Day 12 - Ride to the Spheres

Today I did an alternate solo route. The rest of the group took the scheduled route from Snohomish to the hotel, 

Chris, my nephew who works for Amazon on the east coast, was in town on a business trip and invited me to give me a tour of the Amazon Spheres in downtown Seattle.

The trip allowed me to enjoy some of Seattle's biking infrastructure that crisscrosses the city and exposes you to it's many smaller communities. A real pleasure that many cities can learn from.  

Some of the paths were tree lined

I also came along a street that was reserved for pedestrians and cyclist that only local traffic was allowed. I've seen this type of street in other cites that allowed commuting cycle "highways" between points without building new roads exclusively for bicycles and pedestrians. 

Upon arriving, I met Chris outside the Spheres, the Spheres are only open the the public on scheduled days. Being an employee, he was able to badge me in and show me around.

You step inside the big glass domes and its filled with plants of all descriptions. Walking through the multi-story structure is similar to being in a huge terrarium. The temperature is warm and humid. But I don't know of any terrarium that has a coffee bar in it. We had time to chat while sipping coffee and taking in the view. The structure is set of multi-story platforms that allow you to wander freely amount the plants and water features.

I had a schedule to keep as I had 18 more miles to the hotel and Chris needed to return to his meetings. So off I peddled and he return to work. As I left, I took a couple for photos of the exterior. If you take a look in at the photos, you will note that the it's not a single glass bubble, but multiple bubbles, almost like if they were blown by a child with a bubble wand. From the view angle, I could imagine that the bubbles were in the shape of a water molecule or maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me.

Today's route, captured below is broken into two parts. Snohomish to the Spheres and the Spheres to the hotel. Most of the day was very pleasant, sunny and in the upper 60's and as I got closer to the end lower to mid 70's 

Today's Photos

Brian