After Sleeping in Seattle
(oh the curse of west coast travel -- I stay up until west coast late, but somehow I'm always awake at east coast early)
Woke up on Monday with the realization that there would be no show that night and that The Tickets were no longer travelling with us. The only consolation would be little tiny donuts at Pike Place Market.
Checked out of the hotel and hit the road. Got downtown and parked again at the structure with the sport car parking. Walked to Pike Place market to hit my favorite vendor. The place with the machine that makes the fresh tiny donuts right in front of you. Think Krispy Kreme in miniature and more yummy. Walked into the Market to find that...the donut machine was broken. HORRORS!! They said it would be working again in an hour. So, starving, we went to a Crumpet place nearby. Had yummy fresh crumpets with Nutella. Pondered the fact that crumpets are yummy, yet english muffins less so.
From the crumpet people, we got directions to the Seattle Public Library. Designed by Rem Koolhaus, the library is in a funky glass building that was opened last year. owlmoose has degrees in both Library Science and Architecture, so she was jonesin', so to speak. I handed her my camera and she explored with abandon.
Outside:
Inside:
Note the padded ceiling:
The library was also filled with bold colors. Chartreuse escalators:
Purple Porthole:
The Red Floor:
The stacks are what is called the Book Spiral. The floors gently slant with each bookshelf slightly lower than the one before it. It's hard to capture in a photograph. But the floors are helpfully marked with Dewey Decimal numbers noting each new level. Here we are going up (note the tiny slant at the base of the bookshelf next to the 900):
I'm a sucker for crossword and bingo scratcher tickets and because WA has some good ones, one of the recurring discussions of the weekend was what I would do with a big win. Items 1 and 2 are a BNL concert in Switzerland transporting all my good friends there, and a BNL concert for massbnlfan where they play nothing but IABD. Now the third item on my list of things I MUST DO is to rent the Seattle Public Library out for an evening with a very large box of super balls.
After the library, we went back to Pike Place and satisfied my donut urge. Then we went in search of a post office so that I could mail home all the things I got in Portland. Cell Google was less than helpful with Seattle streets with the same names showing up in multiple places. So we pulled my laptop out of the trunk and called on the power of the EVDO card to find the post office (how did I live life without this?!).
Then it was off to the airport. Returned the car at the overly friendly Enterprise. I was a little too worn out for the army of chipper girlies with fashionable scarves who collected our car from us. Give me the surly, efficient dudes at the LAX Budget any day. In front of me in the security line they returned a guy for having two swallows of water in a Nalgene bottle. The screener brought his bottle back to him at the end of a hook so that he could drink the water before having all of his stuff rescanned. Commiserated and chatted with him while he drank the lethal liquid of terror. Then, when I got through, they were searching his bags to find....a full-sized can of shaving cream. Some people are travelling idiots.
A flight down south, BART to the City, and dinner at the Ferry Building. On BART, saw this sign:
owlmoose tried to tell me it's just a part of the BART campaign to thank all their riders. I'm not convinced. I think they knew I was coming.
At the house, I passed out on the couch for a while (being a fangirl is hard work). Watched Veronica Mars (Logan-o-meter: awww! could he be any sweeter?) and then posted. Then I curled up with Torino and had a long discussion about her travelling with me to L.A. and beyond. It was mostly one-sided.
Today owlmoose is at work, so I'm on my own in the city with a MUNI ticket. Kittens at Macy's, maybe a visit with sea lions, definitely need to find a knitting needle for owlmoose's other new scarf. And then tonight, another Show. I can't believe it's already been more than 24 hours since I've seen BNL. The withdrawal pains are starting to get severe. Or wait, maybe that's hunger. Damn, still another hour before the Crossroads cafe opens. At least the sun is coming up.
Woke up on Monday with the realization that there would be no show that night and that The Tickets were no longer travelling with us. The only consolation would be little tiny donuts at Pike Place Market.
Checked out of the hotel and hit the road. Got downtown and parked again at the structure with the sport car parking. Walked to Pike Place market to hit my favorite vendor. The place with the machine that makes the fresh tiny donuts right in front of you. Think Krispy Kreme in miniature and more yummy. Walked into the Market to find that...the donut machine was broken. HORRORS!! They said it would be working again in an hour. So, starving, we went to a Crumpet place nearby. Had yummy fresh crumpets with Nutella. Pondered the fact that crumpets are yummy, yet english muffins less so.
From the crumpet people, we got directions to the Seattle Public Library. Designed by Rem Koolhaus, the library is in a funky glass building that was opened last year. owlmoose has degrees in both Library Science and Architecture, so she was jonesin', so to speak. I handed her my camera and she explored with abandon.
Outside:
Inside:
Note the padded ceiling:
The library was also filled with bold colors. Chartreuse escalators:
Purple Porthole:
The Red Floor:
The stacks are what is called the Book Spiral. The floors gently slant with each bookshelf slightly lower than the one before it. It's hard to capture in a photograph. But the floors are helpfully marked with Dewey Decimal numbers noting each new level. Here we are going up (note the tiny slant at the base of the bookshelf next to the 900):
I'm a sucker for crossword and bingo scratcher tickets and because WA has some good ones, one of the recurring discussions of the weekend was what I would do with a big win. Items 1 and 2 are a BNL concert in Switzerland transporting all my good friends there, and a BNL concert for massbnlfan where they play nothing but IABD. Now the third item on my list of things I MUST DO is to rent the Seattle Public Library out for an evening with a very large box of super balls.
After the library, we went back to Pike Place and satisfied my donut urge. Then we went in search of a post office so that I could mail home all the things I got in Portland. Cell Google was less than helpful with Seattle streets with the same names showing up in multiple places. So we pulled my laptop out of the trunk and called on the power of the EVDO card to find the post office (how did I live life without this?!).
Then it was off to the airport. Returned the car at the overly friendly Enterprise. I was a little too worn out for the army of chipper girlies with fashionable scarves who collected our car from us. Give me the surly, efficient dudes at the LAX Budget any day. In front of me in the security line they returned a guy for having two swallows of water in a Nalgene bottle. The screener brought his bottle back to him at the end of a hook so that he could drink the water before having all of his stuff rescanned. Commiserated and chatted with him while he drank the lethal liquid of terror. Then, when I got through, they were searching his bags to find....a full-sized can of shaving cream. Some people are travelling idiots.
A flight down south, BART to the City, and dinner at the Ferry Building. On BART, saw this sign:
owlmoose tried to tell me it's just a part of the BART campaign to thank all their riders. I'm not convinced. I think they knew I was coming.
At the house, I passed out on the couch for a while (being a fangirl is hard work). Watched Veronica Mars (Logan-o-meter: awww! could he be any sweeter?) and then posted. Then I curled up with Torino and had a long discussion about her travelling with me to L.A. and beyond. It was mostly one-sided.
Today owlmoose is at work, so I'm on my own in the city with a MUNI ticket. Kittens at Macy's, maybe a visit with sea lions, definitely need to find a knitting needle for owlmoose's other new scarf. And then tonight, another Show. I can't believe it's already been more than 24 hours since I've seen BNL. The withdrawal pains are starting to get severe. Or wait, maybe that's hunger. Damn, still another hour before the Crossroads cafe opens. At least the sun is coming up.