Pacific Northwest Trip June 2013 Day 11 Wednesday June 26

UPDATED: February 10, 2021

 

This is the 11th of a series of posts dealing with my tenth and most recent trip to Seattle as adult. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports.  What few updates there are indicated by NOW in brackets.

Okay, I checked in with myself after getting more sleep last night than I had been getting and I can handle continuing on at this stage. Having said that, I'll take advantage of the fact that I already covered today's plans on the first Seattle day and keep it a relatively low key day, sticking downtown unless the weather breaks and focusing on stuff that will keep me indoors as much as possible today.

[NOW: The above was written in the morning. The rest I wrote in the evening.]

First off I do feel a lot better than I did last night. I turned in around 8:15. It took a while to get to sleep because one roommate in particular kept making sounds whenever I started to drift off but I did get a decent rest anyway.

Forgot to mention yesterday: en route to Mercer St Books. the former location of Easy Street Records now had the Chase logo on the building, which wasn't the case Sunday. Sad.

This morning I got some DVDs at Dan's Belltown Grocery (I think this is the first time I ever bought DVDs before 7 am), then walked to the Washington State Convention Center.  I had planned to go to Freeway Park from there but got caught up with photographing art pieces there. Just before returning to the hostel I walked across Bell Street Bridge and this time was able to get photos from the observation area on the other side. I ate breakfast at the hostel (Not sure if I've named the hostel in these reports: City Hostel Seattle, located in Belltown).

I walked to Pike Place Market including First and Pike News and Rachel the Pig. I also crossed the Hillclimb, which sounds fancy but is just a small enclosed space, about as anticlimactic as the modern day London Bridge.  I walked to the Bay Pavilion at Miner's Landing. I stopped exploring though when I saw trophies on the wall. I don't like looking at decapitated animal heads.  I then walked to the Seattle Aquarium. I had a coupon but even with it, it was still pricey ($20.85). Still it was a time passer and the resting sea otters in particular were very cute.  I then walked to Columbia Center for the Skyview. The price had almost doubled since my last visit a few years ago ($5-$9) and part of it was blocked off for renovations. Still I did manage to get some incredible 73rd floor photos. I visited the Downtown Transit Tunnel at Westlake Station briefly to see how much money was left on my ORCA card, though I didn't use the bus today.

 

[NOW: First & Pike News has closed.]

I got lunch at Westlake Center's McDonald's.  Then it was pretty sunny and I was feeling better and better due to some giant shiny globe in the sky that seemed vaguely familiar, so I chance a walked to Capitol Hill. I visited Capitol Loans and then Twice Sold Tales, making sure I saw all three cats there.  I walked to the Jimi Hendrix statue, then Elliot Bay Book Company, then Seattle's sole branch of Everyday Music, which you may recall has quite a few Portland area branches. I got some DVDs there, including Smallville season 1, which I already have but someone failed to return the first disc. This set cost me $2.95 so I'll put in the missing disc and give the rest away.

 

[NOW: That McDonald's has closed.]

It was raining for a bit after I left there. Still, I decided to visit an area of Capitol Hill I hadn't seen in a while and visit On 15th Video, but that store didn't seem to have any previously viewed videos for sale. I returned to the main area of the Hill (Broadway) and got some DVDs at Broadway Video. They couldn't find one disc but I had a ringer already in mind for their special (4 for $20; got 8).  I walked to the pop machine with the Mystery buttons, hoping I wouldn't get cherry again. I did wind up with cherry Mountain Dew, but luckily the Mountain Dew dominated the cherry.  I walked to Seattle Center, started once again with the International Fountain. I just got my shoes off and it started to rain again.

[NOW: On 15th Video and Broadway Video are closed. That pop machine is missing.]

So not that long after I decided to go to the EMP which now allows photos, just not flash photos (previously it was no photos); another case of still pricey but coupon helped; $17 with coupon. The EMP has two large sections: music and sci-fi/horror/fantasy. I'm more into the latter so I got the former out of the way first. They had sections devoted to Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, and women, plus recording studios. They also have a giant cone of guitars hanging from the ceiling. One main quibble, admittedly as a bit of an outsider to music is that beyond the guitar cone, the only historical musical instruments were ones that had actually belonged to notable musicians. Which was impressive in its own right but it might have been nice to see some older instruments not connected to any one person.  In the sci-fi et all part I was disappointed that my favourite item from last visit was gone (the Captain Marvel costume from the 1940s serial). Still there was an impressive range of movie (and some TV - Buffy's Book of Ascension for instance) memorabilia covering a wide range of eras, be it the Cowardly Lion suit from the Wizard of Oz, the Superman suit from Superman: The Quest for Peace, or for people who like their gore cerebral, the hacksaw from Saw. 

[NOW: The EMP Museum is now the Museum of Pop Culture/MoPop.]

I returned to the International Fountain.  A guy tried to chat me up but I acted uninterested. A good move: from elsewhere I saw him chatting someone else up for around half an hour. Then he tried it on someone else near the first guy when he and his family finally left, and the second guy and his family left almost immediately. I ate dinner once again at Mod Pizza at the Seattle Center Armory (later I really had to go to the bathroom again so I might skip it tomorrow).  I returned to the fountain once more but it was cooling off and I finally left for the hostel.

While I was typing the earlier part of this report I heard a woman arguing with staff and then her leaving after they threatened to call the police.

Tomorrow is the penultimate day of the trip and thus the final full day in Seattle. A few things are definite for the last day, like Freeway Park and Waterfall Garden Park. And if the weather cooperates (it was noticeably a lot better today, which probably contributed to my improved health and ability at points to even walk normally), I absolutely still want to do Alki Beach.  No promises but if I can fit in my favourite Seattle beach, I will!

[NOW: Unfortunately the weather failed to cooperate so I never made it to Alki Beach.]