Family time!

We took advantage of spending family time with Karen and Albert. Nick and Valerie took a week off from work and flew to Seattle to join us in fun and games. Our first stop for fun and games was the infamous Seattle Space Needle. We hopped right into the elevator and headed right up to the observation deck.

Built as an attraction for the 1962 World’s Fair held in Seattle, this 605-foot observation deck was state of the art at the time it was built. The space age theme is everywhere in the structure, as Yuri Gagarin had just successfully been the first human in space in April 12, 1961. Since then, many much taller structures have been built, many of which we have visited. It turns out that now, even the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas is taller than the Space Needle.

We then headed to the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum. Born in Tacoma in 1941, Dale Chihuly became world famous as a glass sculptor, and ultimately chose to locate his biggest collection of work in his home state. Although many might think he had a special relationship with Las Vegas due to all his works located there, his heart was always housed in Washington.

We next hit the Museum of Pop Culture. The Museum is housed in one of the buildings originally built for the World’s Fair, and contains displays focused on popular cultural exhibits. There were lots of guitars played by famous bands and individual artists. We breezed through an exhibit of dresses and clothing from famous Disney films, which Karen totally loved. It was nice that Chris Cornell, guitarist and lead vocalist for Soundgarden and Audioslave, gave us a warm welcome at the entrance.

We hopped on the Seattle Monorail, also built for the 1962 World’s Fair, and wended our way to Pike Place. Although all of us except Nick and Val have been here before, you can never get to much of this multilevel building full of interesting shops and restaurants. Only here can you see 50-pound salmon flying through the air as the are thrown by the guys working the iced display cases to the sellers working the crowds. Somewhere new to all of us was lunch at Lowell’s. Opened in 1957, great food is coupled with outstanding views of Puget Sound and all the activities going on there.

Despite what we have always believed, apparently it isn’t totally impossible to catch a glimpse of Mount Rainier. It seemed like most everywhere we went today – including from the top of the Space Needle – we caught some really clear and beautiful views of the mountain. While hidden much of the time by clouds, Karen tells us that views like these are not as rare as I had believed.

Talk to you soon.