I’ve spent the last week up in Seattle for a conference. It’s not my first time in the Pacific Northwest (I’ve been to Portland once or thrice) but it is my first time in the Emerald City.
Overall, I’ve had a good time, but there’s been some…bumps…along the way.
First Impressions
Things got off to a rocky start.A young woman demanded I gave up my seat on the commuter rail in from the airport, not by asking, but by standing in the aisle, glaring at me, and then saying “Well?!”
Later, when I tried to get in an elevator that was about half full, the guy blocking the doorway just stared at me, and refused to let me by, even after I asked him if I could get in.
And I’ll not mention the number of cars that tried to run me over as I was crossing the street (at a crosswalk, with the light green).
This was all the first day. People I met later on (at the conference, when eating out, etc) were cool and friendly, but that first impression…lingers.
Architecture
I'm not sure what I was expecting Seattle buildings to look like, but I definitely wasn't expecting this thing, which looks like it's going to fall over any second now:
Or this, which looks like someone framed out half a building and decided “eh, it’s good enough”:
I mean, I like ‘em, they’ve got a cool sci-fi vibe to them. But damned if I can explain ‘em.
Hills
Ye gods, Seattle is hilly. San Francisco, eat your heart out.
You can see why I never had any trouble meeting my Apple Watch’s Move demands each day.
Weather
I've discovered December is the wrong time to visit Seattle.Not when I throw open the curtains in my hotel room, hoping for some morning sun, to find this:
I think I’ve seen the sun once all week. Suddenly I understand how grunge music came from this place.
MoPop
I can forgive everything, though, for the Museum of Pop Culture.Housed in another building that looks like it just dropped in from a sci-fi movie lot, this place is amazing. I spent three hours there on Wednesday night, and it still wasn’t enough.
How could it be, when they’ve got original models used in filming Aliens:
And Gimli’s helmet:
And Shuri’s gloves:
They even did up the hall where the Doctor Strange props and costumes are exhibited in mirrors and glass, so it looks like you’ve stepped into the mirror dimension:
Wow.
Conclusions
I definitely want to come back. There's a technical bookstore I want to browse, a bunch of machines at the Living Computers museum I want to play with, and too many breweries I want to patronize.But I’ll wait for the late spring, maybe summer, when I can actually, you know, see things.
