Vacation, Day... erm... something.
Jul. 6th, 2004 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bodldopsBusssy day today. I think I've officially fallen in love with Seattle. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
This hotel seriously rocks. Not to mention the huge wonderful room (with a fireplace! Squee!) they make a very nice breakfast. With real food, not fluff food. So we had breakfast in the hotel to save time hunting for a good breakfast place in the city.
We were going to take the Metro to the art museum, but the rain changed our minds. A eight-block hike in the rain wasn't very appealing. Seattle traffic is much better than SF's... even during rush hour. How nice is that? There seems to be a coffee shop on every corner... these people seriously love their coffee. It took us a while, and a few wrong turns, but we finally found a good parking lot near Pike's Market.
Pike's Market is a very cool place - it reminds me of a hobbit's home. Lots of tunnels and lots of food. *grin* The market has been going for over a century, started when farmers got tired of middle men making an obscene profit off of their produce. Not only are there farmers there, but bakeries, ethnic food, clothing, flowers, random!stuff... there's a cool music shop that has pretty much any type of musical instrument you could ever imagine. There's even a musical saw. *grin* There was a huge collection of flutes, and I know Dad was tempted, but he didn't get one. At least I still know what to get him for Christmas.
After scouting out the market, we headed over to the art museum (SAM - they love acronyms here). It took us a bit to figure out how to get to the exhibit, but it was clear sailing after we figured it out. Up a long staircase with cool ming-dynasty statues from tombs (two camels, two rams, and a soldier), and past the overly-uniformed museum workers, and we were in.
Technically, it wasn't a Van Gogh exhibit. It was Van-Gogh-and-a-few-dozen-other-artists-sorta-related-to-Van-Gogh-artistically exhibit. It was still cool though. There was a gorgeous painting of a french lady that I wish I had been able to find a copy of, and some gorgeous examples of pointalism (using discrete dots of paint to create a picture), as well as some cubist stuff, and some abstract stuff, and a few pieces that were a little bit of random schools of art. There were a lot of Van Goghs though. There were both some of his painted pieces and some of his drawings, which were wonderful. We spent a long time in that gallery. The lady was my favorite though, even though it wasn't a Van Gogh.
After we had wandered around there long enough, we went to the other exhibit floor. There was a cool collection of Egyptian art, and some stuff from the Renissance. I'm afraid I got a bit absorbed, and took way longer than the rest of my family to wander through the different rooms. Oh well... I had fun. *grin* They watched strange people wander down the street below. Oh, speaking of the street below, there was a statue out front that looked like the worker's symbol in Communist Russia. It was... very unusual, but pretty neat. I think it was supposed to be an artist working on a piece of art, but that wasn't quite what it looked like.
After I got done being a slowcoach and we managed to free ourselves from the museum store, we went back to Pike's Market. That's the place that launched a thousand shops - Starbucks. We didn't go inside (have Starbucks at home!), but we did find Chinese steamed BBQ'ed pork buns. Oh Lordy, those things are tasty. We also got a whole bunch of fruit for tomorrow's breakfast. We wandered for a long time, window-shopping and taking the free samples that can be found at Farmer's Market. *grin* We found some pastries for tomorrow's breakfast as well. After finishing our breakfast shopping, we stopped at a coffee shop called 'Seattle's Best Coffee'. No joke. Coffee's pretty good, best I've had in a while, anyway. Their caramel lattes are yummy.
We wandered around in the car once we got back to the parking garage (no need for stair-masters in this town - there are some steep stairwells!) and I saw the place I'd love to work - the Seattle Shelter. It is so cute! There are some ideas from there I'm definitely taking home. We didn't have time to go inside, which was a pity. I want to huggle a kitten.
We had dinner at Ray's Boathouse (after passing the shelter a few more times *grin*). Verrrry tasty food. More calamari, crab cakes and.... *sigh* Chocolate diet took a small break. They had a chocolate-covered macaroon with strawberries. I couldn 't say no, but I didn't eat the whole thing either. So it wasn't too bad. Just so long as I don't go back to chocolate-after-every-meal, I'll be fine. No more chocolate on this trip, anyway. The dessert was delicious. *grin*
My fav reality show was on tonight. Amazing Race! My favorite team just avoided being eliminated - I'm rooting for the father/daughter team. I keep telling dad that we could go on that show, but I think I'm going to have to wait until my sister is old enough to play. I really want to try that zip line into the pool. How great is that?
We're leaving Seattle tomorrow, on to... somewhere on the Oregon coast, I think. Ah well, it doesn't matter, we're on vacation!
Later, Gators.
