Well, I'm pleased to say that my lovely wife and I have returned home safely to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. But Cari insisted that I throw up the final few pictures from our last day in Seattle.
I think it's her desperate attempt to remember what life can be like without six kids.
We spent the final day exploring Seattle and spent a good bit of time at the Pike Street Public Market -- which as we said before is the oldest continuosly operating farmer's/public market in the country.
I must say, this place is really cool. There are an incredible number of booths and storefronts with almost anything you might like.
Especially if you're hungry!
Consider this row of storefronts...
Greek food. Juice bar. Chinese pastry. Italian food.
Ah, heaven.
They have a wonderful spice and pepper market, with strings of peppers hanging from above...
But my wife was most ecstatic about this...
Yes, vats and vats filled with cheese!
Of course, I was most excited about the fresh fish...
As I think I said on a previous posting, the Public Market is home to the famous fish throwers. These are just a regular bunch of guys who work in the backbreaking work of packing and shipping fresh fish -- but they insist on enjoying their work and approach it with a remarkably positive attitude. It is contagious as they playfully interact with the public.
There is even a series of educational videos that is based on their "Fish Philosophy" -- and they've made it into a motivational business tool.
Anyway, whenever someone selects a fish, a guy who interacts with the public throws it to one of the packers behind the counter...
The blurry thing on the upper right of the picture is the fish in motion!
Fishes in motion. Wasn't that an exercise program in Hawaii with Gil Gilad?
Anyway, the Public Market is also home to the very first Starbucks store in the entire world...
This original Starbucks opened in 1971.
It was 12 years later that they decided to open their second store in downtown Seattle.
In the 20 years after that, the company opened 5,631 other Starbucks across the world.
Of course, this modern Starbucks logo can be seen on virtually every corner in every major city in America...
It is actually a variation on the more risque original Starbucks logo that continues to be used at this very first store...
Can you imagine their motto had they chosen to still use it?
Starbucks. Coffee with boobs.
One of the most surprising things about Seattle was how hilly it is. Between the smell of the ocean, the wharfs and the hills, you almost feel like you're walking around San Francisco.
And like San Francisco, Seattle does not have a subway system to get you around town. However, to avoid San Francisco traffic, they have come up with a very interesting solution to buses overwhelming downtown street.
Thus, here is the Metro Tunnel...
And from the picture above, you can pretty much figure out how it all works.
Underneath Seattle is this enormous tunnel through which city buses can operate. It's weird. You go down two long escalators underground until you find this...
You would think that being so close to the ocean, it would be problematic building this below sea level. But it seems that the hills are so steep that by the time you get four blocks from the wharf, you're so far above sea level that it's not a problem!
Anyway, the system is undergoing a massive renovation that begins in two days -- so the celebrations downtown were going crazy...
Seriously, they had acrobats. Sort of a poor city's alternative to Cirque de Soliel.
There were all these street performers hired by the transportation authority to celebrate the fact that the tunnel was closing for 18 months...
...after which time the buses would return to the underground that is "better than ever in 2007" -- hey, whatever tickles your fancy is fine with me.
Well, Seattle is also home to the Science Fiction Museum, thanks to the generosity of Paul Allen (the other founder of Microsoft). He put much of his personal collection in the museum, including his collection of Star Trek phasers...
Although I have to admit I was most excited about the Battlestar Gallactica stuff. For those of you who remember the original series, you'll recognize this guy...
Yes, it's a daggit named Muffit. In the front of Muffit is a TV Guide from 1979 which shows that this costume was once warn by a small monkey -- in the days before robotics and animatronics in Hollywood -- and so that's why Muffit always walked like a monkey.
Seriously, I always wondered that.
I am quite happy to be able to check one of life's great mysteries off my list.
The museum is also filled with the costumes and robotic figures from many science fiction hits...
Yes, that's the Terminator after his skin is burned off in one of the movies, a Cylon Centurion from Battlestar Gallactica, and I'll give bonus points to anyone who can identify that short little robot on the bottom right of the above picture.
It's Twiki from the old series, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century!
And of course, we cannot forget this little green fellow...
This museum is right near the Space Needle, which is a poor substitute to the Stratosphere in Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada (the Space Needle is only about half as tall as the Strat). Well, since we were there, Cari and I were going to try to visit the Space Needle as well.
Then I remembered the words of Yoda.
"Do or do not. There is no try."
So we did not and had lunch instead.
After living in the Mohave Desert this past year, I must say that it has been nice to stand next to the ocean once again.
Just look at this peaceful view of the oceanfront in all its serenity...
Okay, maybe not.
But it's still really cool the way they unload these giant containers off massive cargo ships. It's hard to get a perspective on the monumental size of those crain unloaders -- but just know that each of those colored containers is the size of the standard trailer pulled by a semi you see driving on the highway!
Anyway, we found ourselves visiting the nation's oldest continuously functioning public/farmer's market...
