My Trip to the Pacific Northwest Part 1
I made my first trip to the Pacific Northwest in early August 2012 to complete being in the four corners of the United States. I've already been to the southwestern corner in San Diego, southeastern corner in Miami, and Northeastern corner in Maine a few years ago.
The biggest surprise to me was the weather when I left Seatac Airport. It was 90 degrees the whole weekend over there. And this was a city that had a reputation for having mild summers in comparison to a cloudy/rainy weather in the majority of the year.
Me outside of the Seatac Airport
A big shock for me getting out of the plane was seeing all of these White faces and very few Latinos. Coming from Los Angeles. Im used to seeing a diversity of people from all over the world. But in the Seattle area, it seemed like the vast majority of people were of Northern European descent, with a small minority of Asians, and Blacks. It took me a day to get used to seeing very few Latino faces
It took me an hour to find my hotel near the Airport, which wasn't across the street from the Airport, but a few miles away. Walking to my hotel. I got to enjoy the scenery which is very different from the more arid Los Angeles metropolitan area, as you can see on my first picture. The area was a suburban area that had the right mix of urbanity and nature that I wished Southern California had more of.
I asked the Hotel worker what was going on in Seattle this weekend. And he told me about the annual Seafair Air festival near Lake Washington. I also felt my first culture shock, when I accidentally cut in front of an older man. And he said absolutely nothing to me! I didn't even know he was waiting in line if I didn't ask him. But he allowed me to get in front of him for 3 mins, which was strange to me.
The next morning I went to Seafair in Seattle. I managed to get into the event for free because I'm a veteran(Yay, Veterans benefits:). The show was quite enjoyable, they had various carnival style games, a bar with cheap beer, and the main attraction was the Air Show near the Lake, as you can see in the picture.
Lake Washigton Seafair
Seafair crowd
After Seafair ended. I decided to check out the Seattle Sounders game downtown. Man, It was packed! The locals have a passion for soccer in the US that I don't really see in most of the country outside of the urban areas with large immigrant populations(like Southern California). The were singing chants like in English Soccer matches. The atmosphere at Century Link Field was off the charts amazing! It was an enjoyable game as they played the Los Angeles Galaxy(My hometown team), unfortunately they lost:(
Sounders Fan
I'll add more soon:)
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