Final Chapter

Yes, I realize it has been two weeks since we returned from Seattle but I still have pictures that I haven't shared with you and I have stories to tell. Yeah, Yeah, I know they aren't really good stories, but they are enough to keep me entertained and that is enough for me.

After we woke up from a great nights rest at the Quality Inn and Suites Seattle Center we headed out to find a place to park near the Pikes Place Market. Did I already mention how expensive it is to park in Seattle? I wonder if they secretly wish we'd all stay home? Anyway, we found a place, gave them $10.00 for a couple of hours, and walked towards the market.

Debbie's favorite was all of the cut flower bouquets. Take a look at this kaleidescope of color. (Here's where I remind you to click on the picture for more vivid detail. Well, at least it gets bigger!)

I kind of think when people think about Pikes Place Market, they are thinking about fish. No wonder! Look at these shots!

I, however, am kicking myself now for not purchasing some of the beautiful produce that we saw.

I thought it would have been great to bring some of these wonderful vegetables home and make a fantastic dish with them and post a blog about it. I'm so sorry that I didn't do it be cause in my heart I know "I coulda been a contenda". Oh well, maybe next time.

Here is another sight one sees quite often while at Pikes.

Well good for them. At least they aren't standing down in the unemployment line looking for handouts for nothing.

After leaving Seattle, we pointed ourselves toward Tacoma. We found a place for lunch and after having replentished our energy banks turned the wheel for home and in short order, we were pulling into the driveway.

I know it wasn't as spectacular as it might have been but it was memorable and that is really all we needed. Maybe in another 25 years we'll do some thing really wild!

Seattle Chapter Two

Are you ready for part 2 of our anniversary adventure? I'll try to be a bit more brief but once my fingers get to tapping, it is hard to stop till the whole story is told.

We left the museum and punched the motel address into Zoe,(that's the name Debbie gave her GPS), and it turned out to be only a couple of blocks away. Too bad we didn't go there first since parking in Seattle is really expensive and parking at the motel was included in the price. Once we got up in the room and looked out the window this is the view that greeted us.

We had toyed with the idea of trying to make a reservation for dinner at the space needle but had not actually made the call. I used Debbie's netbook to aquire the phone number and found that there were a couple of time slots open. We reserved an 8:30pm opening as we weren't completely comfortable going to a special dinner dressed like we were. The restaurant accepts casual attire but we didn't want to be the most casual patrons of the evening. It turned out to be an ideal time slot because we got to view the city in daylight

and also at night.

Dinner was beautiful and tasty and our server was informative and helpful. Here are a few images of some our our choices.

Debbie was done after this pile of food but Jonathan saw how they served ice cream and was eager to sample some.

After dinner, we went out onto the observation deck to look around. You know it's funny. I was ok all evening until going out there and suddenly I got all creeped out about being 600 feet up in the air. It must be old age. We only spent a couple of minutes out there and then we were ready to get back down to sea level. I resisted the urge to kiss the ground but don't think the thought didn't occur to me.

Oh man! In the words of contemperary philospher, Brittany Spears, "Oops I Did It Again!" Well, I'll close this post for now and resume again with the final chapter of this special adventure.

I Said I Would, And I Have

I have said it before and perhaps, by the grace of God, I'll say it again one day, that we are like geese and we mate for life. For those of you who don't know, this is the 25th anniversary of our wedding. That's right, we've made 25 complete orbits around the sun together and have continued to share common goals and have remained as attracted to each other as a couple of oppositely charged atoms. Of course, at this point my metaphore must end as it would be illadvised to describe one member of this union as positive and the other negative. Thank you for understanding.

Anyway, I know that some of you were privileged to see a short post on Facebook yesterday. For those of you who didn't, we took the opportunity of this occasion, to take a short trip up to Seattle. Though to some it might be considered unusual, we chose to invite our seventeen year old, Jonathan, along for company.

It has been a number of years since we've been to Seattle because my impression the last time I was up there was "Why in the world does this place need three more people?" Well, nothing about Seattle has changed that I could tell. It still doesn't need three more people. We were elbow to elbow with folks everywhere we went. Perhaps I have gotten a bit more tolerant of crowds through the years as I didn't feel as nervous as I remember feeling last time we were there which had to be 13 or 14 years ago.

Let me share some of our adventures from this latest trip. Our first stop in Seattle was EMP/SFM. That is the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum.

Firstly, the building itself looks like some kind of modern art exhibit. In the words of Commander Spock the architecture was "facinating".

The museum itself is equally as interesting. Though I don't know to what degree exactly, let's say it has been significantly sponsored by Trailblazer owner and Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen. Let me share some of the highlights of the tour through the museum. I hope you can forgive the photography as it is dimly lit inside and our cameras are not low lux models.

Some of the exhibits are reproductions but many are actual models and costumes worn in Hollywood productions. Additionally, there are communicators and weapons and spaceships and robots.

Now we originally came to this museum to see the sci-fi stuff but the music side of the museum is probably equally worthy of one's attention. It just happens that our family unit has a very shallow interest in the history and developement of American music so though we wandered through, we neglected to take very many pictures. However, let me show you a few of the attactions one will encounter in that side of the museum.

This piece of artwork was too large to get an adequate image. It is made of over 700 musical instruments.

These are costumes in a collection that will be displayed for the next few months that were worn by the Supremes on stage. There are a lot of video exhibits with interviews of performing artists. Interestly, there were a bunch of broken guitars and other musical intruments that had been smashed at the close of certain band acts. I guess it is no wonder why it costs so much for tickets to a concert if the band is going to have to go out and buy new guitars after every show.

There are also a lot of interactive displays. There were tiny sound rooms where one can play a guitar or drum and then replay it back to yourself. I suppose that would be a lot of fun for someone with some musical inclination. This part of the museum seemed to be quite popular with the patrons and I am quite sure that the museum is very proud of this feature as well.

Ok. This post has gone on a little long so I'll save some of our other adventures for a little later. Don't worry, I'll be back!