[JHoward88]

Leaving my Culdesac at 7:19 AM...

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00355.jpg

The street in front of my house...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00356.jpg

The nearest intersection...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00357.jpg

Canyon Road...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00359.jpg

My local Starbucks...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00360.jpg

Getting on State Route 512 at 7:35 AM...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00361.jpg

Passing the Tacoma Mall at 7:45 AM...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00364.jpg

Interstate 5...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00365.jpg

State Route 16 Interchange...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00366.jpg

The Tacoma Dome, 7:51 AM...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00367.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00369.jpg

Continuing North...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00371.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00372.jpg

Link rail at Tukwila...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00375.jpg


http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00376.jpg

Boeing Field...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00378.jpg

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00379.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00382.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00383.jpg

Downtown is visible through the fog at 8:20 AM...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00384.jpg

Interchange to West Seattle...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00386.jpg

Tully's HQ...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00387.jpg

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00388.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00389.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00390.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00391.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00392.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00393.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00394.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00395.jpg

Seneca Street...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00396.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00397.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00398.jpg

Westlake...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00399.jpg

Parked at the garage, 8:47 AM...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00400.jpg

Entering US Bank Centre...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00402.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00403.jpg

...and going to Starbucks! It's 9 AM in Seattle.
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00404.jpg

While I enjoyed my Starbucks, I walked the waterfront and wandered through Pikes Place:
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00405.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00406.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00407.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00408.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00410.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00411.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00413.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00415.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00416.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00417.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00421.jpg

...On the road again:
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh38/JoshuaH688/DSC00423.jpg

[Metro-One]

That was a fun drive! Thanks ;)

[OhioGuy]

So it was basically a 90 minute commute from your area of Tacoma to downtown Seattle. If it had been me, I'd have gone to Tully's rather than Starbucks. I liked that place when I was in town for a visit last spring. Thanks for posting! :tup:

[ColDayMan]

Love tours like these. Personal road trips.

[Onn]

Couldn't be better done! I love how you took pictures on the way to the city, so many people never do that. In my opnion, that is where some of the most intresting sights are! :)

[jonjj]

God I'm glad I don't have to drive to work. That looked like an absolutely miserable experience.

[sopas ej]

A 90-minute commute to work? Yuck. My job is only about 8 miles from where I live.

Funny, because some days ago I thought of taking pictures of what my drive to work looks like. But I don't think it'd be an interesting photo collection.

Great pics, btw.


God I'm glad I don't have to drive to work. That looked like an absolutely miserable experience.

Do you work from home? I think ANY commute to work is a miserable experience, being that you're on your way to work.

[Xing]

I grew up pretty poor, so we would often drive for travel, rather than fly. As a result I grew up driving through large cities, and often I looked out the window as soon as I knew were close to one, and would watch the whole drive through. Seeing that slow transition from rural, to suburban, to urban, and back again, was more entertaining than television for me, and since then, I love seeing it. Being that I never drove through Seattle, this was much appreciated . Thank you :)

[Evo5Boise]

Seeing that slow transition from rural, to suburban, to urban, and back again, was more entertaining than television for me, and since then, I love seeing it.

x2!! I have a bucket list plan of driving across country just to see more of these experiences. :cheers:

[gothamite]

Is that the Starbucks where Howard Schultz hangs out?? And having never been to Seattle, why do I always image that the Starbucks coffee tastes more fresh and robust there than in other cities? :yuck: Also, what's the building with the Aaron Copland quote? A performing arts center, I'm guessing?

[touraccuracy]

this sunday Sunday SUNDAY only at the TACOMA DOME

i grew up with too many of those ads.

[seaskyfan]

Is that the Starbucks where Howard Schultz hangs out?? And having never been to Seattle, why do I always image that the Starbucks coffee tastes more fresh and robust there than in other cities? :yuck: Also, what's the building with the Aaron Copland quote? A performing arts center, I'm guessing?

That's Benaroya Hall where the Seattle Symphony plays.

The Starbucks coffee tastes pretty much the same but I think the service is better the closer you get to the Starbucks mother ship.

Great tour JHoward!

[seaskyfan]

this sunday Sunday SUNDAY only at the TACOMA DOME

i grew up with too many of those ads.

I always think "Monster Trucks" when I think Tacoma Dome.

[stepper77]

It is definitely interesting seeing the approach to a city from the car. Although I do prefer exploring cities on foot, when you are driving and first see those tall buildings sticking out in the landscape still gets me excited like a little kid. Thanks!

[llamaorama]

Although I do prefer exploring cities on foot, when you are driving and first see those tall buildings sticking out in the landscape still gets me excited like a little kid. Thanks!


