USA Holiday 3, October 15 (Bring The Train)

The forecast was for more rain again *all* day, but I set off hoping for the best anyway. Had a quick look around the Seattle Centre - the Pacific Science Center which had some towers out front that looked like the Striders from Half Life 2, the International Fountain which wasn't even turned on, and the Key Arena - former home of the former Seattle Sonics.

Not a suitable NBA venue apparently.

The International Fountain.

The EMP and Space Needle.

Down towards the waterfront was the Olympic Sculpture Park. I thought it was just going to be that red eagle thing in a park, but there was quite a few other pieces there too - like with most art, some of them were things I could have created myself.

A metal tree.

No idea what this is.

This almost resembles a metal eagle?

Passed through downtown again, I stopped in at a t-shirt store where I found a great Seahawks shirt but then had the following conversation with the Asian girl who was working there.

Me: Do you have this one in any other sizes? *Leaf through shirts to indicate they are all small*
Girl: Yeah we have sizes...
Me: *Confused* The only ones you have here are small
Girl: Oh, what size are you after?
Me: A medium or a large would do
Girl: No I don't think we have those

So that was really sad as it was the only good shirt I found to buy. Also had a look in the downtown Target but they didn't have anything good. On a side note, it seems like Target was just starting some national takeover plan, as they had massive stores just opening in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles downtown areas.

Kept on walking over to the Chinatown International District. They have this place called Uwajimaya Village which has a big Chinese supermarket and a bunch of other Asian food shops and bakeries. It was just like being in Box Hill. There was a pinball museum in Chinatown of all places, but it just seemed to be a small store with a bunch of pinball machines that you could play all day for $10. Not sure what I was expecting, but I wouldn't really call that a museum so didn't go in - I don't think I could spend hours playing pinball even if I had the time.

Found an interesting looking Thai Cafe also in Chinatown for lunch, they had a CURRY TOFU OF THE DAY on the menu, but the option for today was spicy so I half enjoyed it and half tried not to die of spice overload. Had a quick look through the Danny Woo International District Community Garden on the way back, which was a little bit run down and more of a community garden than a well preserved Chinese garden, but I guess the name suggests as much.

There's a Chinese garden inside there somewhere.

The reward when you reach the top, a hangout for homeless people. Cool.

Hopped on the monorail which runs from the centre of downtown out to the Seattle Centre. It only takes a couple of minutes, so it's a fun ride but ultimately does not really achieve a lot for the residents of the city I imagine. At the Seattle Centre I got tickets for the Experience Music Project. There was less than 3 hours before closing but the woman estimated that I could see everything in 1.5 to 2 hours.

13:55 - I can't wait for this.

14:06 - Here it comes!

14:09 - Are we there yet?

Well, I spent nearly 1.5 hours just walking through the Nirvana exhibit and reading through all of their history and old Kurt Cobain stuff, it was really good. Only spent a couple of minutes in the Guitar Gallery because I don't really care about old guitars.

Skip ahead if you don't like Nirvana.

Kurt,

Old Kurt "Pen Chap Chew" stuff.

Other Nirvana people.

Familiar Nirvana people.

Down in the basement level there was some non-music related stuff, the Icons Of Science Fiction and The Lure Of Horror Film exhibits. Both of these weren't as detailed as Nirvana but they had a lot of rare props used in science fiction and horror films. I think my favourite was either the hacksaw from Saw or the axe from The Shining. Most of this stuff comes from Paul Allen's (Microsoft guy) private collection by the way.

Battlestar Galactica, I don't think anyone watched it.

Yoda gear.

The man of steel.

T2.

A dalek maybe, I don't know this stuff.

This stuff I know more about.

Although I've never seen an Alien movie...

It's the cane from Citizen Kane.

Heeeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny.

I gave you back the map!

Upstairs there was a sound lab which I thought was pretty crap at first until I realised the instruments had little mini games where you could learn each of them. I only had a quick shot on the drums as it was getting close to closing time, but it was enough to know I am not likely to become a professional musician. You could have spent a couple of hours in this room too, they had a bunch of other stuff like DJ turntables, guitars, keyboard and vocals.

Spent the last few minutes taking a look at some Rolling Stones 1972 tour photograph collection and some Jimi Hendrix exhibit. They both were pretty average.

Walked down to the supermarket and got caught in the forecasted heavy rain that finally arrived on the way back to the hotel. The only thing worse than squeaky shoes is wet squeaky shoes. They sound and feel even worse.

USA Holiday 3, October 14 (The 12th Fan)

Went down to the waterfront to begin. Saw some ferries, a Ferris Wheel, souvenir shops, restaurants and an aquarium. I have no plans to go to another aquarium. Actually I even threw out some free tickets to the Chicago Aquarium thinking I would not have time to go, but probably could have found time in the end, oh well.

