Six Weeks/14 Parks
2008
We don’t care what gas costs!
Experience Music Project
The Space Needle
Safeco Field
SEATTLE, WA
7/22/08
The University Inn runs a complementary shuttle for guests. The driver dropped us at the Seattle Center, a combination museum-tourist-amusement park area which contains the Space Needle. We saw a lovely sculpture peace garden, then went into the Experience Music Project, a cross between Liberty Science Center and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Totally cool exhibits about the roots of Northwest rock, with a special focus on Jimi Hendrix, a Seattle boy. There is also a very large hands on room, with teach-yourself booths for playing guitar, drums, mixing, vocals, etc. There are even little rehearsal rooms where groups can go in and rock out!
After we took a long look at the Science Fiction Museum, which is attached to the EMP (a totally cool building, BTW) it was on to the Space Needle. Ahem…built in 1962 for the Seattle World’s Fair, the same fair which introduced the touch-tone phone and the microwave, the observation deck of the Needle is 520 feet above the ground, providing panoramic views of Seattle, the Puget Sound and surrounding environs. The elevator ride takes 41 seconds to reach the observation deck. And believe me, you can feel this sucker moving in the wind. Not much, but just enough.
We had tickets to the Mariners - Red Sox game, so we took the Monorail (another relic of the ’62 World’s Fair) over to Westlake Center, right downtown. From there it was a walk to the Pike St. Market for a bus to the ballfield. On our way, we passed a fascinating street artist working with spray paint. We watched for 30 minutes while he created a rendition of the Seattle skyline as viewed from the water. Great work!
Then is was on to the ballgame. Beautiful field. Too bad the Mariners are so lame. Red Sox won, 4 - 2. No help for the Yankees.
