Seattle Monday 7th
Got up early and showered had some coffee today I fly back to San Jose but it wasn't till 6 so I had some time to kill. I hung out at the hotel playing game and reading till it was time to throw me out then I put my bags in their storage. It was a nice day so I decided to walk over to the Sky View Observatory in the Columbia Center (73rd floor). It was a spectacular view and the good weather made it even nicer I couldn't see much of the mountains but the downtown area and Eliot Bay and Lake Union were all nicely visable. I spent a few hours walking around taking photos and looking out over the city and then I headed down I wandered around some book shops then at 2 I headed to the hotel to get my bags and then on the lightrail to Seatac.
It was pretty busy at security lots of people going through I joined in and got scanned and xrayed then headed to a nearby restaurant and got some lunch. I had pretzels (as I'd not had them before and was curious basically bread) and then fish and chips which the served to me with plastic cutlery I assume to get you used to it for the planes.
Once that was finished I headed to my gate and settled in waiting for the time. I got on the plane and then 2 hours later I was back in San Jose.
Uber seem to have some sort of exclusion zone around the airport at least the cheaper ones do. In the end I got an Uber Black which was a very comfy Suv which was very high off the ground. The guy dropped me at home and that was that holiday over. It already feels ages ago and I've only just returned. I guess that's just how it goes.
Seattle Saturday 5th
I got up fairly early got some coffee washed and dressed then headed down to the pickup point for the duck.
The DUKW or duck's are actually WW2 era amphibious transport vehicles built for moving cargo from boats to shore. Now they ferry tourist around Seattle and into Lake Union then back to Seattle again. We saw the Space needle and then over the Aurora bridge. Went into Lake Union for some great views of downtown Seattle and things like the Gas Works Park the site of a coal gassification plant now left as a monument that was converted to a public park. A house boat used in the film sleepless in Seattle. Vairious seaplanes. Skidrow where the logs from the logging would slide down the hill to the saw mill on the Elliot bay waterfront. The great wheel and the miners landing where gold rush miners would come in. And then parts of the town like Pioneer square.
It was a fun tour with lots of history and information wrapped up in layers of sillyness with hats and also ritualistic chants like crying out Coffee! When passing a starbucks. Oh so many starbucks.
I had a good time and it was a great way to see the city and get out on the lake it was a superb day for it. I'd recommend it but best to book online as the tours fill up quickly.
I had some lunch then headed back to the hotel and relaxed played some games and read.
For dinner I went to the hotel bar and enjoyed some chicken quesadillas with some excellent local craft beers.
Tomorrow's my last full day not sure what I want to do on it I might go to one of the islands or maybe I'll just relax and do nothing. I'll see how I feel come the morning.
Seattle Friday 4th
I got woken up by housekeeping as I forgot to hang the “piss off don't bother me!” sign on the door. I had some coffee got washed and dressed then headed out.
I decided to take the monorail down to Seattle Center where the space needle is it was not the best day and there was a huge queue for that so I decided to go into the EMP museum. They had a special exhibit on the costumes of Starwars. They had lots of costumes from episode 1-3 and a few from episodes 4-6. The ep 1-3 were on the ground floor and had lots of behind the scenes videos and boards talking about the costumes, their construction, and how they were used. The costumes were quite varied the simple robes of the jedi and then the elaborate embroidered and layered costumes for the senate and princess Amidala. Upstairs they had a few costumes including leia's bikini and her bounty hunter disguise. They also had a tie fighter pilot storm trooper xwing pilot and darth vader.
They had some bits of fabric you could look at and touch that were the same types as used in the various costumes. Lots of really fine detail work they showed the costumers who made the things talking about the effort involved which was huge.
After that I headed into their indie games exhibit which had lots of indie games to try out as well as lots of inteviews with games designers, game journalist, industry figures, and schools for game people. It was quite interesting and fun little exhibit.
Next was the Infinite Worlds of Scifi exhibit which had lots of props and pieces from film and tv as well as a few videos. They had one of the T800 robots skeletons, the mask and hands of Greedo from Starwars ep 4, several miniatures from ep1. Costumes and props from blade runner. A klingon outfit and weapons. A Darlek and a Cyberman both old school. A Proton pack and ghost trap from Ghostbusters. A hover board from back to the future. Some outfits from battlestar galactica. A short video by scifi authors on what scifi is and how it works. A wall of various scifi weapons from star trek phasers to men in black guns. A few bits of the models from alien and some armor from aliens.
It was all set in a nice room decked out like it was a spacecraft.
Finally I headed upstairs to an exhibition on Chuck Jones the legendary Warner brothers artist animator and director who did a lot of the loony toons. I wasn't allowed to take pictures as they didn't own the artworks. There were lots of sketches and cells and backgrounds as well as reference drawings of bugs and daffy. They had several cartoons running and interviews with Chuck Jones on various things it was a great exhibition.
After that I was feeling a bit peckish so went to the nearby food hall called the Armory (which at one time housed the 146th field artillery and now had a load of food outlets) I had a miniature shepherd's pie (WITH BEEF!) which was quite tasty.
When I first visited the Space Needle a few years back with Byrnie it and the EMP were basically the only things there with a wide empty park area. There wasn't even any food places we had to make use of the bar in the EMP hardship that that was. Now there is quite a lot there including a science museum and this garden of glass thing as well as a the large food court area in the Armory. It's quite a change.
I decided after that to head back as I was a bit tired. I figured I could do some of the other things another day and maybe the space needle if the weather was better.
I read and played some games then had a burger in the hotel bar as well as a few local brews.
I decided for some reason that tomorrow I'm going to go on the duck boat tour and it being a weekend was fairly booked late in the day so I booked on the internet for 10am. So I need to get some sleep so I can get up for that and be down at the set off point for 9:30. So early night for me.
