Fresh fish

Sunday 3 August 2008 - overcast/sunny again. I think I like this weather pattern, but you need to figure it out and remember to take a jacket that you can take off in the afternoon once it heats up.

In the (late) morning we headed out to the Pike Place markets. We saw genuine thrown fish, caught by the original people from the DVD! They looked like they really regretted the whole 'world famous' thing, having to perform for the masses every day. I also think that they could catch just about anything that was thrown at them, their reactions have been honed so well.

We looked around the rest of the shops in the market and watched a violin guy who was holding the violin in a special pouch around his waist and playing it like a cello. It still sounded pretty.

Then we caught the bus and I chatted with a couple of guys on it - ok, I broke into their conversation about thermite with an extremely witty comment about MacGyver.
Under their advice, we went and checked out the main Seattle Public Library. They also advised that the corpse flower was blooming at the conservatory, but much to my disappointment, we didn't manage to get there. Check out more information on it here.

In the afternoon, my friend and I headed to the Pacific Science Centre, specifically to check out the butterfly room. The variety they had was really amazing, and it's quite odd how startled you can be when a large butterfly swoops right past your face, or even just in your peripheral vision.

Included in the ticket price was a movie at the IMAX theatre. The best looking one still showing was called 'Speed' and was about making racing cars for NASCAR and featured Mario and Michael Andretti. The screen was very big.

We were taken out to Ballard (Seattle suburb) and saw the dam, locks and salmon ladder. The salmon were all quite tired so we didn't see any jumping up the ladder, but there were some already up in the dam jumping a bit so that was nice to see. We checked out the beach down there, apparently it's one of the only local beaches that you can still make bonfires at. They have fire rings...like mini braziers... on the beach that you can use so you have to arrive early to get one. There were a lot of young people there, since it's still summer break.

We had dinner at a chain restaurant called Red Robin. There was a picture of their logo on the wall inside the restaurant, but the robin looked like it was stoned (red eyes) and holding a joint. Amusing, but odd. Also, it was someone's birthday so once again the staff gathered around and sang. So much singing in restaurants.

(I'm actually writing this almost 2 weeks after it all occurred, so I can't remember anything else that might be of interest. Ok, on to the next one...)