Hing Hay Park at 423 Maynard Ave S. is a vital part of Seattle’s International District. The name translates to “Park for Pleasurable Gatherings”. The pagoda, or Grand Pavilion, was constructed in Taipei, Taiwan in 1974. The mural facing the park shows an elaborate dragon. When I visited there was a group of men playing chess on the over-sized chess board and others were playing ping pong.
How could I have lived here all this time and not have known that Seattle had the World Famous Giant Shoe Museum! It’s in the lower level of the Pike Place Market and the photo shows all of it. For $1.00 in quarters one can see the entire exhibit. The stool on the left cost $.50 and the two in the middle cost $0.25 each and the one on the right explains the museum ad is free. The museum was built in 1997 by Sven Sundbaum and is next to Old Seattle Paperworks. One of the windows features the size 37 shoes of the world’s tallest man, Robert Wadlow. That is him on the mural in his real height of 8’11.1″. Robert Wadlow died at the age of 22 after complications from blister. 40,000 people attended his funeral. When I stand next to him, the top of my head is in the middle of the W of his last name. 
The International Fountain is situated in the middle of the Seattle Center and shots of music in time with music. I remember taking my dear daughter there was she was just little, two or three and she would chase the water spray and the pigeons too! I was there today and I’m glad to write that there are still young children (and some older ones!) playing in the fountain. Originally it was built as part of the 1962 World’s Fair, but in 1995 it was replaced and expanded. More information can be found here and a video can be found here.
So, as a last hurrah before school started I wanted to go to the conservatory in Volunteer Park in Seattle. Dear husband and I parked the car and first wandered over to the dahlia garden. From there we spotted Seattle’s Asian Art Museum. Oh! We’ve been meaning to go there. It is a lovely, art deco building constructed in 1933 was originally occupied by the Seattle Art Museum until 1991 when they moved into their new downtown location. The property is a designated Seattle landmark. The space is open and I really liked most of the exhibits. We never did go to conservatory! Maybe next time. The museum’s website is here.
Every year we can, we go to the Solstice Parade up in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood. Since this blog is rated G (ok, maybe PG) I won’t post photos of the body painted pre-parade bicyclists, though I admire their joie de vivre! Instead I focused on the 53′ Cold War era Rocket on the building at the corner of Evanston and 35th Street. In 1991 the rocket was deemed quirky enough for the off beat neighborhood and in 1994 it was installed.
http://fremont.com/about/storyrocket-html/
It was a lovely day at the Lake Washington Ship Canal and Hiram M. Chittenden Locks (the Ballard Locks) at 3015 NW 54th Street, Seattle, WA 98107. Dear daughter and her dear friend had one last day at their Seattle conference and I had time again to explore Seattle. I got wildly lost getting there (darned that GPS woman!) and ended up on the wrong side, but that was just fine since there was ready parking and it gave me more of a chance to stretch my legs. I went down to see the fish viewing area and saw two little bitty salmon swimming gamely along. The causeway over the spillway connects the two sides of the locks and is an invigorating, misty walk. Then on the other side is the visitor’s center and gardens. I walked on through the park to the fish and chips place right outside the gate, then with lunch in hand I returned to a sunny bench in the park for an alfresco lunch.
The ship canal was built in 1917 and connects Lake Washington, Lake Union, and Salmon Bay to the Puget Sound. While I was there, it was mostly pleasure boats. The locks were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
There is a wonderful sculpture at the locks named Salmon Waves by Paul Sorey.
I needed to drive dear daughter and her dear friend up to Seattle for an anime convention this morning and thought since it was such an incredibly beautiful day that I’d finally check out the Olympic Sculpture Park at 2901 Western Avenue, Seattle, WA 98121. The park has its own parking garage (how cool is that?!) and for $10 I could stay all day. There are two building in the park. The first is the PACCAR Pavilion, which has restrooms, a small gift store and several exhibits including the wonderful mural pictured below (Encontro das Águas (Encounter of Waters) by Brazilian artist Sandra Cinto). The second building is actually one of the permanent sculpture pieces, Neukom Vivarium by Mark Dion. That piece features a 60′ nurse log in an 80′ greenhouse building that simulates the original forest ecosystem.
There are 18 sculpture pieces altogether, some permanent and some temporary. Alexander Calder’s The Eagle (1971) is perhaps the most striking sculpture, with its strong lines and vibrant red color showing nicely against the blue of Elliott Bay. Also distinctive is Typewriter Eraser, Scale X by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen (1998-1999). I’ve also included Richard Serra’s Wake (2004), Louise Bourgeois’ Father and Son (2004–2006) and Roxy Paine’s Split (2003). And just because she is so cool, the performance artist at Pike’s Place Market.
There are plenty of chairs in the park and people were sunning, reading, walking, visiting, admiring and jogging. Really, it was a happening place!
Dear daughter wanted to go to Seattle’s International District for her birthday this weekend and we wandered over to the International Children’s Park to have a time playing on the dragon, playing the drums and spinning. The park is located at 700 South Lane Street and was established n 1981. The dragon, which I climbed on and successfully got off of, was created by Gerard Tsutakawa. His father was also a sculptor and he design The Lily Statue in Lakewood.
I was delighted to see that the cherry trees in the park had begun to blossom!
Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), 860 Terry Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109 in Lake Union Park.
It is impossible to walk around the new Museum of History and Industry without remembering something or learning something new. It is like a trip down memory lane! I went with a group and had lunch and heard a lector and got to explore the museum. At first blush the museum looks lovely, but not very full. But the opposite is true. There are a bunch of areas devoted to different themes all over the building. The 4th floor shows off the wonderful view and there is even a telescope! In addition there is a gift store and a cafe. It was a great time 😀
Some of the Seattle icon’s displayed include:
I was delighted by the musical presentation on the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. The museum is next to Seattle’s Wooden Boat Center, which is free and had the Foss Tugboat available for touring. The ship below wasn’t open when I went by, but I thought the light was lovely.
One of the best finds of the day was the parking lot, which is just on the other side of the trolly tracks. For $2 I could park for up to 9 hours! And while I didn’t do it this time, next time I might just take the trolly off somewhere!
The Theme of the ALA Midwinter is “The conversation starts here”. ALA takes place this weekend in the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. I went up for the day to visit the zillion vendors (more or less) The first person I ran into was somebody that I know! Really there were a bunch of friends there and one long time Facebook, AAUW friend that I got to meet face to face 🙂 And while there were a plethora of phones and tablets, there was also a great deal of discussion. And the vendors were friendly and had excellent freebies! I was particularly interested in learning that Gaylord was promoting Little Free Libraries “Libraries Big & Small We <3 Them All!” I put my name in to win a premade little library structure. While there I also snapped a photo of some of the art, the view and the ALA poster that my daughter (via phone) insisted I purchase.
