Seattle - Pike Place Market, Space Needle, Chihuly Glass and the Ballard Locks

I don't get migraines often, maybe once a year I see auras and I take 4 ibuprofen and I get a headache but it's a dull roar. Yesterday afternoon, when I saw some auras on the way from the wine tasting, I thought I'd do the same. Well, I had the worst migraine, by far, that I've ever had. I had a brain squeezing, can't keep my head up, nausea inducing headache that lasted for 14 hours! That has never happened before. Who knows what triggered it...the total of 2 glasses of wine I had over 5 hours, being so tired after the ferry trip lack of sleep, the heat...who knows. I only knew that I had today to check out Seattle and I still felt nauseous with a slight headache this morning. I was planning on hitting Pike Market by 7:00 a.m. and knew it wasn't going to happen.

So, made myself some tea, took a shower and got some crackers from the hotel pantry. I checked out the public transportation schedule, told myself to suck it up and headed into Seattle around 8:30 a.m. Luckily it was cloudy and cooler than any day I've travelled so far, which was so nice. I got off the bus and walked about 3/4 of a mile to Pike Place Market overlooking Elliott Bay. The market opened in 1907 and is one of the oldest continuously operated public markets in the U.S.

The market was perfect, not too crowded and not hot so it was fun wandering around all of the produce, flowers, spices, souvenirs and, of course, fish.

After being at the Granville Island Market, Pike Place wasn't as impressive to me but I still really enjoyed the energy of the place and had fun talking with vendors. After I was done checking the whole market out, I walked down the street to check out the original Starbucks. Now, I am not a coffee drinker and I'm in a coffee city. There was a crazy line out front to go inside and I was like, I'm good; no need to wait in line and check that out.

 I did snag a quick photo through the window.

 This is the view of the Bay from the market area.

I was feeling a bit better, less headache at least, so walked the mile or so to the Space Needle. Gotta be a tourist today. It was still really cloudy so there weren't a ton of people around. it was only around 10:30 at this point so bought a ticket for noontime since it was supposed to clear up a bit. 

The Needle is located in this huge complex called the Seattle Center that contains the Science Museum, Children's Museum, Museum of Pop Culture and the Chihuly Garden and Glass (which is what I really wanted to check out).

The Chihuly is an exhibit that showcases the glass work of Dale Chihuly. I have wanted to check this out since it opened about 5 years ago. I am SO glad I got to see his work. He has taken glass sculpture and art to a whole new level!!

 The piece above is huge - takes up the whole first room.

 He modeled some of his glass after Native American baskets.

 With the people in the background you can see how large this piece is. 

The next few are little sea creatures made of glass.

 These colorful creations are part of a entire ceiling in a room that is about 20x15 feet. Wow Wow Wow!!

 Can you see the cherub above?

 This glass garden took up an entire room!

 These are ALL MADE OF GLASS!!!

 The following are glass chandeliers. They look so primordial don't they?

 The bowl flowers below are just magical and ethereal.

 This is the greenhouse sculpture with the Needle showing through the glass.

 Once you go outside, he has created a glass garden.

 What amazes me is that they are so organic in nature and look like they belong there. Inspirational!

Then it was time for my tour of the Space Needle. There is a bit of history of the building as you walk around to the elevator and there was a little blurb with my birth date. That's how my head felt last night...uncomfortably tight!

Now, as I've mentioned before, I'm not a fan of heights and I've tested this and pushed the limits many times during this trip hiking down canyons, going over suspension bridges and driving along switchbacks along the way. I made it to the observation deck and you get to go outside (YIKES) to catch the view. It's 520 feet up to the deck and the needle is 605 feet high. It was built for the 1962 World's Fair. Do they still have World's Fairs? Hmmm, something to google.

 The view from the top is pretty cool as long as I didn't have to go too close to the edge and look down. It started clearing up so you could see further than I was expecting. I was hoping to see the big mountains (Olympic and Mount Rainier) but no such luck. Oh well. C'est la vie.

 After my trip to the top and my stomach in my shoes after the height, I decided a bowl of ramen would be the perfect antidote. I did a search and found this ramen place on the way to the Ballard Locks, another of my top things to see in Seattle.

 Nothing like ramen to cure you!

The locks link Puget Sound with Lakes Union and Washington. Boats as big as 760 feet in length and even kayaks travel through the locks. Today they had to bring the water 12 feet up (or down) for boats to pass through. It was so cool to watch the process.

It only takes about 10-15 minutes for the boats to pass through. As I was watching a larger boat go through, I heard trains passing and looked up in time to see Boeing Plane bodies being moved by train (they are the greenish structures below). That was pretty damned cool too. If I had time, that would be my next stop - the Boeing Factory tour.

I wish my photos could capture what a fascinating place this is. It is so worth a visit if you are every in Seattle.

Walked back to the bus and made it back to the hotel by 4:30. Not bad? How do I feel? Much better. Tired but glad I got to see some of Seattle. I hate wasting a minute of this glorious trip.

Tomorrow is a travel day with a layover in Spokane on my way to Glacier National Park. I need a day to prepare myself for the glory and beauty I'm about to see in the next week with Glacier and Yellowstone next on the list. How much more of this incredible country can I take?! I'm thinking, plenty more!