we drove from La Push to a city outside Seattle where we stayed for the night. the next morning we went into Seattle! I had high expectations for Seattle because of the all the incredible bands that have originated from the city. Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix, Band of Horses, Death Cab for Cutie, Fleet Foxes and Modest Mouse all got their start in Seattle or in a nearby city. Seattle was also the birthplace for grunge in the 90's, and the city must be pretty special to have some much great music and culture coming out of it. although I don't feel we really experienced the music culture while we were there, the city definitely did not disappoint. we did mainly touristy things, and I think to experience more of the culture we would have to move there, or spend more than two days in the city.
we decided to buy the city pass which included the Space Needle, EMP museum, Chihuly Glass museum, Seattle Aquarium, and a harbor boat tour. we didn't buy the city pass in any other city but we decided to there because there were a few things we wanted to do on the pass. we went to the Space needle first and went to the top which had fantastic views of the city.
we walked to the Chihuly glass museum next which was right by the Space Needle. the Chihuly museum features all of artist Dale Chihuly's glass blown sculptures. they are all colorful, elaborate and beautiful. he started making his glass sculptures in the 60's and you can definitely see the influence of the psychedelic culture of the time.
my favorite part was this room with the ceiling covered in his glass artwork.
we made this dorky little video in there :P
we went to the EMP (Experience Music Project) museum next. the museum is full of pop culture exhibits with an emphasis on music and science fiction. we enjoyed the museum way more than we expected, especially the Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana exhibits.
they had Jimi Hendrix's journal in the exhibit with a copy that you could flip through. I turned to this entry he wrote about Linda Eastman (Paul McCartney's future wife) and I found it very poetic and beautiful for some reason.
the Nirvana exhibit was very, very cool with original photos, art Kurt Cobain drew in high school, his t-shirts, and the body model with wings they used on stage for their In Utero tour.
the Princess Bride costumes!!
they had a Chuck Jones exhibit with original sketches of Bugs Bunny and different backgrounds from the cartoons.
the traveling exhibit when we were there was Star Wars costumes. it was pretty awesome seeing all the original costumes in real life.
we thought it'd be funny if someone was in the Darth Vader costume to jump out and scare people.
the museum had fantasy, horror, and sci fi movie exhibits with props and costumes from movies of those genres. we felt it was definitely worth going for lovers of music and movies. we left the museum and explored the city a little.
we walked to Pike Place Market planning on eating somewhere for dinner but it was after 6 and everything was closed. we didn't realize that everything would close down so early.
we walked past the original Starbucks and there was a huge line.
our city pass tickets allowed us to go up the Space Needle twice in one day so we went back during sunset.
we stayed in a hotel just outside the city cause it was cheaper. we had a great first day in Seattle and were excited to see more the next day.
