12-11-08 Thursday (Memory? I Forget)

Before I tell you about today's events, here are yesterday's photos.

Space Needle

Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe. Neat store, with lots of saleable junk.

The view from our table at Red Robin.

"Gateway to the Pacific". Interesting how there's homes up there, over the tunnel.

Jim set the alarm for 7am. At about 7:40 we arose. The alarm never sounded. I'm not sure what he screwed up. Caulkenstein was still dictating our lives so off to the communal showers we go.


Into Seattle we went, found a parking spot and ventured to a mall to pickup the GoSeattle cards. I wanted to snap a picture of the cable cars and then discovered my camera memory card was missing. It was still in the laptop from last night. I was trying to get the pictures into the blog, but got tired of formatting issues and was exhausted. So, now I need a memory card. I guess I'll get one at the mall. The mall was 4 stories and very pretty. It seemed that it was high end. It was interesting to see so much, so vertical. We picked up our cards, went to an electronics store where they had a used memory card for a little cheaper. I bought it, we went to a cute French cafe and had a junkfood breakfast. The camera card didn't work. I returned it and had to buy a new one.


A few blocks away we went to another horizontally challenged mall to catch the Monorail. It only runs to the Space Needle area and back. It's a 1 mile ride each way. It was still nice to be on it and see the city a little.


Within the Space Needle area, Jim had several places planned. He had the whole day very well planned, even with a time frame as when to go into the Needle. Checking weather, he had found the best clearest time would be 12-3 today. How about that for precision?

Our first stop was to the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. No photos permitted! I loved this place. Very well done, well displayed, well laid out. Well, it also helps to like Sci-Fi. 90% of the displays had authentic props. 10% were replicas. The sights and sounds were great. Life size robots, costumes, weapons, ship models, etc kept the senses busy.

Time to stop, and grab a beverage. We went to McDonald's and had a snack wrap and a drink. By the way, I had a Deluxe Hot Chocolate and I will tell you I was expecting much better. Oh well. Speaking of, there's some billboards in Seattle (Home of Starbuck's and Seattle's Best). It even made it into their local paper. Amusing.

On to the Experience Music Project. It was a museum about music, and it didn't thrill me. The most focus was put on musicians from the NorthWest. The most featured musician was Jimi Hendrix. A tall musical sculpture made of many instruments was very cool. Some of them played music on their own. We went through this museum fairly quickly.

Jim expected more of the Space Needle

The planned time frame for the Space Needle was upon us. It was accurate too. The skies were fairly clear (for Seattle) so we went to the Needle. There were no lines for it. It was awesome. We ate at a cafe at the very top. Well, we had a drink and cookies. Loved it. Lots of interactive displays up there. Did I say we loved it? The restaurant, which we didn't go to, sits one level below the observation deck. We had decided the cookie was good enough and we have more to see.

Onward to the Pacific Science Center. We spent a lot of time here. Here, almost every display is interactive. Live animals, Insect Village, Butterfly House, etc, were all a lot of fun. Some of the exhibits were child like but we played with them anyways.

We had left the RV park at about 9:30 and left Seattle at 5pm, so we had a FULL day. My feet hurt.

Tonight we went to Home Depot for some Caulkenstein reinforcement supplies. Jim also decided to repair another crack in the tub. Join us in 2010 when the tub will be available for use.


After Home Depot we stopped at a Fred Meyer. Basically, the same as a Super Wal-Mart only the prices weren't as good. They sold clothes, food, jewelry, electronics, hardware, etc. We priced some stuff out: $2.00 more on a 6 pack of breakfast sandwiches. Jim's Diet Coke at Wal-Mart = $1.25 2ltr. $1.75 at Fred Meyer. See, for those of you who don't know Jim personally, he drinks a lot of Diet Coke.... a lot. 16-20 2 liters a week so that adds up. Don't bother reprimanding him with all the bad things you've heard about drinking so much of that. He knows and he's heard it all before. Notice the giant cup he carries with him? That's usually a topic amongst personal friends.