where we went, Seattle… (part 1)

This is the list I made of places to take our friends around Seattle… in 4 days!

There are a few things on there we didn’t get to, or decided to skip, or saw from a distance but didn’t have a chance to explore completely…

The places circled in silver are ones that might need to go on the “next time” list.

I will admit that we added places to the list after we visited them just so we could cross them off. Yeah, I’m that kind of list maker.

This is Day 1, Seattle.

Our guests took their first Bremerton-Seattle ferry ride on a perfectly beautiful day. We spent a lot of the ride outside watching the scenery go by. Manchester in Washington looks nothing like Manchester in England! From the ferry terminal we walked up 1st Avenue and along Pike up to Westlake (another place name we know from another country). They have some neat new art in the park – people to stand and sit under the blue trees.

We spent most the day at Seattle Center. I almost took us there by bus – thank goodness I realized my mistake in time. The monorail, 50 years old this year, is a smooth easy ride above the traffic, only 90 seconds long, and far more fun than the bus. It travels through the Experience Music Project building (next time we’ll go inside, but we got a look at the amazing architecture outside) and arrived outside Seattle Center near the base of the Space Needle.

2012 is the 50th anniversary of the Seattle World’s Fair, Century 21. We didn’t go up (next time?) but we admired the original Galaxy Gold color of the spaceship part of the needle, painted from it’s usual white for the occasion. The Space Needle features in enough of our pictures that I feel like we experienced it just about as much as we needed to.

Our main goal was to get to the King Tut exhibition at the Pacific Science Center. The treasures are headed back to Egypt next year, perhaps never to return to the US again. It seemed like a great opportunity for our guests, but the crowds were a bit overwhelming and everyone was trying to take pictures of everything. I don’t want to say it was disappointing, but it wasn’t quite as amazing as I had expected it to be. Or perhaps I just didn’t give myself a chance to reflect on it properly.

By the way, the mummy pictured above is only a replica of King Tut, and is at the exit after the gift shop. I wasn’t sure why they didn’t have it in the main hall of the exhibit.

Less crowded and much more enjoyable was Chihuly Garden and Glass, a new feature at Seattle Center. Dale Chihuly’s glass creations are exquisitely lit and extremely photogenic. These pieces that have been displayed all over the world but are now back home for us to enjoy.

I have a lot more pictures than this – the glass just glowed and reflected so beautifully… I think I might have to create another post just with pictures of the glass…

The Collections Cafe next door is full of Dale Chihuly’s personal collections, one in every table (we had vintage toys), plus more on the walls and in the bathrooms. The food was excellent too. We ordered appetizers – grilled octopus with potatoes, razor clams, cheese curds, ahi tuna sliders, polenta with an egg, a salad and some pickled veggies… yum!

We walked back to the ferry terminal through the Olympic Sculpture Park and along the waterfront…

…with a stop at Ye Olde Curiosity Shop (a place hubby loved as a 12 year old boy) before we hopped on the ferry back home and met some friends at the farmer’s market.

(more Seattle wanderings coming soon…)

Jo:)

(btw most pictures here were taken by me with my iPhone, but the glass with Space Needle shot and the man and boy fountain picture were taken by my friend B – she framed these better than my versions and managed not to put her finger over the corner of the lens!)

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