I've spent the past two days in Seattle and Portland. I arrived late Tuesday night in Seattle. Approaching downtown by taxi, I was struck by the growing size of the city skyline. My hotel, Inn at the Market (which gets a big gold star for service and staff), is situated in the famous Public Market. Its roof deck overlooks the market in the foreground and the water and mountains beyond. Really lovely. In its courtyard is a wonderful shop of mostly bath related items, beautifully curated by its owner/operator.

The next morning, I had breakfast at a place called the Crumpet Shop, with crumpets and the world's best tea (which the shop both promises and delivers) served by two of the nicest people I've ever run across. (The young man provided music analogies for all crumpet orders. One was a Grover Washington. A very traditional order became the Laurence Welk. And so forth.)

After a crumpet, I headed to the Seattle Art Museum sculpture garden. Clearly, SAM is not attempting to impress with the number of pieces on display. Instead, the garden is an ode to design. Its landscaping and architecture provide a muscular setting that sits tight by a railyard and spans a major road, a cut very cleverly handled. It was a perfectly blue sky day, and the red modern sculpture (echoed in the park's red chairs) set against the sky was a glorious sight.

I met up with my colleague Joe Cortright at a small sidewalk restaurant serving breakfast all day.

Amtrak took us from Seattle to Portland where it was still light at 9 p.m.

More on my trips down Mississippi and Alberta, two newly redeveloping neighborhoods in Portland, tomorrow.

But the sum of trip's experiences reminded me how hungry we are for distinctive, authentic places that provide unpredictable human contact. What a pleasure both of the cities can be.

Dave Reid, July 11, 2008

I must say Seattle is one of the most vibrant cities I've ever been too. First floor retail is everywhere, people are out and about, there are hardly any surface lots breaking the urban fabric (except denny? hill) and mass transit is everywhere (trolleybuses and now lightrail). I could go on and on but Seattle is an example of what all cities should hope to achieve.

Link: http://urbanmilwaukee.com

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