A Few Random Hours in Seattle (and some in Alaska)

Be warned, there's no real reason for this post, except as an excuse to post older photos that I really like.

I've decided that I'm strangely enamored of the Pacific Northwest.  For the purposes of this post, I'll lump Alaska with the Pacific Northwest.  Hopefully that's not offensive.



I can't explain why.  It could have something to do with the fact that I've spend approximately 95% of my life on the east coast and thus heading West still holds some exoticism for me.  You know, exoticism in the form of tall pine trees and rainy weather and an over-dependence on coffee shops.

When I went to go visit my dad last summer, I had a 6.5 hour long layover in Seattle.  It was long enough that my Seattle friend kindly offered to pick me up from the airport and entertain me for a few hours.


These hours entailed going to see some earthworks...


Befriending some ducks...


Running up this hill...


And staring at this huge-ass navy ship.  Or at least I assume it was a navy ship.  There were men in uniform on a huge-ass ship at any rate.


After bopping around for a few hours and staring at the Puget Sound, I had to hop on another plane to Anchorage...


To Alaska...a land where even your local Wal-Mart looks like it could a part of some epic scenery for a Lord of the Rings movie...


... and where your typical trip to the market holds mystery and wonderment...


... and where former brothels become cherished family restaurants.


Maybe I do need to one day pack up and move out west.  At least for the option of having daily moose sightings.

A Visit to Kurt Cobain's House

There was a time in my early teens when I was obsessed with grunge.  I watched the movie Singles enough times that I can still quote very large chunks of dialogue from it (particularly any of the scenes that the members of Pearl Jam appeared in).  I worshipped Eddie Vedder, grabbing any Pearl Jam related video or single or item that I could find.  I stole my brother's Alice in Chains CDs.  I read Michael Azzerad's book about Nirvana, Come As You Are, multiple times.  On a related note, I also read Poppy Z. Brite's biography on Courtney Love several times (both are actually fascinating reads that I would recommend).
I suppose it was fortunate that I got my teenage angst phase over with pretty early.  I look at that time now with some fondness, but mostly embarrassment.  While I still love Pearl Jam, my obsession with most other music of that time has died down considerably.


However, this did not deter me from the somewhat morbid desire to visit Kurt Cobain's house in Seattle.



Yes, peeps, this is the place where, on April 5, 1994, Kurt Cobain took his own life. Supposedly. You might be a part of that "Courtney did it" camp or whatnot. Technically, it happened in a greenhouse on the property which has since been torn down.




We stared at the house from across the street for a few minutes, taking photos and feeling a bit awkward. I could picture the current residents of the house pulling aside the curtains and staring at us in disgust. The fact that the lights were on in the house did not help. I could only assume that they're used to people coming by every day to gawk, but I couldn't help but feel like a morbid, morbid tourist.

You don't really get a sense of Kurt Cobain looking at this house. A nice, big, but not ostentatious home in quiet residential Seattle on Lake Washington. It does not seem like the kind of house a tortured, drug-addicted, suicidal rock star would choose to live in. This is a man who used to sleep under bridges.

Right next to the house is Viretta Park, where Nirvana fans from around the world come to scribble messages on these benches.







One person saw it appropriate to leave a book.

Others saw it fitting to use the bench as a platform to spout some vitriol against Courtney Love.





Jimi Hendrix got a statue in front of a record store in Capitol Hill. Kurt Cobain gets scribbled-on benches. It seems fitting though. Nirvana's music spoke to a lot of people in a really personal way. It seems appropriate that they can personalize their own tribute to him. Despite the fact that some of the graffiti on the bench was stupid and non-sensical, there were plenty of ones that said things like "You changed me" or "Your music saved my life". Cobain never managed to overcome his depression, and we'll never know what more he might have done had he not killed himself. Hopefully through his music, he's managed to helped some others.

A Visit to the Seattle Central Library

Last night, while walking through downtown DC, I passed by the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library, which is the main building in the DC Public Library system.  I've walked by it plenty of times, never really thinking twice about it.  I'm sure it's a fine library on the inside but, as you can see from the picture below, it's not really remarkable or anything especially nice to look at.  Just another large building downtown.

I'd heard a lot of praise regarding the Seattle Central Library in downtown Seattle and how neat it was.  I never made it around to visiting the Seattle Central Library during my trip last year, so this time around, I made sure not to miss it.

We were somewhat rushed, having scheduled a tour of a local chocolate factory for later that afternoon.  We only got to spend about 20 minutes in this amazing library, but we made it count.  And even in that short time, I fell in love.

Let's first meander through the children's section.




I'm so intrigued by this book, despite its horrifying title.













Colorful, whimsical, and full of every delightful book imaginable, this was the children's section of my dreams.  My 8-year old self could've lived her forever.  Then again, my 24-year old self is still pretty tempted.

