Now....The Rest Of The Story.....Sort of ..

Whew!!!  We've done a lot this week gang, but I can't wait to share some other parts of our visit to the beautiful Northwest.  Today we're going to visit a place I mentioned the other day - the L. C. Smith Tower in Pioneer Square.  First, though, I need to point out something I forgot to mention.  Over time we have had quite a few folks from other countries join us on our wanderings.  We really love having friends from all over the globe along as part of the SCTravelersX3 Gang and we want to make our posts as meaningful as we can.  Most of our visitors are probably more proficient in English than I am - but - to make sure they have the best chance of understanding things when I go off on a tangent, we added a "Translation Service" over there on the right side right under the slide shows.  If you are struggling with my "Southern-ese", all you have to do is go click on it and pick out the language with which you are most comfortable.  But - let's get back downtown. On our way out to the christening ceremony we mentioned the Tower and posted a couple of pictures - past and present - of the Seattle skyline.   Remember - that building was begun in 1910 and opened in 1914!!!  As we talk about it, that fact will become increasingly meaningful.  Now - I have to correct something I said in my "preview" the other day.  I mentioned the tower and said something like; "... think Smith and Wesson and Smith Corona..."  Well - I was only partially correct.  While Mr. Lyman Cornelius Smith did have a firearms company it was not "Smith & Wesson" (that was Horace), it was the "L. C. Smith Shotgun Company." (The plaque above and to the right was wrong!!)   The history of Smith's involvement in firearms manufacturing is very interesting and complex and, while I won't try to explain it all here - weapons such as Ithaca shotguns, Marlin rifles, Springfield rifles and many more all have links to Smith and his family.  At age 23 Smith tried the livestock business and failed.  He then tried the lumber business and only escaped failing because he managed to sell his business before he did.  He then went into the firearms business with his brother and the rest is history - er... sort of. Ever the innovator, Smith and his colleagues took a look at the blossoming typewriter industry and realized that many of the production requirements were similar to those used by their company.  So - they began moving aggressively into the typewriter business.  As competition grew, Smith and his son, Burns, began looking for a "marketing edge."  After a visit to the West coast in the early 1909,  Smith told Burns he wanted to build a 14 story office building in the small town of Seattle in Washington state.  Living in an era of grandiose construction projects, Burns immediately realized the potential 'publicity value' for their typewriter business and convinced his father to make the building "the largest building in the country outside of New York."  And a dream was born.  I won't try to cover the unique construction features of the tower but the astonishing foundation preparation has made the structure virtually "earthquake proof."  Almost every traditional 'wood feature' in buildings was replaced with steel or bronze (not endearing him to the timber industry in Washington) rendering it virtually fireproof.  The outside of the building was constructed using marble and terrazzo tile making it almost 'maintenance free.'  The seven original Otis Elevators were state of the art in 1914 and to this day nearly all of them are still using the original electric components.  In fact, the elevators are such an iconic treasure that they operate the exact same way they did on July 4, 1914 - with a manual "operator."  They are also works of art!!  The 35th floor of the building where the observation deck  is houses the famous "Chinese Room."  Legend has it that the room was decorated by the artisans of the last Empress of China as a gift to Smith and the design, decor and furnishings are astounding.  The walls, floors and ceiling are ornately carved and decorated and the dark wooden furniture clearly has an oriental flavor.  One of the chairs is uniquely carved with figures of a  Dragon and a Phoenix.  It has become known as the "Wishing Chair" and it is said that a 'willing woman' who sits in it and wishes will be married within a year.  (?)  The observation deck provides some breathtaking views of the harbor and the city and, although the tower is now dwarfed by surrounding structures, it still has a truly unusual perspective on the city.  Take a look at the view you have looking down Second Avenue toward the Space Needle.  While we were looking around we heard a tremendous cacophony of sound from the ground.  We were puzzled for a while but soon realized that the honking was coming from small yellow cars on the street below.  It seems that the cabs were having some kind of  "protest".  It didn't last long but I think they made their presence known!  There are lots of fascinating features to be seen from the observation deck - if you know what you're looking at!!  A number of the buildings have plants on their roofs and some of the city government buildings have even planted the entire roof surface in grass!!  The insulating properties and waterabsorption are particularly helpful in this climate.  We spent some time talking to the docent in the Chinese room, managed to leave a few dollars in the gift shop and, after a wonderful visit decided to head up to the Olympic Sculpture Garden.  We'll give you a break for now but be ready to go when we come back.  It's a walking tour!! See ya.