Same here. Some cities are more awesome looking than others from the freeway. Houston, Dallas, Atlanta are pretty incredible driving into, so is Cincinnatti and Pittsburgh I have heard. The first three have freeways running right up next to to their tallest 900 ft. skyscrapers, while in Cincy and Pittsburgh the city is in a valley next to a river and the road crests a hill and boom the skyline is right there.

DC is probably the opposite, no tall building and it seems to be the rule in Virginia and Maryland(and most of the east) that freeways and interstates are lined with trees. The only indication you have passed from a rural/exurban area into the city is that all of a sudden there is a metro line in the middle of the freeway and behind the trees you see glass midrise office buildings.

There are cool urban freeway videos on Youtube. Here is my favorite guy who makes them:

http://www.youtube.com/user/freewayjim?ob=4&feature=results_main

[novaCJ]

Looks wet:sly:...long commute. It makes mine look easy.

Yes, the entrance into Pittsburgh is quite amazing- You are driving through a woodsy, hilly suburban area, go through a long tunnel through a mountain, and emerge crossing a bridge over a river into a dense, tall downtown. From the north, it emerges around a bend in the highway, and from the east you can see it slowly emerging as the highway weaves through the hills and along the riverbank.

The only urban-looking entrance to DC is from I-66 gong through central Arlington, but Arlington Memorial Bridge is nice IMO, if more garden-like.

[JHoward88]

For a short time in 2009 - just a few months - I worked downtown Seattle and commuted there daily from where I presently live. I relished my tradition of 3 Starbucks per day - one upon arrival, one at lunch, and one before going home. Really, I think after the daily $30 garage fee, $20 for gas, and another $20 at Starbucks, there wasn't much of my paycheck left. :haha:

In any case, the pictures you see here were not taken during my workday commute. This was actually just me on my day off doing what I think is fun, which in this particular case entailed driving 90 minutes for my morning cup of coffee. :rolleyes:


I grew up pretty poor, so we would often drive for travel, rather than fly. As a result I grew up driving through large cities, and often I looked out the window as soon as I knew were close to one, and would watch the whole drive through. Seeing that slow transition from rural, to suburban, to urban, and back again, was more entertaining than television for me, and since then, I love seeing it. Being that I never drove through Seattle, this was much appreciated . Thank you :)

^ For me, the love of Seattle (and big cities in general) started with car rides through downtown on the interstate. I'd crane my head over, getting as close to the glass as possible and looking up at Columbia Center, wishing we would stop. We never did, but I'll never forget the first time I went downtown on my own, stepped off of a bus, and looked up at the buildings while standing on the sidewalk next to them. My life was never the same.

Is that the Starbucks where Howard Schultz hangs out?? And having never been to Seattle, why do I always image that the Starbucks coffee tastes more fresh and robust there than in other cities? :yuck: Also, what's the building with the Aaron Copland quote? A performing arts center, I'm guessing?

^ I once encountered Howard Schultz while visiting the Starbucks at the base of Columbia Center. There are dozens of Starbucks around downtown. I like going to the ones closer to the business district as their clientele is a bit more refined, as opposed to the mobs of tourists and shoppers.

That's Benaroya Hall where the Seattle Symphony plays.

The Starbucks coffee tastes pretty much the same but I think the service is better the closer you get to the Starbucks mother ship.

Great tour JHoward!

Classical music and Seattle seem like they go perfectly together, and Benaroya Hall is where those two things intersect. It is definitely high on my list of favorite Seattle venues. As a matter of fact, I've got a number of tickets in my file cabinet right now for their May performance of Mozart's Requiem. :cheers:

As for Starbucks, the service I get 70 miles south of Seattle near where I work is no less outstanding than that which I get at their first store. Just one example of that Starbucks culture is when I walked into my Starbucks (which is in a rural town), stepped into the restroom first, and then found my usual drink prepared and waiting for me at the counter when I came out.

It is definitely interesting seeing the approach to a city from the car. Although I do prefer exploring cities on foot, when you are driving and first see those tall buildings sticking out in the landscape still gets me excited like a little kid. Thanks!

I work about 35 minutes in the direction opposite of Seattle (toward Olympia) in the little town of Yelm. It's part bedroom community and part farming community; but suffice to say that it leaves little for the scope of my imagination... which is why, usually at least once a week, I like to leave it all behind and go to Seattle in search of a fresh perspective.

[Pinion]

Nice pics. My commute a little farther north is one of the main reasons why I chose to live where I live. Never get tired of this (city skyline shot at the end):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AtW_nCRBxgc

The urban view going the other way is maybe more impressive.