Day two in Seattle began at about 8:30 am. After a quick breakfast upstairs in the hotel lounge, we found ourselves walking back up to Pike Place Market. The market was nearly unrecognizable from the night before. Vendors had filled the previously empty stalls that line the cobblestone streets of the market. Tourists and natives to Seattle littered the streets and inside market area snapping pictures, buying fresh fish and produce, and taking in the sights and smells.
Of all the stalls we walked by, my favorites were those that housed the fresh flowers. Apart from consisting of so many amazing different colors and types of flowers, they also smelled fantastic! (Unlike the fresh fish stalls which had a very different odor to them…) If we weren’t leaving Seattle tomorrow morning I would have contemplated buying a bouquet to keep in the hotel room. They were that pretty!
A staple of the Pike Place Market is the famous Gum Wall. After a little searching, we found the Gum Wall in an alley below the market. The walls were covered in different colored gum. Some was just a gob on the wall while other people had taken the time to stretch their gum out on the walls. It was pretty gross but also cool at the same time. I was also sure to add my own piece of gum to the wall.
While walking through the market, we also happened to pass the “original” Starbucks that we had stopped in the night before. And wow are we lucky that we stopped in last night when the line only went two people outside the door! Today, the line went outside the door and almost down the entire block that the Starbucks sat on. There was no way that we would have waited in line to make it into the shop today. Instead we snapped a few photos out front and moved on.
After walking through the market again, we decided to make the trek north towards the Space Needle. We still had not decided whether or not we were going to actually go up in the Space Needle as we had read many conflicting reviews on whether or not it was worth the price and the wait. When we got there, we saw the winding line that was not only inside the Space Needle but also outside. Needless to say, we made the decision to pass on going up and just snapped a few pictures instead.
Our next destination was the Space Needle’s close neighbor, the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit. This museum showcases the work of glassblower and designer Dale Chihuly. The exhibit was both indoor and outdoor and boasted glass of different shapes and vibrant colors. My favorite exhibit was the first one we walked into. It was a dark room with pink, white, and grey blown glass. Lights were set underneath the glass to give it a glow-stick light appearance. Super cool. There were also sculptures outside in the gardens which were also pretty neat. My only wonder though is what they do with the glass outside if it happens to rain or better yet, hail. I guess this is a question I’ll never know the answer to.
It was time to grab a quick lunch after the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum so we headed across the street to the Subway located in the KOMO Plaza. This is important. Why might you ask? Well, the KOMO Plaza just so happens to be one of the locations that Grey’s Anatomy is shot at. It is a local television studio that Grey’s Anatomy calls home for scenes that involve Grey Sloan Memorial’s helipad shots and some outside shots of the hospital as well. The helipad is easily recognizable as the one from the TV series and they even have SGH permanently etched onto the TV station’s helipad today.
After lunch we visited the EMP Museum, or the Experience Music Project Museum. This museum hosts exhibits devoted to music, sci-fi and horror movies, pop-culture. I had read good reviews of the museum and was excited to go see what all the hype was about. After walking through each exhibit though, I was sadly disappointed by what I saw or rather didn’t see. While there was a lot to look at, it was not what I expected it to be. The museum boasted many science fiction and horror movie props, had a large wing dedicated to Jimi Hendrix, an exploratory music lab aimed at little kids making as much noise as they could at once, and a wearable art exhibit that seemed like the odd man out to everything else in the museum. To me, the best part was seeing Sirius Black’s costume from the Harry Potter movies and the costumes from the Princess Bride. If you are planning on visiting Seattle any time soon, I would advise you to skip the EMP Museum.
On our way back from the Space Needle area, we walked through the Olympic Sculpture Park. While the park itself did not seem to contain as many sculptures as I had thought it would, the view of the ocean was incredible and not something you want to skip.
Later in the evening, I lived the life of Derek Shepherd and rode the ferry boat from Seattle to Bainbridge Island. The ferry boat ride lasted about 35 minutes and had great views of both the Seattle skyline and Mt. Rainier off in the distance. When we got to Bainbridge Island, we headed to their cute little downtown area by foot to find a restaurant for dinner. We ended up at a Mexican restaurant, Isla Bonita, just a short walk away from the ferry boat docking area. After dinner, we headed back to the dock to catch the boat back to Seattle. Taking the ferry to Bainbridge Island was a great low-cost option that boasts great views of Seattle instead of taking a more expensive tour by boat. Highly suggest taking the ferry instead of a boat tour. Plus, Bainbridge Island is a very pretty escape from the busy streets of Seattle.
Over the course of the day, we walked about 10 miles. My Fitbit says 22,788 steps. Wow. A very exhausting day, but we fit a ton of what we wanted to see in so most definitely worth each and every step. Tomorrow we head off bright and early to cross the border and make our way to Vancouver, Canada!
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