Seattle with Delle

Time to start blogging about all the things we've been up to during Delle's stay!! There are now only two days left of her 4 week visit, and we've been rather busy!

On Sunday afternoon, June 20th (two days after she arrived), Delle and I set off on a overnight trip to Washington state. Our border crossing was only delayed slightly by the fact that none of the customs officials could find or fully remember the email they had recently received about a new process in which people who arrive at certain US airports no longer require a green slip in their passport as proof of their visa waiver program eligibility. After nodding and smiling while they told us a variety of things we knew to be incorrect (They have guns! Nodding and smiling is the best strategy!), they let us into the USA and we stayed that night with Donna and Terry (and Tucker).





The next morning we drove to Seattle, where our first stop was Theo Chocolate: "the only organic, fair trade, bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the United States". We had left it too late to book a factory tour, but we did sample lots of chocolate and buy a few goodies.





Our next destination was Pike Place Market, which Ben and I had been to when we were in Seattle en route to Vancouver 1.5 years ago. The Pike Place Market is home to the fish-throwing, singing fish salesmen that feature in the business strategy book Fish!. The balloon man in the photo below was there 1.5 years ago and we took a photo of him then too - imagine doing that as your full time job!





We had lunch at a cute little crumpet shop near the Market.







Next we walked to the Westlake Centre Mall and rode the monorail to the Seattle Centre station, across from the Space Needle (a famous landmark in the Seattle skyline). Our destination was the nearby Experience Music Project, which we'd just heard about that morning from Donna and Terry. The EMP is in the fabulously unusual building pictured below - we were told it's meant to look like a smashed guitar, but we didn't see it from whatever angle would make that apparent!









The EMP had various exhibits, such as a timeline of guitar development, and some famous musicians' guitars...





A gallery of costumes worn by The Supremes...







...And this fantastic sculpture featuring nearly 700 instruments, 40 of which were custom-made to play themselves, so you could put on headphones to hear the music the sculpture was making in real time!!







But the highlight of the EMP was the making of the following video. In exchange for the embarrassment-quashing involved in our decision to publish this exceptional display of musicality - a decision made because we care about your daily laugh quota - we expect some comments!!! (Although maybe "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" applies here!!)

Before driving home that evening, we met up with three Seattle-ites for dinner. From left to right in the photo below, they are Dan, Justin (Donna and Terry's son), and Kateen. We ate at a seafood restaurant on the waterfront, and afterwards went and had a look at the NZ Navy ship moored nearby. Dinner with some locals was a great end to our day in Seattle - thanks to Justin for organising it!