I would like to think that I make a difference when I present Seattle to people from all over the world as a driver/guide.  My tours are three (three and a half when the “fish are running.”

First of all I relate the complex ethnic demographics of Seattle; it’s roughly 600,000 people in the core city with about 3.8 million in greater Seattle.  I show off the Pike Place Market again emphasizing its diversity (new Russians selling food; Cambodians and Laoatians growing and selling the flowers) and the history going back to 1907.  The history digs right into the beginnings of Seattle’s Sephardic Jewish population, 2nd largest in the country, starting from the Ottoman Empire, landing in Seattle’s Pike Place Market and endowing our quite new symphany Hall, the Benaroya.  What do the passengers notice?  The Hills!  Nobody in the country or elsewhere seems to be aware that Seattle has enormous hills . . . “oh,” they say, “it looks just like San Francisco.”  “Yes,” I reply.  “It does.”

Next I present Pioneer Square, the oldest section of downtown Seattle going back to the 1880’s (imagine saying this to a group of Egyptians which I once did as a “step-on” for the Boeing Company) and talk about Seattle’s very active Gold Rush past and its mammoth plumbing problems . . . allowing Puget Sound’s tide to carry the stuff 30 miles to Tacoma before it roiled back again in the afternoon under pressure.  So, when Seattle’s great fire occurred, the city rebuilt itself above the old city.  Voila, plumbing corrected.  Then there are the Gold Rush Belles, the ladies of the night who were taxed voluptuously once they were re-named “Seamstresses.”

I show off our new stadiums (really very attractive although the voters of the county never did approve the bonds).  And Seattle’s Chinatown which can’t be called “Chinatown” because, “We are way too politically correct” and in any case was and is multi diverse with a long African American jazz scene(Jimmy Hendrix who was playing “electric blues” was trained by Quincy Jones and Ray Charles who, got his start right here, Filipinos, Japanese, Vietnamese . . . and home to Bruce Lee (he’s buried in Seattle . . . did you know that?) and his son, Brandon, home to Gary Locke, Cantonese speaking Chinese former Governor of the State of Washington and now Secretary of the Department of Commerce.

Then Big Buildings such as Seattle’s “Darth Vader Building,” formerly the Columbia Bank Tower and presently providing the best view in the city through the windows in the Women’s Rest Room on the 76th floor.

Next is Skid Road which provided the model for all “Skid Rows” in the country, Seattle’s homeless population and a tiny bust of the Native guy for whom Seattle is named.

In this account, I will skip over the waterfront, Elliott Bay, Puget Sound, Bell Town, the two year old Settle Art Museum’s Scuilputre Garden, the condo home of “Fraser,” the Space Needle, EMP Experience Music Project” (IMP) dedicated to the memory of Jimmy Hendrix, the grand new and largely uncompleted Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,Building, the Opera House prsently featuring Wagner’s Ring Cycle and shortly to be presenting three Verdi operas and the top of Queen Anne Hill from which, on one of Seattle’s 80 clear days a year, “the Mountain” (14,411 ft Mount Rainier) can be seen.

Moving onto the Ballard Locks where from June 25 to October 15, one can see some of the few wild salmon migrating through on their breeding cycle . . . the contribution that athe forests make to cool their streams and that they make toward providing nutrients toward the survival of the forests upon their deaths after breeding.

Moving right along toward the authentic sculpure of Lenin located in our Fremont neighborhood and the very amusing sculpture of the “Troll” — Seattle’s honoring of our very large Scandinavian population (of which I am one), and the often highly decorated sculpture, “Waiting for the Interurban” featuring Armin Stepanian, the honorary Mayor os Eattle in the 1960’s.   And the end, is the floating home (ala Saucilita) featured in the moving, “Sleepless in Seattle.”

Right now Seattle also provides moorage for the 5 crabbers (fishing vessels) featured in “The Deadliest Catch.”  I love to talk about the captains and the crews of these vessels because these largely Swedish/Norwegian sea-goers have suddenly become international “Stud-Muffins” which they find wholly embarrassing. “When,” I ask, “have you ever heard of a Scandinavian man, either in the US or Sweden/Norway/Finland/Denmark, receiving this sort of attention?  Maybe, “I say,”Clark Gable’s real name was Hjalmer Halvorson and he ate lutefisk for breakfast, but somehow I don’t think so!

My job is a pleasure . . . I use it as an opportunity to point out the very distinct culture of Seattle, “Don’t walk across the street against a red light . . . forty people will watch you do it, no one will say a word but they will all know that you are not from here; “Seattleites get their clothes from Goodwill where we can get them for $12/lb or Salvation Army;” . . . Seattle has the highest per capita readership of library books, the highest book sales, the highest attendance at movies . . . and as of two years ago we were declared to be the smartest people in the country by Forbes Magazine . . . which we always knew but others always had athe temerity to say was because of our abominable weather.”

My job is slated to end this October 15.  My little company, “Show-Me Seattle” has been knocked around by athe economy so hard that it will be run onlly by athe couple that owns it.  I have no idea what I will do or where I will go next!

I thank ITMI every day of my life for the gift that I’ve been given . . .to entertain, to enlighten, to learn and to amuse.

Nikki