Yep, I was at the first day of Link Light Rail service.

Then I came back for day two.

I took a lot of images. I’m still sorting out my favorites.

So look for more in the next day or two.

It was a glorious two-day celebration of, well, of what?

Of yet another shiny New Seattle monument to world-class-osity? Not really.

To our modest li’l seaport village finally deserving to be called a Big League City? Nope.

To a cool new way to travel from downtown (almost) to the airport? Uh-uh.

Seattle’s first urban transit solution to run longer than 1.3 miles? Not even that.

No, this weekend marked the true beginning of Seattle’s Century 21. Through what is essentially pre-car technology, we’ve launched the first practical step toward a post-car era.

And it’s swift, bright, clean, and fun too!

Crowds, thankfully, were not as totally overbearing as organizers had hoped/warned. (After all, the trains will keep running after this weekend, just not for free and not with clowns and buskers performing at the stations.)

Link gets down to business on Monday. Don’t look for clues to its eventual level of success in its initial paid ridership. What will count will be long-term ridership trends. That, and also the “transit oriented development” projects penciled in on what are now vacant lots adjoining the stations. And those won’t likely get underway until people are building homes and commercial buildings again.