Friday 7th April – Seattle

I vaguely heard the Baileys get back about midnight, in amongst all the rainfall.  They are understandably shattered this morning, but are hoping that by having a really long day yesterday it has forced them to revert to Pacific time.  But it was a successful day so they were glad they made the effort (and made it back to Seattle in one piece, having had to stop for a short nap after Stu nearly fell asleep at the wheel!).

We maximised having their hire car available this morning by getting a lift into Seattle to see Kurt Cobain's house – the location where he took his own life (morbid I know!).

There is a bench on a grassy area by the house where people have left flowers, candles and notes.  We had a bit of excitement when we spotted a Traffic warden about to give the hire car a ticket.  Luckily, we managed to talk him round with our goofy British accents - and the fact we had no idea that it was illegal to park against the direction of traffic! It was hard work to convince him of our stupidity, but eventually he voided the ticket.

View across Lake Washington towards Bellevue

Then it was on to Seattle Airport to return the hire car and catch a light link train into Seattle.  I had picked up some local tips from a resident of the RV site that I met in the pool last night about best methods of transport and places to see.  Getting off the train, the others were peckish and we found a McDonald's. Initially, we wondered why there was security employed in the restaurant.  But within minutes of our arrival they were having to deal with some interesting people and turf out those who were being too disruptive.  We didn’t hang around for long!

Awesome sculpture in the museum consisting of nearly 700 separate instruments

The weather was not on our side, so instead of walking we caught the Monorail to the Seattle centre and ran into the Museum of Modern Pop (culture and music) as the heavens opened. We just didn’t realise the extent of the treasures available to us here.   

Copy of Jimi Hendrix's passport - I'm aiming for mine to look as overcrowded as this someday soon

We spent far too long in the small Jimi Hendrix section (he was born in Seattle, which I never knew) and an exhibition about the history of guitars before wasting precious time in a Nintendo computer area with pointless games.  We then discovered that there was a sound laboratory complete with sound-proof booths containing all sorts of instruments to try your hand at.  This kept us occupied for a while before we even discovered that there were science-fiction and horror sections to explore.  

There were some amazing exhibits in there from some iconic movies and television series. The museum shut at 5pm and we were ushered out before we had a chance to properly see everything we wanted to - Again!!

Bad photo of original ghostbusters props

Stu looking at home in the Captain's Chair from Star Trek

 

Our plan had originally been to scale the Space Needle after exiting the museum, however we came to the general consensus that with today’s cloud cover the view would probably be very restricted, so we made do with taking photos from ground level:

The weather had become even more stormy, traffic lights were swinging precariously from overhead wires and it was chucking it down. We hopped back on the monorail and made a dash to Pikes Place Market. 

The markets themselves were winding down for the day but we found a restaurant for dinner called Lowells, where they did delicious fresh fish platters

The beer was called 'Rainier'...

...It couldn't get much 'rainier' than this!

We walked a few yards from the waterfront to the Hard Rock Cafe. Being in Seattle it had the best collection of grunge scene memorabilia we have ever seen.  Si and I took our time examining the walls and taking numerous shots of guitars and pictures of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Foo Fighters and many more.

Eddie Vedder's acoustic guitar

Nirvana wall.... Krist Novoselic's bass and Kurt Cobain's acoustic guitar

Awesome picture of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden chilling out backstage back in the day

Stu has arrived in the US on a course of antibiotics, sadly still suffering from a severe bout of sinusitis.  The rest of us had alcoholic coffees to try and perk ourselves up but, all feeling over-full from dinner and with Stu feeling worse for wear, we called it a night and got an Uber back to the RV site as it was STILL pissing it down with rain! Si, Jo and I played cards for an hour or so before bed, how very rock’n’roll!