Chihuly and Pike Place Market and turquoise airplanes. . .

This is Chamber-of-Commerce weather in the Pacific northwest. Yesterday (Saturday, 6/29/13) the temps were in the 80s, today Seattle got to 95°F (35°C) but we were gone by the time it got that hot.

We’re spending the night of 6/30/13 in Anacortes so we can be close (15 minutes) to the ferry to Sidney, BC.

Yesterday, 6/29/13, we arrived in Seattle with plenty of time to go to Pike Place Market http://pikeplacemarket.org/, the quintessential touristy place to go in Seattle and have an absolutely awful Kielbasa sausage on a roll. Large enough to serve at least three people but of course Randy and I had to eat one each. WHY do we do that?! Anyway, to make up for that huge meal, we walked 5 blocks uphill into the wind to the Monorail terminal to the Space Needle.

Included in our ticket was the ability to see the Chihuly exhibit http://www.chihulygardenandglass.com/ which is right next door to the Space Needle. Are you going to Seattle? SEE this exhibit! And do the tourist thing and go up the Space Needle as well. Considering that the Space Needle is 51 years old (as old as my marriage!) it’s in awesome shape. It helped that yesterday (and today!) were the beautiful weather days that they were. There were a few negatives: it took standing in line about 20 minutes just to buy tickets from an automated ticket machine and then standing in a v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y moving line for over 30 minutes to get to one of the two elevators. We should have bought the VIP tickets! You go right to the head of the line. Of course, Randy and I were swearing under our breath at those “VIPs” who were bypassing us and all the rest of the peons who didn’t buy the VIP privileges.

It was all worth it to see the stunning view of Seattle and Mt. Rainier without a cloud in the sky.

We’d like to convince a few others to join us in September (during the Association of Zoo and Aquarium Docents’ conference) having dinner at the top of the Space Needle. The restaurant (but not the rest of the tower) rotates 360° every 47 minutes. Used to take an hour. Probably want to turn the tables more often. Am I cynical? Maybe.

Anyway, yesterday and today were the clearest either Randy or I have ever seen—and he at least has been to Seattle many, many times. We could see Mt Adams on the way in, Rainier and then Baker from Seattle and north and the Olympic Range as well. So beautiful! Spectacular is not an exaggeration! I need a thesaurus to go any further than that.

Dinner was at Daniel’s Broiler http://www.schwartzbros.com/daniels-broiler/daniels-lake-union/ on the water, overlooking the harbor with many, many million dollar yachts for sale. The cost of dinner paled in comparison!

Today 6/30/13, we spent the morning touring the Olympic Sculpture Park. I love whimsy in my art and this park has it in abundance. A giant typewriter (what’s that?) eraser, for one. Just the roof of a house for another.

Looking toward the Olympic Range

Beautiful wildflowers in bloom in the sculpture park

Randy on the roof of the Roof Only "sculpture"

Randy, resting under the Eagle (I have a hard time visualizing the Eagle in this sculpture)

A GIANT typewriter eraser

Olympic Sculpture Garden hides some of its art in amongst the flowers and shrubs and weeds

While wandering we found a beautiful fountain on the other side of the railroad tracks th

at run through the sculpture gardens and saw a freight train carrying four or five turquoise airplane bodies. I don’t think it was part of the sculpture exhibits, but one never knows! But turquoise airplane bodies???

Well, maybe blue-green? or a cross between turquoise and green?