Sightseeing Seattle

 It was great to be on land again (well, at least I was super happy after that last day of sea sickness) and it was even more fabulous to be in the Pacific Northwest.  It is a part of the U.S. that I had yet had the privilege of exploring so I was game for anything and everything.  First on our list, the Space Needle.

We bought our ticket and then realized that we would need to kill some time as our slot was at 1 pm.  Off to the Chihuly Gardens and Glass...

Chihuly is world famous for his glass-blown sculptures and his trademark swirls.  Born in Washington, he studied both in Wisconsin and in Venice before settling back in Washington State and founding his own glass center where he taught the team approach to glass making that he learned in Venice.  Leading the avant-garde movement in fine art for glass, Chihuly has collected awards and admirers around the globe.  Including me...

 

 The ceiling!  The pieces of colored glass rest on a flat plane of glass and color the whole room!

The girls loved the exhibit!!!

By now it was time for us to head over to the Space Needle.  Our tickets said 1 pm and I wasn't sure how we were ever going to get in by then as the line was snaking around longer than one at Disneyworld in July.  But they are nothing if not efficient and within 1/2 hour we were inside, upstairs and freaking out by leaning back on a glass pane 184 m (603 feet) above Seattle.

You might not see the terror in our faces here but believe me, it is there.  That bench we are sitting on tilts you back into the glass and it is disconcerting, to say the least.

At least for some of us - this one has no fear.

We then went down a floor.  To the glass floor.  That rotates.  If I thought that sitting upstairs was a bit freaky this was terrifying.  We took our picture (except for Nana, she just couldn't) and then got off.  Quickly...

Except for this one that would have stayed all day going around and around looking down.

 

Downstairs in the gift shop we noticed this VR setup.  It allowed you to bungee jump (virtually) from the top of the needle.  And it was free.  Sign us up!  Stinkerbell, MadHatter and I gave it a try and it was intense but fun.

Another bucket list item got a check mark.  But the afternoon was still young so we wandered over to see the very 1st Starbucks...

We didn't go in because a Starbucks is a Starbucks is a Starbucks...

And then we hit up the stalls of the Pike Place Fish Market.  Famous for their "Flying Fish" where the fishmongers repeatedly throw and then wrap customers purchases in very entertaining ways, the market is neither old (established in the 60's) or even the largest, but it is known worldwide for the antics of the workers, the games they play with their customers and for being one of the happiest places to work in the nation.  Personally, I loved it for the rows and rows and rows of fresh flower bouquets.

Gorgeous, right?

A short snippet of a flying fish.

The market was just about closing so we were headed back to the hotel for a rest when my friend J called.  Her family had just moved into their new house in Seattle (they relocated from Prague) and she invited the girls to a sleepover.  I couldn't resist as it had been almost a year since Stinkerbell and O (her best friend from Prague) had spent any time together.  We shipped the girls off with B in a taxi and the rest of us got ready for dinner.  Which all of a sudden would be an adult night out!  Win-Win.

It was a great first day in Seattle but tomorrow would prove to be just as much fun!