A Northern Leader Retrospective - Huh???

Thanks for strolling around Seattle with us, gang, we really enjoyed seeing the EMP, the Chihuly exhibit and visiting with our folks.  Obviously, this is a great place for sight-seeing and we've got a lot more to see!!!  But - I promised to take a look back at some of the steps in the development of the Northern Leader so  that's what we're gonna do.  But - let me give you a preview.  We will be visiting (as promised) the "L. C. Smith Tower" and the Olympic Sculpture Park.  We will also take a look at some other sights not far from where the Northern Leader is docked including the venerable "Fisherman's Pier."   So, plan to join us for those excursions.

Folks, we have been incredibly blessed to be able to get to know some of the finest people in the whole world over the years - both within and outside our families..  Our travels have exposed us to spectacularly talented, generous and compassionate people from every segment of mankind and for that we are forever thankful.  We will take time to get toknow some of them as time goes on but for now, we're gonna focus on something else.  It's kinda funny how things go together in our experiences.  A while back we got to visit with our beautiful niece in Kodiak, Alaska and her dynamic, talented husband.  The company he heads up is one that has stretched out to the far edges of computer technology to create world-class, super-efficient seafood processing techniques.  Hopefully, we'll get to take you there some day.  At the same time, visiting the folks back in Washington we saw similar creativity being utilized in the development of new and innovative shipbuilding methods. We didn't know, at the time, that we would see these two remarkable fields of engineering come together in one place. We got our first glimpses back in Dauphin Island, Alabama a few years back when the "Bristol Leader" was being built.  (By the way, for those of you who were with us during our visits to the "Shell Rings" along the South Carolina coast - Dauphin Island has a great example of "mound builder" culture!!!)  Anyway, although the Bristol Leader was "state-of-the-art" we could see that the Alaskan Leader crowd was just itching to go farther.  So it was exciting to learn that their energy would be put into development of a brand new ship in Tacoma.  I think Nick Delany and the entire gang down at ALF are about as talented and energetic as they come in the business world.  They and the Bristol Bay Development folks make a very good team and when they and the folks down at Martinac and Jensen came together it was clearly something out of X-Men.  But, to me, the critical element was a guy with the vision, courage and drive to keep things moving in the right direction, at the right pace and Shaun played that role to perfection.  (By the way, that's his "home-away-from-home" above and to the left.) Yeah, I know, he'll probably throw me overboard for even saying that much but, I just had to.  Now don't get me wrong, there were scores and scores of people who were crucial to the success of this venture and I don't want to minimize their contributions.  But - if I even attempted to start naming them I would be hopelessly lost almost immediately so I'm not going to try.  If you really want to know who they all are, ask Nick, Robin or Shaun - they know them all better than even their own families probably do.  But, team effort it was.  The work that went on down in Tacoma was also a tribute to all of the shipyard workers who put the ship together.  We only got a brief opportunity to see them at work but there was obviously a lot of pride that went into each bolt, rivet, machine and wire they installed.  It is great to know that our country still has the most amazing workers around!!  As you can see from the photos beginning at the top (Fall of 2012) and proceeding to preparations for launching in January, things looked quite a bit different than they did last week during the open-house.  But it was already quite apparent that this was going to be a remarkable vessel.  Just as a 'side-note', I was absolutely fascinated when the Martinac folks, working with Shaun, put together a complete mock-up of the bridge so that they could actually see in "real time" how it would be moving about the nerve center of the ship. So - although the bridge wasn't along for the first ride down the launching ramp (see above) it finally did get to take its rightful place atop the new ship and things really began coming together.  For those of you who were there on that cold January morning when the hull went into the water you knew you were part of something special.  But I think I can detect the tiniest beginnings of a smile on the skipper's face as he begins to realize that things are nearing completion.  This was a project that everyone in Washington and Alaska should be collectively proud of - in fact, our whole country - and Canada - should.  So, to close things out I thought I'd try to put together a tribute to the folks who worked so hard together.  Turn up the sound, take a look and see what you think.  We'll be back soon with more from Seattle but, for now ... See ya.

