Chihuly Gardens

Posted on July 17, 2013July 17, 2013 by Dusty Roads

I’m back at the Space Needle and the first thing I did was purchase my ticket to the Chihuly Gardens. Many of the exhibits were familiar.

They had been part of the show that visited The MFA but now they appeared to be permanent exhibits. Although some were inside in exhibit halls many of the larger pieces were outside including my favorite one.

My favorite is a made up of purple “candles” placed around a fallen log.

Next to the log a pod of black glass “things” seem to be swimming out from under the log. It made me think of seals or maybe dolphins. I checked this out from all sides. It is definitely my favorite.

The thing about Chihuly is that all of his pieces are beautiful and amazing.

I still had plenty of time before sunset but most of the other places were closing for the day so I headed back up the Space Needle. I might as well enjoy the views while I wait for sunset.

I saw other photographers with their tripods.

I didn’t bring mine this trip but I wish I had.

Without a tripod I would have to hand hold and the darker it got the harder that would be.

I hope these photos of Chihuly Gardens convey a little of it’s magical quality.

What a View from The Space Needle

Posted on July 16, 2013July 16, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Time to explore the Space Needle. I skipped the souvenir shop on the ground floor and followed the signs around and up a ramp where I purchased a ticket. It’s a 1 use ticket so once you go up don’t plan to come back down until you’re done. If you do you’ll have to buy another ticket at $21.00 per ticket that can get a little pricey.

The revolving SkyCity restaurant is 500 ft up the Space Needle and was only the 2nd revolving restaurant in the world. The restaurant makes a 360 degree revolution about once every hour. I didn’t eat there. I expect it is expensive and even with reservations people were waiting on the upper deck.

As I waited in line for the elevator I had the opportunity to get a souvenir photo. No one else was going to take my picture so why not?

The elevators hold 25 people at a time. Once we were loaded the attendant welcomed everyone to the Space Needle and told us to “look quick” because we had 43 seconds to see the sights before we reached the Observation Deck at 520 Ft.

The center part of the observation deck is enclosed and they have snack bars and drink bars located around the center core. Tables are placed around the circumference so you can look out over the city as you snack or sip your drinks.

Step down about 5 steps and go out a door and you are outside with only a railing and some glass panels to separate you from the drop to the ground. The outside track doesn’t move. You have to walk around it to see the different areas of the city. I didn’t realize it but the door I chose to use brought me right out to the view of Mount Rainier. Once again my mouth was hanging open.

Mount Rainier was so “there”, “in your face” , I don’t know how to describe it. After chasing the elusive Mount McKinley all of last week, to step out and see this awesome mountain right in front of me just took my breath away.

Mount McKinley is taller than Mount Rainier but Mount Rainier is closer so it looks larger and, forgive me for saying this, more impressive. (at least to me). I’m really glad I had a chance to see Mount Rainier so soon after Mount McKinley as my impressions were so fresh in my mind.

I may not be in Alaska but sunset in Washington State was pretty late too right around 9:30. I didn’t want to stick around that late this time and since I planned to come back to see Chihuly Gardens I decided to head back to the hotel. I needed to be back at the office at 8am and jet lag was definitely confusing my body clock.

Space Needle

Posted on July 15, 2013July 15, 2013 by Dusty Roads

I perused the Seattle Guide books while I was in my room each night and was amazed at the number of things to do in the area. But in my humble opinion the number 1 thing to do is visit the Space Needle and not just to see it. You need to experience it. Take the elevator up the side and explore the 360 degree observation deck.

So here I was boarding the mono rail to check out the Space Needle. You can see it from all over Seattle. It looks like a big space ship landing on the high rises.

The mono rail is pretty neat too. It was built for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair to shuttle fair goers from the downtown to the fair grounds. After the fair ended the mono rail lived on.

It takes less than 5 minutes to go from one station to the other! It took me 3 times that just to walk to the station from the hotel!

It’s in great shape. Clean and well maintained. If only our Boston subway cars looked as good. Today, the trains carry approximately two million passengers every year. The Monorail has become an important fixture in Seattle for locals, who use the trains during major festivals and sporting events. Seattle Center Monorail is one of the few fully self-sufficient public rail transit system in the nation yet a one way ticket is only $2.25. Someone is doing something right. Maybe we should ship the MBTA execs out for training.

The mono rail runs on an elevated track right down 5th avenue past my hotel. I spent some time sitting on a cement wall watching it go overhead.

