labor movement, a trend that continues to the present.
In 1962, Seattle stepped into the limelight when it hosted the World's Fair, remnants of which can still be seen (the Space Needle being the most prominent). World War II brought evn more growth to the city thanks to the shipbuilding, aviation andother warrelated industries. The focus on airplanes, spurred growth in the Boeing Company, which became the driving force in the city's economy in the postwar decades. The city became a leading player in the computer age when Microsoft and other companies set up shop in the 1980s and 1990s. The same period saw Seattle become a hip counterculture outpost, a phenomenon spurred by the rise of the city's grungerock bands, including Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
Adventures Ashore:
While in Seatle, The villagers visited the Space Needle, Toured the City and road the lake in a duck bus.
Seattle at a Glance:
Olympia is the capital of Seattle. Seatle sits on the eastern shore of Puget Sound, the waterway that connects with the ocean through the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the state of Washington. Taxis are available and can be found throughout the city at all major hotels or by calling 206-622-1717. The time zone is the Pacific Daylight Time. The currency is U.S. dollar. The language is English and the population is 536,978.
