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Journeys
''; Try not to duck out of unique tour of Seattle Clapping, singing and quacking are part of the fun Brian Clark, For The Olympian SEATTLE -- You don't have to be in a (q)wacky mood to take an amphibious "Ride the Ducks" tour of the Emerald City. But it sure helps.
In fact, if being a little bit silly in public isn't your thing, this tour of Seattle in a spiffed-up, 50-year-old military landing craft may not be for you.
However, if you don't mind singing and clapping along with tunes such as "Disco Duck" and "Rubber Ducky" as you roll by the Nordstrom store at Westlake Center -- and you have a high tolerance for cornball jokes -- then pay attention.
(You also can quack along with the music, because every tour participant gets a "Wacky Quacker" duckbill noisemaker with admission. I took mine to a Mariners game after the tour and annoyed people with it there, too.)
These 90-minute land-and-water tours of Seattle leave from the base of the Space Needle, Fifth Avenue and Broad Street, daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Center of attention
And, oh yes, be prepared to get a few stares and odd looks from passersby. But what the heck -- just use your quacker and make loud noises at them.
Fact is, most of the pedestrians we encountered seemed amused by our bright-white, 34-foot-long, 38-passenger, 17,100-pound amphibious vehicle. Apparently, it was hard for them not to "quack" a smile at our boatload full of, well, goofball tourists. (We definitely weren't stuffed shirts.)
After our good ol' boy driver/sea captain Michael Blackburn gave us the lowdown on the Space Needle, the Monorail, Pioneer Square, the Kingdome and the newly built Safeco Field, we headed north for Lake Union.
At the helm
Blackburn, aka Capt. Hoo! Wah, spent much of his career working off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas. He has a Coast Guard license for piloting vessels that weigh as much as 500 tons.
Still, I was a little worried when Hoo! Wah put on a mask and snorkel just before we splashed into the lake and started to sink.
But the vehicle (now it was a boat) quickly found its equilibrium and we putted away from the concrete ramp at the blazing speed of three knots (5 miles per hour).
The snorkeling gear was just part of the captain's schtick. I had the feeling that, in addition to being a boat pilot, Hoo! Wah yearned to be a stand-up comedian on his free nights.
We needn't have worried that our duck -- which had a storied military history -- would be seaworthy. More than 21,000 of them were built by women working for General Motors between 1943 and 1945 in Pontiac, Mich.
During World War II, the ducks were used in Europe -- including on the beaches of Normandy -- and throughout the Pacific. They transported thousands of troops and tons of supplies from ship to shore.
After the war, the ducks in Europe were given to NATO, which used them for training until the 1970s. Many are now employed around the globe in areas with poor port facilities, while others are used for civilian rescue operations. An estimated 1,000 exist in North America today.
Once in the water, we putted past fishing boats large and small, classy houseboats, multimillion-dollar motor yachts, a few sea kayakers and one forlorn woman in a rowing shell who couldn't quite figure out what the oars were for.
Back on dry land, we toured Seattle's Fremont neighborhood and saw the big Lenin statue and the even larger statue of the Volkswagen-eating troll under the Aurora Avenue bridge.
Half a dozen duck jokes, two renditions of "Disco Duck" and one final attempt at "Rubber Ducky" found us back at the Space Needle.
I can still hear the quacking in my head.
AT A GLANCE
•When: Ride the Ducks Tours depart on the hour, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., through Sept. 30. From Oct. 1 to April 30, tours leave on the hour from noon to 5 p.m. Tours are offered seven days a week.
•Where: Tours leave from the base of the Space Needle in Seattle Center, at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Broad Street.
•Cost: $20 for adults, $15 for children younger than 12.
•Directions: Drive north on Interstate 5, take the Mercer Street exit and follow the signs to Seattle Center.
•For information: Call (206) 441-DUCK (3825) or look up the Web site at www.RidetheDucksofSeattle.com on the Internet. The Olympian Copyright 1999
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