Friday, July 22, 2011

Day Twenty-Eight: Super Sunny Seattle

We woke up today to no fog or clouds- just sun! Summer has come around this weekend. It is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous the next few days. Can't complain when it's 30 degrees cooler than at home. Don't worry, we are totally aware that we can't run from the heat on the rest of our trip, which would just bring us back here, hopefully! Alright, enough of the bragging....
We did the touristy thing today. We headed out to Seattle Center. Now, when you think Seattle "Center", this is not really what you would picture. There was a huge park in the middle, with a bunch of building on the outside. This is where the Space Needle is, and that is where we started today. A little history of the Needle: It was built for the 1962 World's Fair, a 1.5 horsepower motor turns the restaurant, it takes 43 seconds to get to the top (not counting the line you have to wait in!), and it was originally painted 4 colors (astronaut white, orbital olive, reentry red, galaxy gold; it was repainted because people thought it was tacky) (I learned that in school this year, too!)
Enough of that. Luckily, we were early enough that we didn't have to wait in line very long. The line looked daunting, but we decided to go earlier than later. You wait in line just to wait in another. We finally got in line for the elevator and up we went. There are a few cafes and exhibits in the inside of the top. We took a lap around there, just to look around. Nothing too exciting. We went outside on the observation deck and it was amazing. We chose to go today because we knew it would be clear and we would be able to see a lot. We looked out to Puget Sound and all of the ferries coming in and out. You could see the Seattle Skyline, which is nice because there aren't as many high-rises as other cities. If you look at most pictures in magazines of the skyline, you can see Mt. Rainier in the distance. Well, I think the giant 14,000 foot volcano is trying to hide from the two of us. We went yesterday, couldn't see it. Went today, still couldn't see it. Who knew! Pretty sure we saw the outline of it, but it was definitely not as dominant as it is supposed to be. Boo. But you could see all of Lake Union out in front of you. This is where the houseboats dock, including the one used in the filming of Sleepless in Seattle. It is a gorgeous city from above. And not too bad from ground level, either, with all of the water around the city.
After our Space Needle tour, we walked around the sculpture park that surrounds the area. Then we stopped to get lunch and eat in the sunny park. You could tell that summer's finally arriving here because everyone was out and about. After lunch, we stopped at the flower beds to get some great shots of the roses there. We continued walking around the area, to the Experience Music Project + Sci-Fi Museum. (Erik, when you come to visit, we'll have to go there. You're the only one I know that would be interested in a sci-fi museum!) The buildings are awesome. Definitely some very cool architecture. The monorail even goes through part of it!
Alright, time to figure out where we are going next week. Vancouver or Portland... hmmm... Any suggestions?

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