sniffling through Seattle (AAG 2011) part 5
What really got me on this AAG trip was that I'd caught a cold from J on the way to Seattle. It made me unreasonably grumpy since I couldn't breathe properly, woke up a lot in the night to cough (this one especially annoying because it's generally hard to get sufficient amounts of sleep during the AAG week), and, most importantly, sounded like a horse during my presentation. Also, meeting people was embarrassing while my nose was continuously running.
But anyway. One of the nice things about staying where we did on this trip was the walk through the Seattle Center every morning on the way to the conference. It's undeniably touristy, but at least it was very pretty.
It'd been spring for awhile already, not that you can tell.
Here we are. Really cool fountain, and the Space needle.
The Franky Gehry-designed Experience Music Program and Sci-Fi Museum.
We saw the Nirvana exhibit at the EMP.
Kurt Cobain wasn't born in Seattle (Aberdeen, on the coast), but died there.
They say grunge rock had its roots in Seattle, though.
Guitar installation in the EMP.
Guess what was on at the Sci-Fi Museum?
Cool graphic.
It was really dark in the exhibit, and I had a lot of problems taking photos.
Blurry, but cool.
Don't Frakkin' Touch The Artifacts!
LOL.
The museum was lots of fun and very informative. It felt oddly small, though. Apart from the music exhibits (Nirvana, history of the guitar, Jimi Hendrix, an on-going archival project, and something about sound and mixing) and the sci-fi portion (solely the BSG exhibit), there was just the structure of the museum itself. Having thoroughly explored the conjoined museums, we went outside and patted the metal exterior of the building a little bit.
Bereft of anything else to do late on Sunday afternoon, we returned to McMenamins for dinner. J had the Vaclav's, and I can't remember what I had, but it was good. I had the grilled Ahi sandwich (not as good as the tuna burger we had in Washington DC!), J had the Reuben. Good food. High from the alcohol and too full from the food, we decided to walk up the hill in the Queen Anne neighbourhood and see if we could get to the highest point.
Great views
We did eventually reach a point we couldn't seem to go any higher. It was a mainly residential area, and we spent some time checking out the prices of the pretty houses. The general rule seemed to be - the higher up the house was, the more it cost, going into the cool millions. There were also some pretty alleys and staircases built into the hill, but it was getting too dark to take photos.
Our flight back eastward was at 6.30am, so we had to get up at 3.45 and take an airport shuttle. We would eventually arrive back in Toronto (via bus, through Buffalo), at midnight.
It was a good trip. It seemed longer than the usual AAG trip, but we did spend more time than previously at the conference, and we did also spend two entire days just travelling (might as well have gone back to Singapore for all the time it took). But it was fun, and it was nice to see the West coast, as well as the friends who live over there. I do kinda still feel like I need a holiday, but I'm pretty much done with travelling for awhile.
But anyway. One of the nice things about staying where we did on this trip was the walk through the Seattle Center every morning on the way to the conference. It's undeniably touristy, but at least it was very pretty.
It'd been spring for awhile already, not that you can tell.
Here we are. Really cool fountain, and the Space needle.
The Franky Gehry-designed Experience Music Program and Sci-Fi Museum.
We saw the Nirvana exhibit at the EMP.
Kurt Cobain wasn't born in Seattle (Aberdeen, on the coast), but died there.
They say grunge rock had its roots in Seattle, though.
Guitar installation in the EMP.
Guess what was on at the Sci-Fi Museum?
Cool graphic.
It was really dark in the exhibit, and I had a lot of problems taking photos.
Blurry, but cool.
Don't Frakkin' Touch The Artifacts!
LOL.
The museum was lots of fun and very informative. It felt oddly small, though. Apart from the music exhibits (Nirvana, history of the guitar, Jimi Hendrix, an on-going archival project, and something about sound and mixing) and the sci-fi portion (solely the BSG exhibit), there was just the structure of the museum itself. Having thoroughly explored the conjoined museums, we went outside and patted the metal exterior of the building a little bit.
Bereft of anything else to do late on Sunday afternoon, we returned to McMenamins for dinner. J had the Vaclav's, and I can't remember what I had, but it was good. I had the grilled Ahi sandwich (not as good as the tuna burger we had in Washington DC!), J had the Reuben. Good food. High from the alcohol and too full from the food, we decided to walk up the hill in the Queen Anne neighbourhood and see if we could get to the highest point.
Great views
We did eventually reach a point we couldn't seem to go any higher. It was a mainly residential area, and we spent some time checking out the prices of the pretty houses. The general rule seemed to be - the higher up the house was, the more it cost, going into the cool millions. There were also some pretty alleys and staircases built into the hill, but it was getting too dark to take photos.
Our flight back eastward was at 6.30am, so we had to get up at 3.45 and take an airport shuttle. We would eventually arrive back in Toronto (via bus, through Buffalo), at midnight.
It was a good trip. It seemed longer than the usual AAG trip, but we did spend more time than previously at the conference, and we did also spend two entire days just travelling (might as well have gone back to Singapore for all the time it took). But it was fun, and it was nice to see the West coast, as well as the friends who live over there. I do kinda still feel like I need a holiday, but I'm pretty much done with travelling for awhile.