Some waterfall installation near Century Link field.

Every city needs a Ferris Wheel.

Just up from the waterfront is the famous Pike Place Market. It was a little bit hard to make sense of because it is indoors and there a few floors and stairs to navigate. I haven't explained that very well but what I mean is that it's a bit disjointed in that you may have to down stairs, walk along and then back up other stairs to see the rest of the floor you started on. The lower levels mostly contain the typical market shops like used books and weird clothing stores, but there was a pretty neat Golden Age Collectibles shop which had a large range of comics, merchandise and zombie books. Seattle seemed to have some weird fascination with zombies from what I could tell. The highlight of the store though was the unopened packets of several series of the old Garbage Pail Kids stickers. Fantastic.

At the top level of the market was the fresh produce, the one getting the most attention involved the staff throwing fish around. Just outside of the market was the first ever Starbucks store. Further up the street was a modern Starbucks store that I saw some other stupid people taking photos of.

Starbucks.

The main entrance to Pike Place market.

Stopped off at the Klondike Gold Rush Museum on the way to the football, mostly because it was free. It was quite interesting and well presented and I learnt a few things about the gold rush and how it affected Seattle and the surrounding areas into Canada. I also now know the reason for having a chocolate Klondike Bar.

Possibly an art museum, the hand swings up and down.

Some log cabin typical of the gold rush era.

For the afternoon it was Seattle Seahawks vs New England Patriots at Century Link Field. I finally thought to bring some earplugs to the game, mostly because Seattle is known to have the loudest crowd, supposedly they got accused of pumping artificial crowd noise into the stadium through the speaker system.

The earplugs were a great idea, as was buying tickets in an undercover section, as there was some persistent light rain during most of the match. The match again was a good one, particularly in the first half before the scoring slowed down, probably due to the conditions. Sadly the damn Patriots lost yet another close game 23-24 at the end, but it is usually not too bad when the home team wins. Another disappointment was the food stores not selling any souvenir cups, they usually sell these good quality big plastic cups - I already got one in Atlanta and New Orleans - but here they just sold regular bottles of Coca-Cola.

Walking straight into the stadium from downtown.

Two national anthems before the game, and another one that is better than Australia's.

Tom Brady had everything under control, or so it seemed.

Seahawks win by one point.

USA Holiday 3, October 13 (Northwest Passage)

The only available train with Amtrak between Vancouver and Seattle left at 6:40am. Still, it beats going to the airport. Everything was all looking good until this group of eight guys came into the carriage just before departure and went on to talk loudly about stupid stuff for the whole trip. Add to that a whole bunch of annoying heavy accents, some combination of Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and Scotland from what I could tell, and shouting rounds of beer from 7:00am and getting louder as it went, and it wasn't the best.

The train trip otherwise was quite scenic I suppose, passing through Bellingham and Mt Vernon, but the train seem to go much slower than it needed to, and even came to a stop at times. I think it could have reached Seattle in 2 hours easily, instead of the 4 hours that it takes. At the luggage carousel at Seattle they actually checked the baggage tags against receipts, I've always wondered why they don't do the same at airports, where anyone could just turn up and take whatever bags they want.

Dropped off the bags at the hotel and then walked back through downtown to the stadium district, well there's two stadiums. There was a Washington Huskies vs USC college football game on, but I had not bought tickets for that as I don't know anything about college football. Continued on to the Safeco Field baseball park where they have a 1.5 hour tour for something like $9. The tour guide was pretty good and had some fun facts, but sometimes talked too much as well. These tours are generally quite similar in what you get to see: luxury suites, press room, locker rooms and field level. Still, it's a pretty nice, modern stadium.

Walked back to the other end of downtown where the hotel is located and nearby is Seattle Centre which includes the Space Needle and many other things. For now there was just time to take in the view from the top of needle. The location is quite good as you can see the rest of downtown, the Seattle Centre immediately below, the Queen Anne and North Seattle suburbs, and of course the bay and Pugent Sound.

Century Link Field, formerly Qwest Field.

Safeco Field.

The two best Mariners.

Executive Suite level.

Same.

Behind home plate.

Purple Huskies late for kickoff.

The Space Needle.

Key Arena at Seattle Centre. Home of the WNBA Seattle Storm!

Puget Sound.

Downtown.

An outdoor observation deck, incredible. Actually the wind was pretty crazy.

All of that junk is EMP at Seattle Centre.

At the time I didn't think to jump in the other side.

The monorail track.

Seemed interesting at the time.

The new Nike Shoes I purchased in Chicago and started wearing in New Orleans have already started squeaking whenever I walk. That's so annoying, and I've only been wearing them for a week at most.