snapshots abroad: Our First Day in Seattle

This morning we were up early, and saw a few bits of blue sky poking through the clouds. After being so cooped-up in planes, trains, and automobiles yesterday it felt good to stretch our legs. We walked through Millennium Park and down to Olympic Sculpture park before meandering along the waterfront.

After making our way to Pike's Landing, we enjoyed a breakfast in one of the cafes that had a lovely view of Puget Sound, now sparkling under a few patches of sunshine. We enjoyed the beautiful flower displays and wished we could take home some of the delicious-smelling sea fare on display (including some of the biggest lobster tails I've ever seen).

We continued our walk south through downtown, then made a loop back to our hotel for a small break and some lunch at the hotel's restaurant, where Hans experienced burger nirvana (grilled onions and cherry peppers!).

Since we were staying just a block from Millennium park and its museums, we decided to visit the EMP Museum and Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum.

At the EMP, a multi-interface music experience, there was a special exhibit about the band Nirvana, which featured rare demo songs that Kurt Cobain recorded as a young teenager. I smiled as I listened to a track that was recorded when Cobain was 15, about "Spanking Thru" a bad romantic breakup.

In the basement of the museum was an exhibit about horror films and why they have so much cultural appeal. There were creepy props like the face sucker from Alien, the axe from The Shining, and a mask from The Creature from the Black Lagoon. There were little booths were you could watch commentaries about significant horror movies through the history of cinema, by the curators of the exhibit, Eli Roth, Roger Corman, and John Landis.

There was also an exhibit about cultural science fiction icons, and quite possibly the coolest interactive exhibit I've ever seen, the EMP's Sound Lab. Inside, there were multiple drums, guitar, and keyboard instruments where people of all ages and ability could play music, sound rooms for mixing and recording, and a virtual percussion device where you pound your fists onto pictures of various objects to make sounds. You could practically feel the excitement and eagerness oozing from the kids that were darting from instrument to instrument.

There was also a nostalgic exhibit about the art of video games.

The Chihuly museum was extremely impressive. I was already familiar with some of Chihuly's work since he has many installments and the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. His organic glass sculptures are meant to be in natural settings, so gardens are the perfect place to find them. I had no idea, however, about his fondness for glass houses, or green houses. After seeing his large glass house sculpture today, it became obvious that such open and airy spaces are the perfect blank canvas for his art. His glass baskets were interesting. Chihuly emulated them in slightly fallen and misshapen bowls (as he noticed that Navajo grass baskets collapse over time) and painted (with molten glass, of course) beautiful patterns inspired by Navajo blankets onto their surface.

We were fairly exhausted at the end of the day, so we went to bed early.

Pictures!