May 6-- Touring Seattle

Seattle has enlarged their Seattle Art Museum (SAM), and we were lucky enough to be here for SAM's grand re-opening. They celebrated the re-opening with 36 straight hours of free admission. So, being the early bird Joann is, we headed to downtown Seattle early today to take advantage of the free opportunity. And, being early, we even got free street parking. The Taurus you see hanging from the ceiling was one of 7 Taurus all painted white with lights sticking out of them hanging in the lobby. Guess someone figured out what to do with the used cars--create art. After touring the Museum, we went to Pike's Place Market where our tour guide yesterday said to go early and watch them getting ready for the day. The brass pig you see in the market is a piggy bank. Behind him are loads of seafood. The picture of the flowers was also taken at Pike's Place Market. There were at least 3 huge flower stands inside the building. Next, we climbed down the stairs to the water front and walked along Elliott Bay stopping for a Starbucks. We then took the 11:00 am Underground tour of Seattle. The guide was great and we learned lots of interesting facts about Seattle. Did you know that in the 1880's there were 2,500 seamstresses in Seattle, but there were no sewing machines and they all lived in a 25 square block area near the waterfront. The first mayor of Seattle was so corrupt he almost bankrupt the city by suing it and then settling the grievances by paying himself out of court. He was so corrupt, they only re-elected him 2 times. The "skirts" you see in the store window are "mankilts." Our guide yesterday said "What will they want us men to do next, stand on a pedestal?" The picture of the park with the pergola was taken in Pioneer Square, which was the original part of Seattle. We then drove past the University of Washington--the home of the Huskies--and on to the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. There we got to go on board a Concord and the first Air Force One, which was used by Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, but the most frequent traveler on it was Henry Kissinger. All worn out, we returned to the hotel to rest up for another day.