18th November – Seattle, WA, USA

A lazy morning started with a quick walk down to the Pike Place Markets (or Farmers Markets). The fruit was fresh and there was a lot of it. Fresh strawberries, bananas and dates washed down with a Starbucks coffee. Starbucks is a Seattle born business, now a world wide franchise.
We caught the mono-rail to the Seattle Centre, built for the 1962 World Fair. We caught our first glimpse of a Seattle landmark, the Space Needle. It’s a small version of the CN tower, or Calgary tower or…. We have found North America has a lot of tours with observation decks and obligatory rotating restaurant. The tower is 600’ high and it was good to see it.

The main reason for the mono rail trip was to go to the Experience Music Project and it’s sister, the Science Fiction museum. The Geary inspired building, was a full of curves and waves. The use of colour and design made it one of the weirdest modern buildings we have seen. First up was the history of the Seattle music scene. It was interesting to see the transition from blues to garage rock in the 60’s to the 90’s grunge scene. Bands like Nirvana (of course), Soundgarden, Everclear, Alice In Chains and Hole. These were followed up with popsy bands such as “The Presidents of the USA”. Seeing some of the memorabilia from these bands; hand written song lyrics, smashed guitars and clothing, gave us a feel for the North-Western music scene.

One room had the history of guitars, from basses to electric guitars. Mr. Fender and his Fender Stratacaster were there too. We spent about 45 minutes watching footage of Jimi Hendrix and the Hendrix Experience. This guy was a genius on the guitar!!

The Music Project is interactive and we got to spend some time in the recording studio. All I can say in that sound proof room belting out Sounds Like Team Spirit by Nirvana is “We were good. Very good!”

The Science Fiction museum had the history of science fiction and lots of actual props and fan made replicas. E.T., a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, the robot from Lost In Space and the highlights were R2D2, an Imperial Storm Trooper and YODA!!! I reminisced to my days as a young fella when I looked over a large collection of Stars Wars figurines.

After six hours of having fun, we took off, it was already dark. The Space Needle was lit up. We hit the mall, with a cheap Indian feed and powered back to the hotel, admiring the bud lights in the trees.