Travelling Post 58 - Seattle

Wet, wet wet, that is the best way to describe Seattle, particularly in the winter. Gone was the crisp coldness of Portland, replaced with the miserable wet which was also cold and windy.

Weather aside Seattle is a pretty decent city, busier than Portland but not as bad as San Francisco or LA. It is surrounded by nice park lands, or so I'm told, I got the chance to visit just one which was nothing special but when I planned to go to the bigger better parks the weather just put me off.

Whilst in Seattle I did two noteworthy activities, the first was an underground tour. About a hundred or so years ago Seattle was wrecked by a great big fire, which was no real big loss as the city was a bit of a hole, poor drainage being a major problem. Because of the drainage issues the city needed to be built around 12foot higher than it originally stood but due to sthe lack of money and someone lacking a sensible idea this wasn't possible to do right at this time. The solution was to build everything at ground level and raise it several years later in stages. The underground tour was on the post fire sidewalks which, unlike the roads were not filled in with cement when they were raised. It was a fascinating look into how US cities were built.

The second noteworthy activity was a visit to the Experience Musical Project & Science Fiction Museum. Both museums were fascinating and the EMP was the most interactive museum I have ever been to, they have a room full of instruments where a computer teaches you how to play one song. It's major downside was how it seemed to give the onesided message that all US music is great but other than that it is a place where you can spend hours looking at its few exhibits. Rather predictably I preferred the SFM, whilst less interactive it was crammed full of Sci-Fi artifacts and displays that even the most knowledgeable Sci-Fi geek will learn something.

Next Stop: Vancouver, Canada