Sunny Seattle

Yes, I'm missing the citylife so it's time for Seattle again! Knowing how to get there now and knowing it only takes me about 3 hours (!) it's all worth it, so this time I did leave on time to catch the bus. Usually this would be a lastminute moment, especially at 8:33am, but I got to the busstop on time this time and didn't forget a thing.

It was a beautiful day unlike the weather people predicted - cloudy with some sunshine - the sun shone from the moment I left the door. It was 11:40am by the time I got to Seattle, just in time for lunch with Carol! I walked straight to her building, got some ca$h out of the ATM and waited for about 10 minutes for her to show up at noon. Fooooood time!

The Hammering Man is pretty cool, moving his arm and hammer constantly up and down - must be art!

We decided to go down to the Waterfront, somewhere where I hadn't been before! I thought it was just the water there, a few piers and maybe a couple of restaurants or something. Seems I was completely wrong. We walked down from 3rd Ave down on University St along the Seattle Art Museum, which has a Hammering Man in front of the building. The Seattle Art Museum isn't that much of a spectacular building, but it is quite big as far as I could see on the outside. And the Hammering Man is pretty cool, moving his arm and hammer constantly up and down - must be art!

I thought I had pretty much seen everything around here, but this part of town didn't seem familiar to me! Gotta thank Carol for this one.

Walking down further University St, we walked down the Harbor Steps. Again the pigs tend to show up, one weirder than the other. There are a couple of nice arty objects along these Harbor Steps, you'll find them in the pictures section. Amazing to see 5 pigs here along the steps!

And there we are, the Waterfront. As we crossed the busy street the first building you bump into is the Salmon Cooker restaurant, where they placed a huge boat on top of the roof with fishers in it. Made me laugh for a second, but we weren't (at least I wasn't) up for a fishy lunch, so we took a left and decided to get some lunch at the Red Robin. Unfortunatly there was a bit of a line, but as we were only with 2, we were allowed to look for a place in the bar area. Okido! So as we walked through the bar area a couple had just left, so we had a spot right away, lucky us! With a nice view on the outside terrace, Elliot Bay and the Olympic Mountains in the distance. We both had a nice burger with blue cheese if I'm not mistaken and it surely tasted nice. Time flew by as we chatted and ate our burger and chips. I looked at my watch and it was 1pm already, time for Carol to head off back to work, bugger! (no not another burger)

Gave Carol a quick hug and a off she went. I decided to stay a bit to take a few pictures because I hadn't taken any yet. I walked down the pier where there was a nice and quiet view over the water. Just a few people taking some pictures and a couple of seabirds trying to catch their bread.

From there I walked down the waterfront southwards after some nice looking ladies, but there wasn't that much to see anymore, so I crossed the street on a bridge over the road (as they did too). At the end of the bridge they had drawn some cars in a playful way on the bars over the bridge and they sorta reminded me of the drawings in Radiohead's and especially Mr. Scruff's music videos. They turned right, I turned left.

I hadn't taken pictures yet of the Harbour Steps and the Art Museum, so I walked back there. Gotta have some pictures of course. I walked back down the street and found myself close to the Waterfront again, but also Pike Place Market. And as it was finally sunny I went back to Pike Place Market. As I walked up to the market I at first didn't recognize it at all. I tried to remember and could remember some elements, but not all. Strange how a little sunshine can turn places so much around that you only remember half of what you've seen before!

I had a little stroll around inside, but I REALLY needed to find a toilet soon and wouldn't mind a nice cup of coffee either. Being on Pike Place Market it definatly isn't hard to find a place where they sell coffee, but this one place caught my attention - Seattle's best coffee - and I went straight in. I ordered the strongest coffee they had, just a small one as that would be 3 times the size of a large coffee in Europe anyways and definatly enough for me.

After ordering I got in line for the toilet, and this is the only bad comment I have on this place - they only have 1 toilet to use for customers. So I decided to sit and wait until the 3 persons before me were done, but new ones were coming too so I eventually got in line anyways.

After doing my duty I went to sit outside on the terrace to enjoy my cup of coffee and watch the people walk by. Perfect place if you enjoy this kind of thing on a nice warm and sunny day.