However, since our time was running short, we had to rush to see what else this building had in store.

Up by the top there was a great view with these amazing slanted glass panes.









And of course, let us not forget the neon yellow escalator.



I spent a lot of time in libraries growing up.  In middle school and high school, whenever I had a chunk of spare time, I would take the bus down to the library and spend hours there, pouring over books.  I wish I had had such a cool space as this.  I sadly don't think enough about architecture and it's ability to transform locations and create incredible, memorable, unique spaces.  Maybe one day I'll create my own fantastical, magical, surreal, cool-ass library that'll rival even this one.

Art Isn't Easy

On Day 3 of our Seattle vacation, Anna, Joh, and I visited the Henry Art Gallery.  It's located right on the University of Washington campus and despite its small size, it is a really cool gallery and has many, many things to look at, such as a collection of polaroids by Robert Mapplethorpe and a skyspace by James Turrell (pictured above).

Also, this weird couch thing (by Roy McMakin, in case you're curious).



Despite the fact that it was still relatively early in the afternoon, we were already exhausted.







Anna took the opportunity to rest upon the art, while Joh and I were content to photograph her.  I'd like to think she became part of the piece.  Which maybe was the artist's intention.  At any rate, I would love to have a weird staircase-chair piece in my apartment.

Lastly, I'll show you the Turrell skyspace from outside the gallery.  I think the exterior is supposed to change colors, depending on the light outside.  Pretty nifty.

Poles on Puget Sound

I recently purchased a Groupon to take a handful of pole dancing classes at a gym in DC.  Pole dancing is a lot harder than it looks and requires a considerable amount of balance, upper-body strength, and coordination.  And, like any other form of exercise, it requires practice in order to improve one's abilities.  What sucks about pole dancing is that....you really need a pole to practice.  If you're stubborn like me and have to comply with certain agreements in your lease, then you're not going to set one up in your home.  Which means one must take to the streets in order to find adequate poles for practice.

This is also harder than you would think.  Good poles are apparently hard to come by.  They're always too wide, too narrow, or too unwieldy.

On our recent trip to Seattle, after wandering through Pike Place Market a bit, I took Anna and Joh down to the waterfront.  It was there were we discovered, near the weird statue of Christopher Columbus and by the Seattle Aquarium, was a raised stage... with some poles.



Now, as you can see...these are not quite ideal poles.  They were not nearly sturdy enough to do a catch-spin or to try and lift yourself off the ground.  Also, at least one side is situated on a step, so that makes things a bit awkward.  But I thought that they were decent enough to play around on and try a few tricks.  I tried to demonstrate some of these to Anna.
This mainly consisted of a lot of spinning around, since I had forgotten how to do most of the tricks I had learned in the one class I took a few weeks ago.







And trying not to fall off of the step to a concrete death.



Joh opted not to participate in the pole festivities, opting instead to play photographer.  Because she is not a shameless woman.

It just goes to show you that if you know where to look, opportunities are everywhere for random, shameless, fun antics with friends.

A Rainy Afternoon in Ballard

Anna, Joh, and I recently returned from a trip to Seattle. 



One thing that people kept trying to tell us before we went was that Seattle, being in the Pacific Northwest and all, is quite damp.  Rains quite a bit of the time.  You think that this would've been quite obvious. 

This fact did not become apparent until we decided to trek all the way from our hostel in Belltown to Lunchbox Laboratory in Ballard, because we were craving burgers in a bad way.



I'd read about Lunchbox Lab and its mythically large burgers, so it seemed like the good place to go to satisfy our insane hunger.  Two things you should know about Lunchbox Lab, if you ever have a chance to visit - 1) It is quite popular, probably due to word-of-mouth about its mythically large burgers and 2) It is ridiculouslously small inside.  It can comfortably seat... maybe 10 people inside, rather than the 30+ who had showed up, looking for food. 

Since we had come a long way and had no other options, we decided to park ourselves in one of the two very damp tables outside to sit and eat.  So, after having dried off our seats and table as much as possible, we sat outside in the cold, drizzly air, and ate our burgers.



They were even bigger than expected.  Regretably, I only managed to down about 1/4th of mine.

After that, we trekked down to my friend's apartment, where we took in some of the neighborhood sights.




My favorite were these concrete couches.  Which I would've sat in if they hadn't been so darned DAMP.


Only these tree-clocks rivaled the concrete couches for neighborhood quirky-cuteness.


Also, can someone explain this playground to me?  So confused here.  I would've climbed on it to test it out, but again, you know...it was damp.  Soon after this point we found my friend's apartment and spent many hours there trying to get warm and dry again.  Overall though, it was a very good afternoon.

Stay tuned for further accounts of our Seattle adventurings!