A not so picturesque view of downtown Seattle

A not so picturesque view of downtown Seattle, originally uploaded by Adventures of Pam & Frank.

From left to right: Safeco field, the Space Needle, a bunch of skyscrapers, a crane... We were tooling down the highway at over 60 mph and this is the best shot we could get.

The view to the left is a huge flat industrial area that appears to be used as an international shipping port. Like in Tacoma, there were rows and rows of metal arms that probably are used to transfer shipping containers from ships to waiting rail cars.

Even without opening the window, we could detect the faint odor of diesel and fish oil from the port. And coffee. There was a large coffee roasting factory at the side of the freeway and the oily skunky roasty coffee smell broke the essence of fish oil. The whole town didn't have that smell, just this industrial area south of downtown.

I'm not saying any of these smells are bad. In fact, they had a sort of international oceanic blue collar perfume that locals probably think of as "home." I could live with it.

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