After drinking my coffee I had a walk around the market, just outside and was thinking about buying one of the handmade stonethingies, but decided not to in the end - just way too expensive here at this touristy point. The same group of gospel singers were performing at the same spot again, there at Pike Place so I listened in for a bit. Some hippy walked up to me without a shirt telling me: "This is just what I needed to wake up to" (yes, at 2.15pm). He also told me they perform at some bars and sell their own cd's, but I didn't listen in that much 'cause I'm not buying that anyways. Nice to listen to on the street or in a pub though!

Walked down the street to Victor Steinbrueck Park again, and yes it looked different in sunlight too! Even more people there today and a good athmosphere. The view was nice, just as the view from the waterfront, just a little higher. I could even see Mt. Rainier from here now, right behind the stadiums.. Beautiful sight.

One thing that I wanted to see a little closer was the Space Needle, maybe even go up and see Seattle's skyline. How to get there though? Could take a bus or walk... I came across a busstop and waited for a bit but it took way too long and started walking, shouldn't be that far anways. I don't recall how far it was, but I know it wasn't around the corner. I came across a parking lot with a huge graffiti wall, looked nice with all the colours so I took a picture, although it was hard to get everything in the picture.

Eventually I got to Seattle's Centre, and the first "attraction" I walked up to was the Pacific Science Center. I had a look inside at the counter and a peek around the corner but all I could see was evolution - dinosaurs and stuff - not really the kind of science that I had in mind, so I skipped it and went back outside.

I walked around the building, it looked the shortest way of getting to the other things there on the map. When I finally got around it, the main entrance seemed to be on that side of the building, I realise now how big the Center actually is. They had nice fountains on this side and it looked pretty nice from this side. And yes - there was a dinosaur exhibition going on.

I could finally see the Space Needle from close by, with the elevator going up and down. I sat on the grass for a bit in the shade and started getting a little dizzy. I didn't put any sunscreen on this morning and was turning a little red-ish, was the sun getting to me? So I relaxed, for over half an hour it must've been, had a sandwich and some water while a couple of guys were playing soccer together and later one was practising some sport with a stick. The ladies on the left found it quite interesting seeing the guys work out without a shirt on. Amusing seeing them being amused with the boys heh.

It was time to get a move on, the time was nearing 5pm and I had to catch the bus around 7pm. I still had to see what else was around here. Around the corner was a nice park, bigger than the one where I just was which was quite small. It has a huge fountain, the International Fountain with lots of kids playing around it, getting wet of course.

Walked to the back of it through a passage of what was probably the Seattle Opera House. Around the corner was a big parking lot with behind it a very particular building, made from all metal. Once gotten to an entrance it said the admission on thursdayevenings from 5-8pm was free! It was the Experience Music Project, and the Science Fiction Museum. I didn't have a lot of time, it already being 5:10pm, but I had to have a look inside and I wished I had more time to spend here! The EMP was pretty cool, with loads of guitars from famous players, dating from the very old days up til now. Everyone should check this out, if it's free it's magnificent, I guess I'd even pay a small amount for this (for both).

On the first floor of the Science Fiction Museum they have a big theater with a live performance now and then, learning labs where you can learn how to make music and little booths where you can "record" your own music. All great for kids of course.

On the second floor there are even more things such as the "Yes yes y'all" room - Hiphop from the scratch, a big guitar gallery and a huge 35ft tree made of 600 guitars!

On the third floor is the Hendrix Gallery and a stage where you can perform yourself and get a DVD or poster made for a small fee. Less interesting (for people my age) is the Disney Hall, where I didn't spend too much time, and the Sound Lab with tons of different booths where you can see how it feels to play electric guitar, drums, keyboards and other rock instruments.

Going from that side to the Science Fiction Museum is quite a change, but a nice one. I found it very impressive to see how they had so many of the costumes of all the SF series and movies, the sabers used, aliens and even models of the spaceships used. I found this even more fun than the EMP and I'm glad I went here. Just a shame I wasn't allowed to take my camera in, oh well. If you want to know what is in there I'll give you a hint: Death Star, SF characters, spacesuits, robots, androids, Star Trek, and more... Well worth the visit!

I spent just a little over an hour there, so it was home time! I had a couple of looks on the map and the bus timetable to figure out where the bus runs. I walked down where I was supposed to be and still had a bit of time before the bus came so I walked into the shop across the street and bought something to drink.

I caught the bus back to Lakewood and had to wait for about 40mins there and it was getting a bit chilly. But I had a beautiful view on Mt. Rainier as it turned red with the sun setting while I was waiting for the bus. The bus was nicely on time as usual and went back home!!