This is the home of the famous fish guys -- those folks who sell fresh fish and throw it around to each other for the entertainment of the tourists. Unfortunately, they weren't doing it when we came by, but the market is still really neat...
There are some really strange things as well, like this sign showing the size of the world's tallest man...
They even have this thing here...
Although one must wonder how they can consider a 30 year-old hot dog still the world's best.
Seattle is also home to Microsoft, those goofy tech guys whose brains fill up our computers. So technology and monuments to it can be found everywhere.
This is the only place in the world where I've seen something like this...
Obviously a giant celebration of the mathematical value of pi.
Even the highways around here are really quite neat. Look at the road in the distance of this picture...
This is a triple decker highway!
Ultimately, though, this is a port city and there is plenty of access to the waterfront.
In most cities, though, to get to the water, you walk across the sand.
Not in high tech Seattle...
Unreal. An elevator to get to the water!
Well, around the corner, I thought that this must be the elevator...
But no, it is a high tech public restroom.
Besides the world of high tech, Seattle also has its taste of local celebrities.
Remember those lines from the old George Benson song, "On Broadway"...
They say that I won't last too long on Broadway
I'll catch a Greyhound bus for home, they all say
But they're dead wrong, I know they are
'Cause I can play this here guitar
And I won't quit till I'm a star on Broadway
Well, I guess George got on the Greyhound.
His name might not be in neon on Broadway Avenue, but it is on a streetcar line on Madison Street...
That picture was from "Clam Central Station" -- probably the endpoint after George left New York from Grand Central Station.
And we're off soon to see another "star" in Seattle...
We have tickets to Stefanie Powers in "The King and I" at the famous 5th Avenue Playhouse.
From "Hart to Hart" to Rodgers and Hammerstein. Seattle is a hoot!
So today begins a trip to that most unique and charming of cities, Seattle, Washington.
I need to be there for the early part of the week on business and my lovely wife will join me on Monday. Together we will take some time away from our children and simply enjoy each other's company.
Where are the kids? We left them locked in the downstairs bathroom.
Well, maybe not, but my mother-in-law has generously agreed to watch over them in Las Vegas and as wild as they can get -- I wouldn't blame her if she decided to lock them up from time to time.
Of course, it has been over a year and a half since either Cari or I have experienced a real fall. We were leaving behind the mid-90s of Las Vegas for this...
Okay, maybe it's hard to see, but the daytime temperature at the airport was 52 degrees!
Thank goodness Seattle has such a wonderful downtown. Seattle was long known as a place of meandering streets filled with quirky little stores and lots of outdoor cafes. I was so looking forward to sitting outside at some street cafe sipping a cup of that legendary Seattle coffee.
Seattle is the birthplace of Starbucks, after all, which is a testament to how the citizens of this city cherish their unique little coffee shops.
I took a quick walk around our hotel and found an incredible number of charmingly special gems only found in Seattle.
There was a wonderful aroma from this little shop...
A nice fellow I chatted with told me to search out this funky original place right across the street...
But you have to look around a bit to find this hidden hole in the wall...
But I cannot think of anything with more character than this place around the corner from the last...
Then there was this formal place that still managed to retain some charm...
Downtown Seattle is filled with office buildings, but if you search through them -- you can see from this building directory that the search for the needle in the haystack is worthwhile...
Some of these unique little stores choose to use a color scheme of their own...
But ultimately, you can take comfort that literally in this three block area in downtown Seattle, there are lots of choices each special in their own way...
Welcome to that most unique and charming of cities, Seattle, Washington.
My lovely wife Cari has an extraordinary number of exceptional qualities, but unfortunately being comfortable in water in not one of them.
Such was the case with each our six children. Every time we stayed in a hotel with a pool or otherwise went swimming, they enjoyed themselves but basically they still were, well, terrified of the water.
Dunk your head? No thank you.
Open your eyes underwater. Never happen.
Nalani is demonstrating as far as most of my terrific kids would get into the water...
Well, give our kids a mere three weeks in a house with a pool and I do believe they have become fish.
Consider our youngest boy Kekoa -- who three weeks ago barely would stick his feet in the water. And look at him now...
We bought an underwater camera and the kids kept trying to one-up each other as to who could convince me to take their picture most often underwater.
Here's my Vulcan son David...
And my boy Bretty waving hello...
What's really neat, however, is not just that they dunk their heads, but are really learning to swim through the water as David and Alyssa are doing here...
We kept trying to get our four oldest kids to pose together at the same time, but even after a dozen dunks, we couldn't do it. So here are Kekoa, Alyssa and David underwater...
Followed by Bretty, Alyssa, and David...
And here's my baby Malia with her lovely mother. Notice how Cari is joining right in there with the kids swimming underwater...
Hey, she's smart, sexy, charming, a terrific mom and a great cook. You don't need to do any of those things underwater!
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