Incredible Master of Glass

After a really fun visit to the Experience Music Project the folks from Cheney headed back to their hotel and we walked to the other side of the Space Needle where Michael and Reshu treated us to a visit (thank you, thank you!!) to a place that, although only recently opened (2012) and supposedly only temporary (spell that - 'hard to believe') has become one of the most popular spots around for visitors and locals alike.  It is the Chihuly: Garden and Glass Gallery and contains some of the incredible art of Dale Chihuly.  Born right down the road in Tacoma, Chihuly has achieved worldwide acclaim for his unbelievable creativity and ingenuity in glasswork.  The Seattle facility is not tremendously large but it certainly showcases the enormous range of forms, techniques, sizes, styles and colors for which Chihuly and his team members are so well known.  There are exhibits inside and outside - some modest in size and others, enormous.  As you enter the exhibition hall and go by the bookstore you immediately pass what, to me, was one of the most stunning exhibits - The Glass Forest.  If you've ever seen any of Chihuly's stuff you know he is famous for creating complex sculptures - often involving long, tubular arms.  The Glass Forest is all that and more.  Somehow, they filled the structures with gasses and created a "neon-like" appearance.  It was really something!! Then, depending on which way you turn, you go through the theater or on to the "Northwest Room".  The pieces here are small,individual works that are done in mostly muted, earth-tones and sand colors.  The works themselves are incredible but I will tell you, the lighting artists who set the exhibits up were spectacularly good.  Then, we move into the "Sealife Room" which contains one of the most remarkable pieces in the place.   "Sealife" contains several absolutely beautiful pieces capped off by a towering structure that evokes visions of crashing waves.  Next we move into a room (or corridor) entitled "Persian Ceiling".  Believe me - you could get a stiff neck from staring at that amazing display.  Linda and I stopped at the next exhibit, "Mille Fiori" for a 'photo op' and then on to the "Ikebana and Float Boat" exhibit.  Somehow, simply by his applications of patterns, colors, shapes and sizes, Chihuly can convey the sense of different cultures, different nations and different people.  The next room you enter is virtually guaranteed to elicit a sharp intake of breath and some murmured exclamationsalong the lines of "OMG".  It is the unbelievable "Chandelier Room."  As you head for the outdoor exhibits you pass through "The Glasshouse",  a long, glass hallway with the most amazing 100 foot long chandelier you will ever see.  And then, it is on to the outdoor displays and, I've gotta tell you, I'm not at all sure I understand how they set the exhibits up or how they protect them.   Some of them look so incredibly fragile but others give off an aura of strength and toughness. The gardens are exquisitely landscaped and when you look closely, you realize that the varieties of flowers, shrubs, and trees are quite special.  In fact the entire garden is a separate work of art in its own right and to be blended so successfully with the amazing glass works is an accomplishment that is really noteworthy.  The grounds were landscaped with specially selected vegetation including 12 different trees, 31 different shrubs, 47 different  perennials, 35 special bulb plants, 4 grasses, 5 ferns and 7 vines.  Wow!!  By the way, we are also very proud that an organization to which we belong - The Columbia Museum of Art in our state capitol - has a stunning Chihuly chandelier in the main lobby of the building.  It is extremely beautiful and reminiscent of the works in the ChandelierRoom while at the same time being unique.  I don'tknow how long this exhibit will be available in Seattle; (I really hope it becomes permanent) but if you are in the area, don't take a chance - GO!!!  And - I realized that trying to pick out photos to include here from the many we took was getting to be very frustrating.  Sooo...  I added a slide show over on the top right side of the page.  Take a look at it and you will see a bit bigger selection of these beautiful works of art.  Dale Chihuly is truly a genius and we are indebted to him for giving us these treasures.  But, be assured, even the photos in the slide show are still only a small fraction of what you will see when you visit.  We hope you have enjoyed this wonderful 'side-trip' and  although I made some kind of smart remark about the kids earlier - don't listen to me!!  I think Bradley and Josh would have been fine and I think they would have gotten a lot out of it.  So - go and bring the kids.   We'll be back soon with some stuff we promised you the other day.  Rest up, put in some eye-drops and get ready.  You've got a lot more to see.  See ya.

