Day 19: Seattle Center - July 3

And we're back!  After one day of relatively light eating, I went out to get some Top Pot Doughnuts, Seattle’s vintage, gourmet spin on the traditional doughnut to help get the family moving pretty early this morning.  They were yummy – fan favorite in our group was the blueberry fritter as a nice alternative to Jim’s traditional apple fritter.

Jim needed to work for a few hours in the morning, so we all drove down to Seattle Center while the rest of us headed to the Space Needle, Jim found a local coffee shop to work in... (I think it was called “Starbucks”? ... something like that).  We had another gloriously clear Seattle day and so the views from the top of the Space Needle were well worth the fear of really high places.  They have done a really nice job with the interactive elements in their displays on the observation deck to get you well oriented. 

From there, the girls and I walked over to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Visitor Center for a nice reminder of just how lucky we are in this world.  It was fascinating and inspiring to see what this family has chosen to do with their immense wealth and to learn about how they set their priorities and strive to make changes in very specific ways in the world.  Lately I’ve thought it would be really cool to work for them, and Julia left feeling that she'd like that too…probably much more likely turn of events in her life, but it would be a great one! 


By then Jim was done working and we lunched together in the Seattle Center food court.  Then we all went to the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum.  Wow!  Northwest artist Dale Chihuly says “I want people to be overwhelmed with light and color in a way they have never experienced.”  Mission accomplished.   His glass pieces and sculptures are a must-see.  Each individual piece is a work of art and to be surrounded by his colorful creations (even from above) is intense and to experience the scale is super impressive.

From there we walked over to the EMP museum, a stop we had been looking forward to since a couple at Crater Lake told us about the possibilities of playing and recording music there.  (Thank you Dave and Christine for sharing guest passes!)  First stop the Sound Lab upstairs where the girls and Jim went into a soundproof to play around as loudly as they wanted.  I stayed outside.   Then whole family had a chance to go “On Stage” to perform and record in front of a virtual audience.  We called ourselves Drunk Poet (a name the girls came up with one day when Rachel played guitar and Julia improvised lyrics in a slurred voice).  The family took their typical Rock Band formation – Julia keyboard, Rachel guitar, Jim drums, and because there was nowhere else for me to go once I walked onto the stage, I grabbed a tambourine – and it brought out a whole new side of me!  We performed Twist and Shout – I don’t think I totally understood that our performance was being televised into the museum, but I had a great time with that tambourine and somehow managed to keep a beat through 

an entire song!

We explored special exhibits of Star Wars costumes, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, and the Infinite Worlds of Science Fiction.  We barely touched the Guitar Gallery when we really had to leave to get to our dinner reservations at Terra Plata (thanks for the recommendation Tony!) where we had a delicious meal on  a cool rooftop deck (where they keep their gardens of food).   From there we followed another Tony recommendation to try Seattle’s Old School Frozen Custard on Capitol Hill.  It was really smooth and creamy and delicious and a fun reason to get to see a different neighborhood.

 After full days of exploring it was nice to get back to the apartment early enough to do some laundry and watch the old movies “Goonies”, apparently a must-watch for anyone heading to Astoria – where we’ll be next Tuesday.  Hopefully you don’t have to watch the whole thing to enjoy a visit to the town because I could barely make it through 20 minutes…