We had been pre-warned about the rain in Seattle but were determined not to let the overcast skies & regular drizzling spoil our stay. Fortunately for us, the skies did clear once or twice & the rain was light for our entire stay.
Our TOP SPOTS to visit:
1) EMP Museum (Experimental Music Project), this is located in Seattle Centre, the original site of the1962 World's Fair. Toni had recommended we visit & thank goodness she did or we may have given it a miss altogether. It was absolutely amazing with wonderful displays both static & interactive. The first one we went into was the AVATAR exhibition, WOW, it showed all the technology, imagination & science behind the making of the film including props, concept art etc.
The second visit was to 'Can't
Look Away: the lure of Horror Film' display, another WOW. Wonderful interviews
with stars, directors etc talking about horror expressed on film. Believe it or
not this was really interesting, you know Hitchcock almost released 'Psycho' as
a TV movie until the music was added, then he realised just how scary it
actually was. So if you want to not be frightened cover your ears, not your
eyes!
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| Sculpture made completely of guitars, two storeys high |
Next was the 'Nirvana: Taking
Punk to the Masses' display. This was a massive collection of memorabilia
including rare artifacts & photography, broken guitars, hand written notes
& so much more. We had no idea that grunge music had started here in
Seattle.
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| Fender Stratocaster used during Nirvana's 1992 'Nevermind' Tour |
Then the Jimmy Hendrix
exhibition, again we had no idea he was born here in Seattle. This place has
always had such a thriving underground of musicians. As part of the display
they had the white guitar that he used at Woodstock to play the national
anthem, a pivotal moment in history! They also had, behind glass of course, a
three day ticket to Woodstock!! In mint condition too......unbelievable stuff,
we loved it!
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| Now that was a good value event! |
We spent an interesting half hour in the Guitar Gallery too, looking at all the old instruments that they used to trace the development of the guitar until it became electric & dominated rock & roll music. An original electric Gibson from the 1930's wonderful!
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| 1950 Fender Broadcaster, the 'Model T' of electric guitars |
And just to top the whole day off there was a
huge screen (10m x 20m) in a room called the Sky Church where they played
mostly film clips but I saw the full length version of Michael Jackson's
'Thriller' & Jimmy Hendrix playing 'All along the Watchtower' in the same
orange outfit that was hanging in a glass case in his exhibition.
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| No need to say who owned this outfit! |
2) Pike Place Market, the hustle, the bustle, the vendors shouting out specials, the handmade goods, the fruit, the vegetables, the fresh fish, the clothing, the leathergoods & we must not forget the Gum Wall. Yes, there is a wall covered in used chewing gum...definitely had yuck value. Just across the street from the market is the now historic first shop in the Starbucks chain , the queue went out the door & into the street so getting a coffee there wasn't a priority but we did manage to squash in for a photo opportunity with the original logo on the front window.
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| The entrance to Pike Place Markets |
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| Yes, it is as gross as it looks & it smells like bubblegum |
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| The sign reads 'Starbucks, Coffee, Tea, Spices' & it's brown not green |
3) Bainbridge Island is just a 45 minute ferry ride from the Seattle harbour across Puget Sound so we popped over for a visit. The day was pretty ordinary but the rain did hold off long enough for me to get a few shots of the city as we left the dock.
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| Seattle skyline from the back deck of the ferry |
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| Rock man - holding up the fencing on the marina boardwalk |
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| Some of the cute cottages on Bainbridge Island |
4) Space Needle is a great looking structure but we didn't go up, the weather was too overcast to see anything. It was built for the 1962 World's Fair (that is where Elvis made the movie, It Happened at the World's Fair) along with the monorail which leads to it from the city centre. Locals refer to the monorail as the 'train to nowhere' as it only stops at the ends & only goes to the one place but it carries millions of tourists every year & while the World's Fair was on it transported 8 million people in six months, pretty good going I reckon.
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| Space Needle & us |
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| Looking through the monorail carriage as we take a bend on the elevated track |
5) Last but not least a couple of
interesting stop-overs were the Sculpture Park down near the port & the
Glass Blowing studio which was near our hotel.
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| Upmarket Apples - covered in chocolate, caramel, nuts & all sorts of scrumptious decorations |
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| Great environmentally friendly idea, a solar, self-compacting garbage bin |