This hotel seriously rocks. Not to mention the huge wonderful room (with a fireplace! Squee!) they make a very nice breakfast. With real food, not fluff food. So we had breakfast in the hotel to save time hunting for a good breakfast place in the city.
We were going to take the Metro to the art museum, but the rain changed our minds. A eight-block hike in the rain wasn't very appealing. Seattle traffic is much better than SF's... even during rush hour. How nice is that? There seems to be a coffee shop on every corner... these people seriously love their coffee. It took us a while, and a few wrong turns, but we finally found a good parking lot near Pike's Market.
Pike's Market is a very cool place - it reminds me of a hobbit's home. Lots of tunnels and lots of food. *grin* The market has been going for over a century, started when farmers got tired of middle men making an obscene profit off of their produce. Not only are there farmers there, but bakeries, ethnic food, clothing, flowers, random!stuff... there's a cool music shop that has pretty much any type of musical instrument you could ever imagine. There's even a musical saw. *grin* There was a huge collection of flutes, and I know Dad was tempted, but he didn't get one. At least I still know what to get him for Christmas.
After scouting out the market, we headed over to the art museum (SAM - they love acronyms here). It took us a bit to figure out how to get to the exhibit, but it was clear sailing after we figured it out. Up a long staircase with cool ming-dynasty statues from tombs (two camels, two rams, and a soldier), and past the overly-uniformed museum workers, and we were in.
Technically, it wasn't a Van Gogh exhibit. It was Van-Gogh-and-a-few-dozen-other-artists-sorta-related-to-Van-Gogh-artistically exhibit. It was still cool though. There was a gorgeous painting of a french lady that I wish I had been able to find a copy of, and some gorgeous examples of pointalism (using discrete dots of paint to create a picture), as well as some cubist stuff, and some abstract stuff, and a few pieces that were a little bit of random schools of art. There were a lot of Van Goghs though. There were both some of his painted pieces and some of his drawings, which were wonderful. We spent a long time in that gallery. The lady was my favorite though, even though it wasn't a Van Gogh.
After we had wandered around there long enough, we went to the other exhibit floor. There was a cool collection of Egyptian art, and some stuff from the Renissance. I'm afraid I got a bit absorbed, and took way longer than the rest of my family to wander through the different rooms. Oh well... I had fun. *grin* They watched strange people wander down the street below. Oh, speaking of the street below, there was a statue out front that looked like the worker's symbol in Communist Russia. It was... very unusual, but pretty neat. I think it was supposed to be an artist working on a piece of art, but that wasn't quite what it looked like.
After I got done being a slowcoach and we managed to free ourselves from the museum store, we went back to Pike's Market. That's the place that launched a thousand shops - Starbucks. We didn't go inside (have Starbucks at home!), but we did find Chinese steamed BBQ'ed pork buns. Oh Lordy, those things are tasty. We also got a whole bunch of fruit for tomorrow's breakfast. We wandered for a long time, window-shopping and taking the free samples that can be found at Farmer's Market. *grin* We found some pastries for tomorrow's breakfast as well. After finishing our breakfast shopping, we stopped at a coffee shop called 'Seattle's Best Coffee'. No joke. Coffee's pretty good, best I've had in a while, anyway. Their caramel lattes are yummy.
We wandered around in the car once we got back to the parking garage (no need for stair-masters in this town - there are some steep stairwells!) and I saw the place I'd love to work - the Seattle Shelter. It is so cute! There are some ideas from there I'm definitely taking home. We didn't have time to go inside, which was a pity. I want to huggle a kitten.
We had dinner at Ray's Boathouse (after passing the shelter a few more times *grin*). Verrrry tasty food. More calamari, crab cakes and.... *sigh* Chocolate diet took a small break. They had a chocolate-covered macaroon with strawberries. I couldn 't say no, but I didn't eat the whole thing either. So it wasn't too bad. Just so long as I don't go back to chocolate-after-every-meal, I'll be fine. No more chocolate on this trip, anyway. The dessert was delicious. *grin*
My fav reality show was on tonight. Amazing Race! My favorite team just avoided being eliminated - I'm rooting for the father/daughter team. I keep telling dad that we could go on that show, but I think I'm going to have to wait until my sister is old enough to play. I really want to try that zip line into the pool. How great is that?
We're leaving Seattle tomorrow, on to... somewhere on the Oregon coast, I think. Ah well, it doesn't matter, we're on vacation!
Later, Gators.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-07 02:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-07 03:18 pm (UTC)Where do you actually make your home base, when not on vacation? I keep forgetting, but think it Eastern US?
--Nenya, of various BC locales
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-07 04:07 pm (UTC)