Seattle for Tourists

Position: 47°37’11.7″N 122°21’03.1″W

About halfway through our dogsit with Gus (q.v.), we figured out that getting to and from downtown Seattle required only a short, inexpensive ride on the West Seattle water taxi. The taxi is run by King County public transportation. As a government-run service over-65s sail for half price. Parking downtown near any tourist site costs a minimum of $25 for a couple of hours. For $10 roundtrip the water taxi is not only less expensive, it is healthier. Landing a stone’s throw from Pioneer Square, the historical centre of Seattle, you are immediately encouraged to use your feet rather than a taxi or bus.

Most of the big tourist draws are within a couple of miles, or about a 30-40 minute walk. Pike Place Market with its big neon sign is a mile uphill. Around the base of the Space Needle, Seattle’s other iconic landmark another mile away, sits a cluster of museums. Given the prices of admission, we opted for a CityPass. A half-price combo ticket gives purchasers access to the Space Needle and the Seattle Aquarium along with three of five other attractions. Options include, the Chihuly Garden and Glass exposition, a harbour cruise from Argosy Cruises, admission to the Museum of Pop Culture (MOPOP), the Woodland Park Zoo, or the Pacific Science Centre. It was all we needed to put our heads down and charge at the attractions full tilt.

Don’t Pass Chihuly’s Glass

Seattle’s original glass-blowing bad boy, Dale Chihuly, probably changed glass artworking more than anyone since Abbott Suger a thousand years ago. As sailors we feel Chihuly, having lost an eye in a car accident, looks suitably piractical for an artist who delved into Seaforms. It was the loss of his eye and a dislocated shoulder that forced Chihuly to set down his glassblower’s pipe and instead hire people to help him realise his expansive vision for what glasswork could become.

The Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit sits directly underneath the Space Needle and houses an extensive and permanent display of some of Chihuly’s most representative installations. At about $40.00 for a ticket, this was the catalyst for us to dig deeper and buy a CityPass for $139, plus tax. Whatever you pay, the visit is worth the price of admission. The flowing, brilliantly coloured exhibits are instinctively beautiful and engaging. You don’t have to think about Chihuly’s work in order to enjoy it. You can simply experience it by being present and drawing it in.

Space Needled

America’s answer to the Eiffel Tower, Seattle’s Space Needle, was built for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. Three sweeping legs reach up some 605’ to support the 138’ wide rotating flying saucer-shaped observation deck. When it opened for the fair, 20,000 people a day rode the lifts for a total of 2.56 million visitors during the Fair’s run. Honestly, neither Carol nor I had any interest in going back up the Space Needle. We’d both visited it before and didn’t see the point. But now we’d bought a ticket and felt committed. Like most things you demur on in your life, we should simply have said, yes, and gone up the tower with a goldfish’s amnesia.

At the top, you can look south towards downtown’s skyscrapers, to the north and at your feet sits the historic Queen Anne neighbourhood, look east at the Cascade Range, and far out to the west, the Olympic Mountains. If you’re patient, the flying saucer shaped observation dome rotates. The construction and balance of the saucer is so precise, the restaurant needs only a tiny 1.5 hp electric motor to rotate it. That means you can sit and watch the world go by while eating lunch or dinner and not have to muscle your way through the crowds for a view as we did. Turn your attention inward to the MadMen/1960s style decor and you’ll discover the saucer rotates surprisingly quickly. Wait too long and your spot in line for the lifts down disappears around the corner. Don’t try and wedge your foot between the moving parts to slow it down, either!

April Fools

The legs of the Needle are themselves marvels of engineering. Unlike the Eiffel Tower’s stick-by-stick Meccano approach to construction, the Space Needle’s engineering was far more ambitious. Each leg is two lengths of the finest Indiana steel. Pre-curved to precise measurements and then bolted together. The entire structure is engineered to withstand 200mph winds and earthquakes below 9.1 on the Richter scale. Double the required construction standards of the time.

Back in 1989, a group of wags at the KING5 TV station decided pretending the Space Needle had collapsed would somehow be funny. As soon as the fake news was announced, aided by a few doctored photos, thousands of callers flooded the station and shut down the city’s 911 emergency hotline. To this day, the perpetrators are amazed they kept their jobs. Over the years, several BASE jumpers used the Needle’s saucer as a launch point. Sometimes, they even had permission.

Seattle Aquarium

In a recent poll, 100% of respondents (n=3) felt aquariums treat fish better than zoos treat mammals. (Aleta.life acknowledges some pescatarian bias may be at work in those results.) Seattle’s aquarium is a keystone of the revived waterfront tourist event horizon of restaurants, cafés, and t-shirt stores. Spread over two buildings, the older Pier 59 aquarium houses seals and tidal creatures, while the Ocean Pavilion houses a modern gazillion tank/ecosystem display. No aquarium is as good at Monterey Bay’s. But given that caveat, Seattle’s public fish tank did a commendable job distracting us for a couple of hours. Our friend, Tom, joined us to see the fish and for lunch at Elliott’s Oyster House afterwards. There we duly tucked into a variety of local oysters that turned out as fresh and delicious as you would hope.

MOPOP

Ain’t got enough pop? Get some MOPOP. Paul Allen’s contribution to downtown Seattle’s beautification was a Frank Ghery-designed museum called the Experience Music Project (EMP). Allen, an original Microsoft billionaire, was also a keen musician with a large collection of rare instruments that needed a bigger attic. In this case, I think it’s less that the instruments themselves were rare, but that they were once owned by someone who made an impact on popular music. Pop music’s trendsetters include Seattle’s own Jimi Hendrix, who gets an entire room to tell his story. Having bumped into Mr. Hendrix’s legend in Morocco recently, we were keen to understand where else he’d travelled in Europe during the four years he lived there.

Several years ago, the EMP morphed into the Museum of Popular Culture. Music not being a big enough draw, apparently. The evolution includes deep dives into movie genres like horror, fantasy, and science fiction. All of which fit naturally with the 50s and 60s vibe of the original exhibits. If you don’t care for the exhibits inside, at least you can wander around outside and marvel at the crazy pile of recycled egg boxes and tinfoil that Frank Gehry sculpted into a functioning building. Sketching outside the lines was clearly part of his schtick.

Tourism

With the global revival in tourism after the lean years of the pandemic, the most popular cities in Europe are fighting a rearguard action to preserve their major sights from the crush of millions of visiting feet. If you live in a major city, it is worth ‘doing the sights’ now and then if only to remind yourself that you already live in an interesting place with lots of history. There are stories right under your feet if you’re open to hearing them. Sometimes all it takes is a promotional ticket and a short boat ride to find them.

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