Why Seattle?: Seattle, Day 2 (6 July 2017)

Some of you, particularly those of you who see New York as your American nirvana (haha, some of you will get that reference), might be wondering why we chose Seattle as the main focus of the new-to-us part of our American winter escape. Well, there are several reasons. It’s new to us, for a start! (Though we have explored other parts of beautiful Washington state before.) It’s on the west coast, which is where we wanted to confine this trip. Its July climate is supposed to be beautiful (and so it is proving so far.) And it is the home of so many – hmm, how to describe this – icons (is the best word, I think). There’s Boeing and Microsoft (Bill Gates), Starbucks and Amazon, for a start. Then there’s Jim Hendrix and Kurt Cobain. There’s the origin of Grunge culture. And to top all these off, to my mind anyhow, there’s the amazing Chihuly (who was, admittedly, born in nearby Tacoma). Any place of such modest size – just over 700,000 people in 2016 – which has produced such variety of such international impact has to be worth visiting, wouldn’t you say?

First though, a little history to orient us all. The Seattle area was inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the European settlers came in 1851, which I guess equates it with Australian towns like Ballarat. Wikipedia tells us that the city was named in 1852 after Chief Si’ahl of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. Anyhow, all this says that many of the older buildings are familiarly Victorian to us.

Art is needed in people’s lives (Chihuly)

Chihuly was our main focus for today, but en route – we walked, according to Len’s Garmin watch, over 11 kms today – we saw the City Dog Club, a Walgreen drive-thru pharmacy, and the Space Needle. The City Dog Club looked like a day-care place for dogs. We walked past a room for big dogs, and one for medium-sized ones. Presumably, there was one for small dogs too. Is this used by apartment-living city-workers?

Anyhow, to Chihuly, who inspired us with his Canberra exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia a few years ago. Being born in Tacoma, he has a museum there I believe, but the splendiferous Chihuly Garden and Glass site opened in Seattle in 2012. It is beautiful. There are interior exhibits (organised mostly by themes, like Chandeliers, Seaforms, Macchia, and so on), a glasshouse, and the garden. There’s also a restaurant, the Collections Cafe, and a little theatrette which plays, in a loop, five 4-minute videos about different phases and aspects of his work.

The videos added to our enjoyment and understanding. Chihuly said that working with art in big public spaces reminds him how much art is needed in people’s lives. He said he likes to create works which make you wonder whether it was made by humans or nature. And, in terms of his creative process, he said that mental energy is more tiring than physical energy. This is why, he said, he doesn’t think much. Sure, Dale, we believe you! Seriously, though, he explained that what he means by this is that if you know what you want before you start, its creation is likely to be boring. He likes to create as he goes. We saw some of this in the video. But we also saw some planning too (such as for his big exhibition in Jerusalem’s Citadel in 2000). I rather like this way of thinking. It reminds me of those authors who say they don’t plot their books all out in advance. I can see the point. If you plot it all in advance, then the thinking is largely done and the doing could become tedious. (This way of working is pretty much how my patchwork group creates our joint quilts. We start with a concept and build as we go!)

Back to Chihuly. We loved the works, with the garden being the pièce-de-résistance. Walking around it, amongst glass and plants which have been created and arranged to beautifully complement each other, with classical music lightly emanating from within (somewhere), was really special. It’s peak time here, and there were people around, but not so many as to spoil the enjoyment.

We stopped, mid-way, to lunch at the venue’s Collections Café. How could a librarian/archivist not enjoy that? With the menu, you are given a little booklet which says that the cafe features 28 collections from Dale Chihuly. So, inset into our table, under glass, was a collection of shaving brushes. Suspended from the ceiling were piano accordions. Displayed in the wall were old radios. And so on. The collections inset into tables like ours included dolls furniture, ceramic dog ornaments, pocket knives, string holders and inkwells. About the shaving brushes, Chihuly writes in the booklet, “one shaving brush is not so interesting, but when you put a bunch of them together, they make quite a statement”. And they did. Towards the end of the meal, two women walked by, trying to stickybeak at other people’s table insets. I could understand that. I wanted to do the same!

Anyhow, our meals were delicious. I had a lovely chopped chicken salad, and Len a turkey panini. But, we learnt our lesson – one we should have remembered, but had forgotten. Don’t order coffee after a meal if you want a proper espresso coffee. We did, and were sorry, but a little later found Uptown Espresso where I had a perfectly fine Long Black (aka Americano).

Now, back to sightseeing. After Chihuly – and having given up on the Space Needle because of long lines – we headed down to the Olympic Sculpture Park, which is physically separate from but part of the Seattle Art Museum. It was built on a former industrial site that was occupied by an oil and gas corporation until the 1970s, and was contaminated land. Wikipedia says that “as a free-admission outdoor sculpture park with both permanent and visiting installations, it is a unique institution in the United States”. It opened in 2007.

We always enjoy sculpture gardens and while this one is small, in terms of number of exhibits, it does have some fine pieces, including a recognisable Alexander Calder. The park has many seats – some of them sculptures as well – and there were a lot of people out and about enjoying the gorgeous day.

Walking home

It was then time to head for home, which we did along the waterfront for a while and then through Pike Place Market (which we’ll visit again, tomorrow), but what a market. We enjoyed watching cheesemaking at Beecher’s, and …

Not having done our Starbucks research, beyond knowing it started in Seattle, we pretty quickly worked out exactly where it started when, in Pike Place Market, we saw a long queue outside shops and a sign reading “Starbucks line continues here”. That, and people taking photos of the entrance as we struggled by, told us all we needed to know. It just took Wikipedia to confirm it. The first Starbucks outlet was there, in Pike Place Market.

Enjoying another balmy evening

For a light dinner, we went to the Lonely Planet Guide recommended Rumba (or Rhum Bar), partly because it’s only a few hundred metres from our apartment. We shared three tapas (they had an excellent gf range) and I had a tasty rum, nutmeg and lime “punch” while Len had a pineapple cider.

We finished off the night by walking a little further – into Capitol Hill – to check out the Jimi Hendrix statue. It was worth it (but you can decide for yourselves from the pic below)!

Today’s images

Still ones …

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Moving ones …

Mille fiore, Chihuly …

 

Chihuly Garden and Glass, and Space Needle …

 

Chihuly Garden and Glass …

 

Making cheese at Beecher’s …