Seattle Strolling (???!!!!) E.M.P. and Chihuly

I hope you don't mind me repeating myself too much, gang, but I've gotta say - again - Seattle is one of our all-time favorites.  Soooo....  although we have some more stuff we would like to share from our visit to the Northern Leader, we're going to take a break and go downtown for some sightseeing.  We''ll come back a little later and show you the progression of the ship from its earliest days in Tacoma through the January launching and on to this week's events.  But, first, lets go downtown for a while.

After we returned from our visit to Blake Island and Tillicum village we simply couldn't resist

 heading down to Pike's Market to check out the amazing shops, seafood booths, food vendors of all kinds and the creative artwork by local artisans.  We were awaiting the arrival of our niece from Cheney, WA and her family and Linda's cousin Michael and his wife who live in Seattle.  We had paid for extended parking when we got here for the island trip so we left the cruise terminal and headed north on Alaskan Way toward Pike Street.  As always, we were totally spellbound by all the sights, sounds and smells of this working seaport.  Pike Place Market alone will almost put you into sensory overload and this day was no exception.  We had a great time wandering around and began heading back to the car after a couple of hours.  At that point we got a call from the Cheney gang so we planned to hook up with them for lunch.  We weren't sure where we were all located so we decided to meet near the Pier 54.  After walking all the way back we found them and started talking about places to go for lunch.  A local Quiche restaurant was one of their favorites so we decided to head for it.  THEN we found it was all the way back at Pike Place Market!!!!  Linda had already walked about a zillion and a half miles and I thought she was going to demand that we carry her back!!  But we did make it - only to find out that the restaurant we were looking for had already closed.  Sigh!!!  But, no problem, the market has a kajillion great places to eat and we wound up at another of our favorites.  After a great meal and some more walking around we were headed back for the car when we got a call from Linda's cousin Michael and his wife Reshu.  They were hoping to meet
up with us too and we decided it would be hard to miss the Space Needle so we chose it as our meeting point.  We got there and managed to find everyone again and decided that the kids would enjoy the "Experience Music Project" better known to everyone as the EMP.  The facility - which also houses the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame - is a 140,000 square foot structure that looks like two enormous cylinders - one silver and one red - that someone tried to melt down, tear and lift one side of!!!  The exhibits are absolutely stunning and the options for experiencing music are breathtaking.  Now I'm not using those words lightly, folks, and we have some pictures and videos that, I think you will
agree, unequivocally prove them. The really weird thing for folks like Linda and me (who have been out of our teens for just a tiny bit longer than our nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews) was the fact that as we wandered through the Sci Fi museum and hall of fame ... those guys were totally familiar with all of the strange characters on exhibit!!!!!  I couldn't believe how much Justin and Michael knew about the exhibits - and even Reshu and Courtney knew waaaayyy more than I ever could about the science fiction characters.  Wow!