Ticket in hand I grabbed a seat for the short ride. It wasn’t crowded and in a blink of an eye we were pulling into Seattle Center right at the base of the Space Needle.

No mistaking me for anything but what I was, an awestruck tourist. As I stepped off the Mono rail platform I know my mouth was hanging open while I reached for my camera. The Space Needle is amazing up close. You can get a stiff neck looking up to the top.

As I got my bearings I saw an unmistakable sight. A Chihuly Glass sculpture. I recognized it from the exhibit I’d seen at the MFA in Boston.

Since it was early I headed toward the sculpture first. It was sitting behind locked gates and there was a big glass building behind it with another familiar glass exhibit.

I followed the path around only to find out the Chihuly Garden was closed for the day. The Sign on the door said they would be open until 8pm the next day. I knew right then that I would be back.

But now it was time to turn my attention to the Space Needle.

The View from the 14th Floor

Posted on July 14, 2013July 14, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Nobody told me Seattle was so “hilly”. I mean the J. P. Beaumont books talked about hills in some places but from what I could see Seattle is all hills! Right from the bay on up. From my hotel to work it was only 5 blocks but 4 of them were uphill! If I lived here full time I’d never have a weight problem.

When I arrived at the office I was directed to the 14th floor where they had a continental breakfast spread out over a huge counter. Hmmm what did I say about weight? If breakfast was any indication of how they planned to feed us then I need to walk many more blocks uphill!

But the view! Oh My! I would never get anything done if I had that view to distract me. It was beautiful.

The morning was a series of get acquainted exercises then we took a break so they could set up lunch. It was as tremendous as breakfast. Never ending food. The folks who work in this office said it isn’t just because they had us there, they do this kind of thing all the time.

The afternoon was more speeches and introductions to the corporate culture. It’s a very young company. I think I was the oldest person in the room. There were one or two other “mature” people but I still had them beat by at least a decade. I know that there is a little thing called age discrimination but it’s really tough to prove so I feel very honored to have made it past that age barrier. With all the young blood you can imagine what the energy was like.

We wrapped up the first day at about 4 pm. I walked back to my hotel and retrieved my camera. I was going to get some sight-seeing in and the thing I most wanted to see was the Space Needle.

I walked about 4 blocks to Downtown Seattle where I picked up the Mono Rail. The Mono rail runs from Downtown Seattle to the Seattle Center and The Space Needle and back again and that’s it. No other stops.

Seattle

Posted on July 13, 2013July 13, 2013 by Dusty Roads

This time I’m traveling to Seattle on Southwest. It’s been awhile since I’ve flown Southwest so I was surprised by their open seating policy. It worked out ok and it was a pretty uneventful flight. The only issue was the plane change in Baltimore. When they transferred the luggage it was pouring rain. I guess Southwest doesn’t believe in covering luggage with a tarp. The luggage was so wet that water was running out of bags on the baggage carousel.

I took a cab to my hotel and when I unpacked all of my clothes were soaked and had to be hung up to dry. I was not a happy camper but maybe the downpour had surprised them. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Now about my digs for the week.

My new employer is putting me up until Friday when it will be time to head back home. My accommodations are in the Hotel 5 which is located in the Belltown section of Seattle.

I feel like I’ve been dropped into one of J.A. Jance’s novels. She writes a series of novels about J.P. Beaumont, a Seattle Homicide Detective. She often describes places in Seattle which until now were just fiction.

But back to my Hotel, I walked in with my luggage still dripping water to see plastic draped through the lobby. Apparently they had a construction project going and they ran late. The poor night desk clerk looked quite harried. Another “guest” and I use the term loosely was reading him the riot act. I’m not sure about what but nothing the clerk offered him was good enough. I really felt bad for the clerk..not the guy yelling.

As soon as the clerk could break away from Mr. Irate, he checked me in and in spite of having just been reamed out like that, he was pleasant and professional to me.

The hotel was filled with bright colors, nothing calm or subdued here. At first I felt like I was getting a wake up call at 10 pm with all the bright colors but slowly they began to grow on me. The floors in the room were hardwood which surprised me since most hotels have industrial carpet. I have to admit I liked the way the hardwood looked.

There was free WIFI in the rooms, always a big plus in my opinion.

I unpacked and hung my soggy clothing in the shower to drip dry…I’m serious, it was that bad! Then went back down to find a restaurant. It was quiet in the lobby now so the clerk sent me one block down to the Palace Kitchen