Fairs and waterfalls

We've now been in Seattle for close to a fortnight now, and have settled into our temporary digs reasonably well (not-quite-functioning rice cooker notwithstanding!). On Friday, one of my new colleagues mentioned the Fremont Fair and Solstice Parade which was on over the weekend; another new colleague mentioned Snoqualmie, and the related waterfalls. And that was that - there was our weekend planned!

So, the Fremont Fair and Solstice Parade - Fremont is a little like Newtown, with its alternative, grungy vibe, and its embrace of the artsy, alternative types. It's also like Newtown in that the streets are impossibly narrow, especially with the monster trucks that Americans seem to favour here, and parking near where you want to be is as rare as hens teeth. Given that it felt like half of Seattle was descending into Fremont for the fair, this made the parking challenge that much harder (and have I mentioned that I'm almost, but not quite adjusted to the other side of the road? :p)

Once parking had been located, we walked for a mile to the parade, and parked ourselves along the route, for one of the main events of the fair - the Solstice Parade. A celebration of the longest day in the (Northern) year, the parade is held in Fremont on the third Saturday of every June. There's quite a unique kick-off to the parade - a gang of cyclists, where clothing is strictly optional... something we didn't realise until the parade kicked off! Needless to say, photos of this part of the parade weren't exactly what we had bargained for ;-)

After the parade of cyclists came the various floats, celebrating everything from the Magic School Bus, gay marriage, and everything in between (including lawn chairs and belly dancers!) All in all, it was a great parade to watch; everyone involved, from the spectators to the participants were having an absolute blast, with spectators regularly taking impromptu part in the parade. 

Members of the anti-smoking campaign

Err... smile?

After the conclusion of the parade, we learnt another rule of travelling - if you buy food from a van, you're more often than not going to be less than impressed by the result. After a couple of gyros, which are poor approximations of the kebabs we know and love in Sydney, we explored the fair for a couple of hours, which showcased local foods, arts and handicrafts, and more than your fair share of gigantic dogs. We also learnt another rule of travelling - pizza in Seattle is surprisingly awesome. Happy times.

Sunday took us out to Snoqualmie, a very quick drive out of Bellevue. Snoqualmie is a sleepy town, famous for its railway museum, as well the Snoqualmie Falls, which is taller than Niagara Falls, but, importantly, significantly narrower than the fabled water feature. Heading out to Snoqualmie reinforced the fact that Washington's natural beauty is incredibly accessible; 25 minutes later and we were already there, in our rickety hire care. It's a sleepy little town, with its own brewery, hardware store and curiosity shoppe, as well as a small railway museum, and a tourist train that heads up to North Bend, then returns to the station before heading up to Snoqualmie Falls. A nice, lazy way to spend the weekend, after an arduous first week at work ;)

  

Snoqualmie Falls