First, though, the music; when you enter the EMP your senses are literally assaulted by "the unbelievable."  You immediately find yourself at the foot of a gigantic tower of guitars!!!  And - this ain't no ordinary tower;  there are actually automated guitars in the structure that are constantly playing a complex, beautiful composition - one note at a time.  It is difficult to explain.  I tried to get an audio/video recording of the thing but I'm not sure I'll be able to get it on the post.  We'll keep trying.  Anyway - we visited the comprehensive Jimi Hendrix exhibit and were swept back in time to an era when amplifiers and guitars - and their musician partners - were just learning their untapped potential.  Hendrix who also happened to be a "home town boy" from Seattle was truly a pioneer in electric sound generation and had a band that was as radical as they came.  I think everyone on the planet has images of Woodstock somewhere in their brains and recalls icons of rock like Richie Havens, the Who, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stones and on ... and on ... and on ... playing forever to the most appreciative audience ever assembled.  And then, at the end of the concert, the closing act appeared - The Jimi Hendrix Experience (or as he said at the time - the "Gypsy Sun and Rainbows" and, later, "Sky Church.")  Little did we know that one year and one month, to the day, after that appearance, he would be dead at age 27.  But - his legacy lives on at E.M.P. and new rockers have the opportunity to hear his music and make their own - often jamming with strangers all over the building.  What an amazing place. We also got to see the actual, original robot from "Lost in Space."  Most folks have forgotten his name - so if you have, it was "Class M-3 Model B9, General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot" not to be confused with "Robby" from "Forbidden Planet."  (Whoa!!!)  I wish I could name some of the characters shown in the Sci Fi museum but that is the province of younger folks.  But - as we said at the top, we want to provide proof of the "awesomeness" of this place.  (But, I'm having trouble with the video and I'll postpone adding it to the post until tomorrow.)  I was startled to see that the 2013 inductees into the Sci Fi hall of fame included two names I knew quite well - J. R. R. Tolkien and David Bowie!! We had a great time at the E.M.P. and decided that we would proceed down the street to another remarkable place - The Chihuly Studios.  It is an amazing place and we'll take a break before we take a look at it.  Since we still had some very active and boisterous youngsters with us we thought it might be a bit safer if we split up at this point and plan to meet at the christening ceremonies the next day.  We'll come back in just a bit to take you to a place that will just blow your mind.  But for now, rest up.  You're going to need your energy for the walk through the studio!!!  See ya..

An Awesome Visit And Fantastic Family

We are blessed with three spectacularly beautiful and wonderful nieces who have absolutely amazing husbands and children.   Linda's cousin Michael and his lovely wife Reshu have found a special place deep in our hearts and the whole bunch is just delightful to be around.  The first photo shows Josh, Breanna, Kimberly, Linda, Courtney, Justin and Bradley around the Officer's table on the bridge of the Northern Leader.  Shaun and Dylan were missing but we added a photo or two.  And - although the 'Alaska contingent'  couldn't be there this time we all thought of them often and really missed having them with us. But the time we got to spend with each other before, during and after the christening ceremonies for the Northern leader was quite special so I thought I would share some photos and  some of the things we did together.  I need to mention that on "the other side of the family" (and of the country) we have a whole other set of relatives that you will love - including two as-of-yet unattached, handsome nephews but that's for another time.  And - we haven't even started on Sherwood's bunch.  Wait until you meet the Wilmington crowd!!!  But - we don't have the space to do our "Ancestor.com" impersonation right now so we'll leave it at that.  Bottom line is - you could never even dream up a more enjoyable bunch of folks to be around than these.  I'll stop with one or two final photos - including one of Breanna demonstrating her stevedore credentials.  And when we come back, we'll show you some of the spectacular sights these folks shared with us while we were here.  Just to give you a sneak preview - they will include tons of art, technology, architecture and the sights and sounds of "Seattle happenings. "  (Including an impromptu "taxi strike" just to keep things interesting.  Along the way we will look at some of the truly unique things about the Pacific Northwest that, I think you will agree, make it one of the neatest places to visit in our beautiful country.  Rest up and come on back ... you're gonna do a lot of walking!!!  See ya.