The Space Needle & Seattle Center

Today when we got up it was warmer and a 'sunny' day in Seattle. Our first stop was the Seattle Space Needle. Jacqueline conquered her fear of heights to make it up the 610 foot trip up the glass elevator. From the top there were spectacular views of the city and harbor. Tomorrow we will be back tomorrow to dine at the Sky City restaurant atop the Space Needle.

Following the Needle, we then went to a fair that we stumbled upon. It turned out to be the 40th Annual Folk Life Festival. We grabbed lunch from the booth, listened to 'different' music and people watched at the fountain.The Seattle Times estimated that 235,000 people attended the festival... and we could tell! It was packed! There were many interesting characters and we were entertained during lunch watching them all.

After eating, we then headed into the Experience Music Project where we found the extremely odd curvilinear building constructed by the famous architect Frank Gehry more interesting than the exhibits. Just like in other Gehry buildings the spaces were cool but you got lost very easily. (Even Michael got lost once!) One of the really neat parts was how the building was constructed around the monorail.

The exhibits were about Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix, which Michael's Aunt Peg and Jacqueline's dad would have loved! There was an awesome Guitar tree. It also offered the chance to experiment with different instruments and genres of music which we played around with. Next, we decided to take a round trip on the monorail just we are dorks. :)  After 50 years a lot of people were still using the two stop monorail to connect downtown and the Seattle Center.

The next stop was the Pacific Science Center. The most interesting part was the Butterfly Sanctuary. The 85 degree room was filled with many different exotic plants and flowers and hundreds of butterflies. After the Pacific Center, we then walked down to the Seattle Olympic Sculpture Park, which Michael had done a case study on while studying Architecture. The park zig-zaged over a road and a rail road track. The park really gave you the feeling of being out of the city whilst still in it. We stayed there for awhile relaxing and taking in the beautiful view. It was interesting how you felt like you were not in the city even though you were surrounded by it.

We walked back up the HUGE hills, got the car and drove through Pioneers Square. It was a historically quaint with a lot of restaurants and shops in old brown stones. We then got caught in Safeco Stadium traffic after the Mariner's game. Dinner was at Claim Jumper where Michael got HUGE ribs!

That was all for today so until tomorrow... good night! :)