Wednesday, January 22, 2020

EMERALD CITY NOTES, ILLUSTRATED

Your Humble Narrator made a quick trip this past weekend to Seattle with The Wife and The Kid; more a family errand than a vacation, but after we did what we went there to do we also managed a fair amount of touristy stuff including the Space Needle (I apologize in advance for my abject photography skills)...




The Kid and I went up by night...



...the view was magnificent but the more than usually imbecilic look on my face is reflective of my terror of heights. In one area of the spire the floor is glass, and I attempted to step out onto it and found that my body simply rebelled. I was disgusted with my inability to rule myself through reason, and at last was able to stand on it for, I would guess, a second and a half before retreating to the security of an opaque floor.

In the gift shop I obtained this nostalgic extruded plastic dingus in the shape of the Needle...


...as well as this hat reading "1962," the year of the Needle's nativity and also, less auspiciously, of Your Humble Narrator's...


We also made it to the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) across the street from the Space Needle, where I was able to behold, among much, much else, a real Dalek from Dr. Who...

 
...Billy Mumy's costume from Lost in Space...



 ...some of Ken Strickfaden's electrical equipment from the original 1931 Frankenstein...


...some Star Wars props and costumes including a Jawa...




...Captain Nemo's jacket from the Disney 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea...

 
...a Martian war machine from the George Pal War of the Worlds...



...and the Witch's hat from The Wizard of Oz...


Quite the nerd reliquary, no doubt.

All this and more plus a quick visit to the breathtaking University of Washington library...


...plus two sublime seafood dinners, plus on the ride home, a postcard-worthy view of Mt. Rainier...



...and, further south, of the Grand Canyon...



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