Last century in Seattle

I made my first visit to Seattle in 1999. I stayed with Michael, a friend originally from Sydney, and his partner, Anthony. Michael had recently relocated to take on a bigger role with Microsoft at its headquarters in Seattle. I flew into San Francisco early on the morning of Friday, 9 April, cleared immigration and transferred onto a shuttle flight heading north.

I spent a week with the boys. They were gracious hosts, arranging regular excursions to experience all Seattle’s popular attractions. Anthony wasn’t working at the time, so he was a chauffeur and tour guide whenever Michael was at work. However, Michael took me onto the Microsoft campus one day to give me a taste of Silicon Valley life, including a well-appointed staff cafeteria filled with snacks.

As a seasoned technology public relations consultant and former industry analyst, I certainly wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to visit the headquarters of one of the world’s most formidable tech giants. Michael took me through the Microsoft museum on campus. This was rather special as the building wasn’t open to the public. You needed a security pass to access it.

I vividly remember seeing a Radio Shack TRS-80 personal computer on display. Launched in 1977, it was one of the earliest mass-produced, mass-marketed retail home computers. It was also the same device on which I’d learned to code in BASIC in 1984. At the time, I was an exchange student studying at Syracuse, in upstate New York. My high school had a computer lab set up with dozens of these pioneering desktop computers.

I signed up for a Computer Studies elective and spent a semester creating some nifty applications. This included programming a multiple-choice quiz about my home nation, New Zealand, and its culture. The program also featured a map of New Zealand built using highlighted pixel blocks. According to Wikipedia, the TRS-80 was the bestselling PC line until 1982, outselling the Apple II by a factor of five. It’s hard to believe this simple machine was once leading-edge technology.

Anthony also helped me get my geek on. We took a day trip up to the Boeing factory in Everett, a satellite city 40km north of Seattle. We booked ourselves onto a factory tour that took us through this massive complex. The factory is the world’s largest building by volume, covering 98 acres. Its ceiling stands 32 metres above the floor, with six hangar doors, each more than 100 metres wide. It contains six separate production lines with commercial aircraft standing nose-to-tail in various stages of assembly. You know a building is huge when it’s housing rows of Jumbo Jets but doesn’t feel claustrophobic.

Anthony and I somehow missed the start of the tour. We’d been exploring the Boeing Museum attached to the visitor’s centre and missed the guide calling everyone onto the tour bus. However, a staff member took pity on us and drove us by golf cart to catch up with the group. The fastest way there was across the factory floor.  As a result, we got an unscheduled, close-up, ground-floor view of the assembly line in action. 

For someone that decorated their childhood bedroom with images of commercial airliners, our impromptu drive was a dream come true. At one point, we passed under the wings of a Jumbo, with its engine cowlings splayed to reveal the mind-numbing engineering wizardry inside. It was a Disneyland ride for geeks. We eventually caught up with the rest of the tour on a mezzanine overlooking the factory. However, unlike Anthony and me, the group hadn't been anywhere near the giant aircraft we'd just encountered. 

On Monday, 12 April, Michael and Anthony bought tickets to see the Seattle Thunderbirds, a local team in the junior ice hockey league. The game was played at KeyArena, but to my surprise, it wasn't well attended. Most of the stadium was empty. At best, the attendance was barely 4,000.  No doubt a mid-afternoon start inevitably kept some people away.

The game lived up to Ice Hockey's often thuggish reputation. We witnessed some brutal clashes on the ice, including opposing players being slammed against glass panels surrounding the rink. The Thunderbirds ultimately lost 4-0 to the TriCity Americans, another Washington State team. I still have the souvenir hockey puck I bought after the game.

Fun fact time. The stadium sits in the original 1962 World's Fair grounds, home to the city’s iconic Space Needle. The needle made for a memorable sight as we walked from the car park to the stadium. I can’t recall if we ever ventured up the tower during my time in Seattle.

One day, Anthony took it upon himself to anoint me as his personal shopper. We hit the stores and spent the day shopping for a whole new wardrobe for me. I eventually came home with a second suitcase filled to the brim. Michael wasn’t impressed; He later commented that his partner sometimes enjoyed spending other people’s money a little too much to his liking.

One afternoon, Anthony took me for a drive into the mountains east of Seattle. We drove an hour or so to Snoqualmie Pass, where winter snow was still deep on the ground. I vividly recall side roads at the ski resorts slicing through surprisingly deep snowbanks. In places, the icy snow walls were three or four metres high. It was more like driving through a tar-sealed canyon of sheer white cliffs. The photo I took of the main highway, above, while less dramatic than the narrow side roads, tells the story.

I also made an impromptu visit to Tacoma Air Force Base, approximately an hour south of Seattle.  I met an armed serviceman from the Deep South at a nightclub.  He invited me back to visit the base. This was years before 9/11, as the security guards on duty at the base's entrance waved us through after a cursory check of my companion's military ID. I wasn't asked for any ID at all. How times have changed!

Towards the end of the week, Michael took me on a road trip to see some of Seattle’s geographic landmarks, including Lake Washington, Lake Union and the Shipping Canal whose locks link the city’s lakes to Puget Sound. The locks also feature a nifty fish ladder that helps spawning salmon make their way upstream. 

At one point, we stopped for coffee at Pike Place Market, the city’s bustling produce and craft market on a hillside overlooking Puget Sound. Although, if truth be told, our itinerary with plenty of outdoor venues was partially an excuse to take Bondi, Michael’s large Malamute dog, for his daily walk.

After an eventful week in Seattle, I packed my bags and flew back to San Francisco for my first-ever visit to the picturesque Bay Area. I share more about this experience in another retrospective post. Garry and I returned to Seattle for my second and last visit in 2012.