Rosie and The Operator are exploring the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle which is self declared as ‘The Center of The Universe’. This small, quirky, easily walkable and unconventional suburb of Fremont is totally a must visit if you have a couple of hours of spare time up your sleeve whilst in Seattle.
We picked up a Walking Guide to Fremont, to help us out. They are everywhere around the suburb in small holders and are a perfect informational map when wandering the streets, alleys and underpasses for an hour. The map showcases the bizarreness of this suburb as you wander around around shaking your head with a smile on your face as the gravitational pull from The Center of The Universe suckers you in.
The boutique shops in Fremont are excellent and look, Rosie was stoked, a T Shirt (above) with the most famous of Seattle residents named on the front …get it…residents….oh, yes, Rosie is a great fan. If Rosie hadn’t seen a reference in this city she would have been very disappointed!
We parked by the huge eye catching Lenin Statue and started our self guided tour from there. This five meter tall bronze statue of communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin stands in the middle of the suburb and was rescued from a Czech scrap yard where it was ditched after the revolution.
Found by an American in 1993 it was bought and transported back to Seattle where the owner died before he could install it at his own place. The statue has been sitting in Fremont since 1995, in trust, waiting for a buyer. Displayed on a prominent street corner poor old Lenin is often vandalized and decorated accordingly depending on the time of year. The statue however remains, after a lot of controversy, as it sits on a small privately owned piece of land and the public and government have no say in the matter of it being there. PS, the statue is still for sale with a price tag of $250,000 US plus postage and packaging.
Further down the road on a traffic island in the middle of a busy intersection is The Centre of The Universe Signpost. As colorful, tacky and handmade as the community it represents its flimsy pointers point in the general direction of all of the wonders that make Fremont, Fremont.
Contributing to the Cold War relic themes is the Fremont Rocket which was also recently rescued from a scrap yard fate after being taken down from an Army Surplus store where it had sat since the 1950s. The Art Deco style rocket is inscribed with the Fremont coat of arms and motto ‘De Libertas Quirkas’, or ‘Freedom to be Peculiar’.
Hovering above the rocket, on the other side of the street is the huge Ringed Planet of Saturn that sits atop the apartment building of the same name. You are smiling aren’t you….this suburb is a little cray, cray. Set in amongst all of these wonders are the small boutiques, grungy coffee shops and terrace restaurants that adds to the quirkyness of this area.
Strange sculptural artworks adorn the buildings we walk past and at the bus stop across the road is the statue called ‘Waiting for the Interurban’ with its group of eternally waiting commuters.
Two of Seattle’s famed beloved clowns are ‘Late for the Interurban’ and are in a clownical fluster as they rush to try to catch the bus. Look through their ICU2TV square for another perspective and drop a donation to the kids hospital in the donation box next to it.
Next on the list of Fremont wonders is a believe it or not moment…underneath the Aurora bridge, next to Café Turko is a genuine piece of the Berlin Wall. Serious, it is! This nondescript piece of crumbling concrete with its exposed rebar and faint spray paint markings that everyone was walking past and not giving a second glance to was an actual rare piece, albeit minutly small, of the Iron Curtain.
This segment of The Berlin Wall was originally housed in a nearby museum and when it closed, for lack of a better place was gifted to the Café for lack of a better option. Goose Bumps.
Walk up the hill under the arches of the towering Aurora Bridge and there you will find the home of the Fremont Troll.
This giant troll statue hunkers under the bridge in its tunnel like hole and holds a VW Beetle as if he has just swiped it off the roadway above. A small crowd gathered under the bridge and the troll was very patient with the amount of folk that wanted to clamber onto its shoulders and have their photo taken with it. The Operator included. We waved good bye to the troll and strolled back to the car as our tour of the wonders of Fremont concluded. Rosie and The Operator have visited The Center of The Universe, wow, strike that off our bucket list!
The Ballard Locks are our next destination and we drive through miles of highway roadworks along the bay to get there…to find the famed fish ladder that literally everyone comes to see is closed for renovation as is the big lock. Never to despair we head out for a nosy anyway to watch the small lock in action as it quickly and efficiently transferred a couple of medium sized boats from Lake Union out into the Puget Sound.
In and amongst the road works along the side of the bay was an interesting mish mash of commercial boat storage racks, fish restaurants and boat repair yards which seemed totally interesting in their own rights!
From bay side the city of Seattle meandered high up into the wooded hills that overlooked the bays. We were headed to Kerry Park which has one of the best views in the city up on Queen Anne Hill. The steep streets are reminiscent of San Francisco and according to Rosie’s belly, which ended up in her mouth, she is sure The Operator got a bit of air time in our rental as we crested the steep hills on our journey upwards.
It was a slightly overcast picture postcard day alright! The ferries were crossing Elliot Bay, the city skyline with the Space Needle front and center was perfect and yes, there in the distance is the faint outline of Mount Rainier. There was hardly anyone at this photo spot and Rosie and The Operator could just sit on the low concrete wall of this thin strip of park and soak in the skyline.
Behind the park and travelling further up the hill were the exclusive large homes of Seattle’s elite and Rosie and The Operator were out to snoop one particular address. Seeing as we were on this side of town and all. Yes, you know where we were headed Why? We ourselves are not sure why either, but hey, since we are in town and close by and his music shaped our generation….yes, we are embarrassingly admitting to stalking the house of the late Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana.
Yes, the house where he infamously took his own life. It was more of a pilgrimage that many others had made before us, next door to his house with strict no stopping signs for the whole street was a small grassy park with a park bench full of tributes on it. The house itself was hidden from the road behind a high fence so that only the rooftop was showing. The house and grounds were large and it seemed like a lonely place to die all alone….we reflected, didn’t leave a momento, and drove on.
Rosie and The Operator loved Seattle! It is not a flashy city, more like the underdog that flies underneath the radar and does not brag about itself to the rest of the world. It is a very real functioning city that is just carrying on carrying on, mostly with faces down turned to the pavement as the rain falls from the sky. The grey skies seems to reflect in the mood of the locals as Seattle is not the friendliest of US cities but it is…..polite. There is a lot to see, do and discover here and it truly is a fab industrial city. Would we come back to visit? Well, to be honest, Rosie thinks she would pick Portland over Seattle. Sorry Seattle, Rosie and The Operator loved being here…but you were a bit too glass half empty and gloomy for us. Portland was the ray of sunshine in the autumnal Pacific North West but, who knows….we may be back!
Interested in Seattle? Let us show you around the big sights of the city Seattle – The Emerald City
