Hummel Sabbatical 2013: A spinning lunch in the sky

Monday was another beautiful day in Sammamish. And, I’m finally able to pronounce Sammamish. Sort of. With clear skies and no rain (Again! Take that, Farmer’s Almanac!), we headed to Seattle. Our first stop was the Space Needle. (Fun fact for all of my fellow engineering geeks – the center of gravity of the Space Needle is just 5 feet off the ground!) We walked around it and took pictures of it the first and second days we were there but we still had not been in it. We went 500 feet up to SkyCity, the Space Needle restaurant. This isn’t just any restaurant….this is a spinning restaurant. Every 47 minutes, the restaurant makes a full rotation, giving dizzying views of Seattle, the water, and the surrounding areas. Most days, people are granted views of the clouds two feet in front of the glass, but we could see everything. I’m not sure how we were able to avoid the three hottest days in Phoenix and have the three clearest days in Seattle, but….we’ll take it.

After lunch, the kids got a cool ice cream dessert with dry ice. I guess I’m still a kid, because the dry ice effect never gets old. I tried to fight my way in to get a scoop of ice cream, but the kids put up a wall and put forth a commendable effort at keeping me away.

About 38 seconds after the ice cream was served, the kids were done and ready to go. We headed up a floor to the observation area.

In true tourist form, we took a bunch of pictures of everyone looking at the camera (and away from the view) and then headed back down the elevator.

We walked over to the monorail, which, like the Space Needle, was built for the 1962 World’s Fair. I wondered what happened to the World’s Fair, so I dusted off the encyclopedias and looked it up. Apparently, they still have a World’s Fair (only it’s sometimes called an Expo) and the next one is in Milan, Italy in 2015. I think I’ll go.

The monorail took us to the Pike’s Place Market area. We walked through Pike’s Place Market and marveled at the number of people (eleventy billion) there and all of the fresh fish, produce, and flowers ($15 for a gorgeous arrangement of flowers….which to me means staying out (or getting out) of the doghouse for 5 days!).

We stopped by the Pike’s Place Fish Market, where they are famous for throwing fresh fish back and forth. There were mobs of people waiting to get a far-away, crappy photo of fish throwing. I got mine:

Dude throwing a fish. You can barely see the dude. And you can't see the fish. But trust me, it's a dude throwing a fish.

After not getting a good picture of a dude hurling a huge fish, we headed to the Seattle Great Wheel; the largest observation ferris wheel on the west coast. We went around and around and really didn’t get anywhere. But, with the clear day we could see downtown Seattle, the Space Needle, and gobs and gobs of water. It was very cool, and the kids really enjoyed it.