Tag Archives: Seattle

Folk Art in West Seattle

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Dear husband and I were recently in West Seattle and I took the chance to check out some folk art, roadside attractions. The first stop was at 5274 44th Ave. SW, Seattle, WA and that home had some wonderful tree carvings in the front. Dear husband especially enjoyed the fairy hanging out on the chimney. The roadside attraction info can be found here. This is a private residence, but the art can readily be seen from the street.

The second stop was the nearby Walker Rock Garden at 5407 37th SW, Seattle, WA. I remember going to see this rock garden more than 20 years ago when it was open one Mother’s Day. I was so impressed. Here are some older photos from when I begged a peek. The amazing rockery was created by Milton and Florence Walker and the property has since sold. I’m not sure of any future plans, but it would be so wonderful if it was again opened up to the public on special occasions. The roadside attraction information can be found here and there is an Atlas Obscura entry, with some good photos, that can be found here. This is a private residence and not open to the public.

 

 

The Bubbleator from the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair

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To go to the World of Tomorrow at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, you would take the Bubbleator. It was a Plexiglas covered elevator that provided the riders (up to 100!) experience what it would be like in a bubble because of the way the light was refracted. The Bubbleator had originally been installed for the fair which the KeyArena Building is now, and it was later moved to the Seattle Center (Armory) and then taken out of that building by 1984.  Wikipedia says “While boarding the Bubbleator, passengers were commanded by an ethereal female voice to “Please move to the rear of the sphere”, or the “Martian type” male elevator operator would say, “Step to the rear of the Sphere” in a creepy sci-fi type voice. The soundtrack for the Bubbleator was conducted by Attilio Mineo and released as Man in Space with Sounds.[2]“

The top part of the Bubbleator was purchased on bid and is now at a private residence in Des Moines. Dear husband and I stopped by to see it and snap some photos, but of course left the owners to their privacy. It’s not easy to impress dear husband, but he really liked this one! (and he also liked the Hobbit Hole from the day before.) It had been a greenhouse, but appeared to be empty when we went by though I hear that it might be a recording studio. There are some photos of it here and here. To see it in action see this news report. And there is a heartwarming story here.

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The Duck and the Houseboats of Lake Union

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A row of houseboats

To celebrate our wedding anniversary dear husband and I took the Seattle Duck Tour, which translates to after years of asking I wore down my husband and we went on the Duck Tour. Part of the Duck Tour includes a brief dip into Lake Union. Houseboats are cool because they are houses that float! I mean seriously how great is that. They have been on Lake Union since the late 1800s and there is so good information about them here. Of course the most famous of the Lake Union houseboats is the one featured in the movie Sleepless in Seattle. We got a glimpse of that though it was far in the distance. Anyway the tour was a blast and we saw parts of Seattle that weren’t that familiar to us. And the nice people that run the tour told us about relatively inexpensive parking, so that was a bonus.

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Elemental Wood Fired Pizza, University Village

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Dear daughter wanted to see the Amazon Bookstore and I needed somethings up in the north land also so we went to University Village yesterday. Although I love Delfino’s Chicago Style Pizza, we decided to branch out and try Elemental Wood Fired Pizza this time. It wasn’t until I was seated that it occurred to me that I had been in an Elemental Pizza before, the one in Tacoma. It was a good experience with friendly service and tasty individual pizzas (really they could have been shared). Mine was the Truffled Mushroom pizza and hers was the Green Goddess. We each a drink (ice tea for me and raspberry lemonade for her). With the tax and tip it came to just under $50, so this isn’t going to become our everyday pizza place. But it was fun to watch them make the pizza with quality ingredients, so we will consider it as a special treat. I see there is one more location that opened in April 2016 in the Columbia Tower in downtown Seattle.

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Amazon Books and the art at University Village, Seattle

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imageAmazon.com went online selling books in 2005, a brief 10 years ago. This past Tuesday, November 3, 2015, they opened their first bricks and mortar bookstore. It has several unique features.

  1. All of the books face cover out.
  2. Each book has a little card in front of it that says a little something about it’s Amazon reviews.
  3. The prices fluctuate as they do online. To find out the price, the customer uses the Amazon app to scan the book’s barcode.
  4. The store also sells other Amazon technology which customers can use.
  5. The record of the sale has appeared on my amazon account.
  6. And there was a line to get in!

There is currently only this one Amazon Books location in University Village in Seattle.

While I was there I strolled around the entire shopping area, which was very busy! Aooarently dogs of all size and shapes are allowed in all of the stores, but not restaurants or the grocery store. I snapped a couple of shots of the outside art.

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Fremont Sunday Market, Seattle, WA

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image1(4)Dear husband and I had a quick day trip up to Seattle and we stumbled upon the Fremont Sunday Market which operates every Sunday from 10 to 4 (5 in the summer). It had a great selection of crafts, vintage goods and clothes and some wonderful food trucks all at one end. It even had a dinosaur eating a meatball! I walked away with the scarf for myself and a holiday present for my friend Susan. Of course since I was there I snapped some other Fremont photos 🙂

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Jimi Hendrix Statue on Capital Hill

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15492143614_c6bb128d11_kI’ve been wanting to go visit Capital Hill again to see Elliot Bay Books and just walk around. So dear husband and I visited with the goal of capturing the statue of Jimi Hendrix. It’s good to have goals. Jimi is situated outside of Blix Art Supplies. The statue was sculpted by Daryl Smith and was originally installed in 1997 in front of AEI Music Network, Inc. at 900 E. Pine St., though they have since moved.

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Metsker Maps

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IMG_3925I was strolling through SeaTac Airport going to my flight when I stumped upon Metsker Maps at Concourse B . That’s right, I know remember that they opened an airport location. I love maps and thus love this store! The woman working there was so pleasant and knowledgeable and their selection was great.

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The Roosevelt Hotel, Seattle

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13132435144_93d487c7e7_b When Dear Husband and I first came to visit Washington State we stayed at the Roosevelt Hotel at 1531 7th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 in downtown Seattle. I remember the hotel stay as being a good experience, but I was so happy to be exploring Seattle for the first time, that it would have been hard to dampen my excitement! It was completed in the deco style in 1929 with John Graham and Harold Lockland as the architects.

 

 

 

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Asahel Curtis’ Seattle Home in 1916

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12532231773_ed25a9071e_cThis house, which sold in the summer of 2013 for $935,000 was constructed in 1913 and per Tacoma Public Library it was occupied in 1916 by Asahel Curtis and his wife, Florence. The house is located in the 1100 block of 36th Avenue and has a view of Lake Washington, the city skyline of Bellevue and Mt Rainier. Asahel Curtis and his brother, Edward Curtis, were well known photographers. They had a parting of ways in about 1900 and never reconciled. Asahel married Florence in 1902 and in 1911 he established his own photography studio.

While I was wandering around in Seattle, I stumbled upon a charming little free library in a newspaper box. I also found a group of four friends taking a dip in a very chilly Lake Washington. Altogether a good day!

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