Sleepless in Seattle

During the time we spent in the area, we took a day trip into Seattle to see the sights.

The first thing on my agenda was to visit the Fremont Troll, which based on the description sounded so cool but it was a bit of a disappointment.  He's basically constructed out of concrete and with the graffiti and dirt you can barely see the VW Beetle bus he's holding in his hands.  Oh well.

Yes, this is an actual full size  VW Beetle 

The troll is located under a bridge...very appropriate

Next on our agenda was to visit the Chihuly Garden and Glass Exhibit next to the Space Needle.  This was the highlight of my day and I would consider it a "must see" if in this area.

As we went from one exhibit to the other inside I think even Left Brain was stunned by the scope of this beautiful exhibit.
This was called the Persian ceiling and the light coming through the glass made the most delightful splashes of color on the wall.

This is just a small sample of the ceiling

  One of my favorite exhibits was the Ikebana and Float Boat.

This was my attempt without flash to show the richness of the colors

This was with flash to show more of the detail.  It's set on a mirrored surface, creating the reflections

This area was called the glass forest.

This was in the sea life room.  You can get a sense of the size by noticing the lady standing towards the right side.

This is in the glasshouse, with this huge exhibit suspended overhead.

When we were ready to go outside I turned to him, smiled and said "and the best is yet to come" as I knew there was much more out in the gardens.

The plantings were beautifully paired with the glass art that was placed everywhere.  There are no words to describe it.

Great care was taken to have the proper colored foliage to pop the colors of the glass. 

Even these black and white glass balls were lovely nestled in the black Mondo grass

the flowers and foliage were beautiful all by themselves

I loved the use of the Japanese Forest Grass with this grouping

Parts of it made me feel I was inside a Dr Seuss story.

Parts of it were exciting and stimulating.

Other parts were calming and serene.

I will set up an album in Facebook for all the photos I took, but I tried to show what I felt were the highlights in this blog post. 

To take this shot I was on my knees and laying back on the sidewalk, much to the shock of a couple of people passing by.  

What can I say?   I'm bendy.  

And the best part was I was able to get up again using my own powers

After this exhibit we went to Pike Place Market and had lunch at Cutter's Crabhouse. 

 We both opted for the cup of clam chowder with an open faced crabmeat sandwich.  Both of these offerings were so rich and so good.  Why I didn't photo the presentation I don't know...too excited to start eating I guess.

They are designating some areas just for bicycle traffic and this was the first time I've ever seen a signal like this.

When this truck went by, I just had to take a snap of its clever use of a title.

We had planned to take the Underground Tour but the parking was horrible, so we settled on a Pot Top hand forged donut as a consolation prize and headed home.

Long Live the Sleepless Queen