A celebration of the military-industrial complex! Also aliens, monsters, and plants made of glass!

Where last we left our intrepid hero (…me…that’s me!), I had successfully made my way up from Oregon to Washington to stay with my best brother* Shayne and enjoy the sights and sounds of Seattle, Point Defiance, and the brilliant Irish band Lúnasa.

* (Also my only brother, but don’t get hung up on that minor detail!)

Now it was Saturday, and we decided to make a day of it exploring two of the more eccentric art museums in Seattle: Chihuly Garden and Glass and Museum of Pop Culture (also known as MOPOP). These are extremely popular destinations for Seattle tourists as they are both located in the broader region known as Seattle Center where one other famous landmark happens to reside.

I think I heard someone tell me they refer to this as the “Space Needle”…weird

I tried my best to frame an interesting shot on a day with terrible lighting conditions…

Obligatory tourist selfie…you just gotta do it

I love hanging out at the International Fountain, and back in 2021 I published a whole vlog episode including it and other Seattle highlights on a trip with my kids.

Anyway, we just so happened to be visiting the area on the same day as the Seattle Color Festival, which meant we were constantly passing people whose skin & clothing were all colors of the rainbow. Festive indeed!

What do you call a DJ at a Color Festival? An ROYGBIVDJ, of course!

Q: What is a Chihuly

The proper question is who is Chihuly, but that merely demonstrates my ignorance going into this experience. I’ll be honest, I never would have come here if it weren’t for my brother…and I’m so glad he talked me into it.

The answer is Dale Chihuly, a Tacoma-born artist who has been renowned the world over for many decades for his breathtaking glass sculptures and architectural installations. While I will go on record saying glass isn’t a medium I have a particular emotional affinity for (I’m much more of a stone/crystals/ceramics guy), I nevertheless found my socks getting knocked off on multiple occasions as we toured this museum.

Truly, a garden of class 😲

Left: In real-life, the size of this takes your breath away
Right: Walking under this, it's like being in an aquarium except all the creatures are glass

Perhaps elsewhere in the universe, their landscaping looks like this

The artificial and the natural, growing side-by-side

Left: A tree made of glass
Right: My version of the photo everyone takes when they visit here

It is Very Cold…in Space!

After our tour of Chihuly Garden and Glass concluded we stopped to catch our breath, then made our way over to MOPOP for an experience that was—shall we say—completely different. As a person who is very much into the nerdier aspects of pop culture, MOPOP tickled my fancy real hard.

A sculpture made entirely out of guitars and other musical instruments

Left: The dark Lord of the Sith himself, Darth Vader
Right: Dum-dum-dum, duh-duh-dum, duh-duh-dum. Dum-dum-dum, duh-duh-dum, duh-duh-dum

Left: Captain's Log, Stardate 1672.1
Right: I don't like that earworm, I don't like it one bit

Left: The uniform of none other than Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Right: Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement (VISOR), plus assorted phasers

If horror and the more monstrous aspects of sci-fi are your jam, MOPOP has got you covered.

Left: A complete replica, minus the drool
Right: Nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure

Left: Skeletal crucifix. Gruesome, isn't it?
Right: Somehow I kept passing by General Roth'h'ar Sarris. Gee thanks, Omega 13!

Don't lose your head…

All right, I got a ton more pictures of all sorts of thrilling artifacts, but I don’t want to bore those of you slightly lower on the nerd scale so I’ll include just a couple more from the most formative movies of my childhood:

Left: Don't try riding that pink one over water…unless you got POWAH!
Right: Who ya gonna call

Capitol, Capitol

With our lengthy forays into wonders of the Seattle museum scene over (for now), Shayne and I made our way over to the Capitol Hill neighborhood for a round of drinks, a walk, dinner, another walk, and then a train ride up to the U District to meet up with one of Shayne’s buddies for another round of drinks and a mesmerizing view of the northern Seattle skyline.

Full disclosure: While I think the campus of the University of Washington is truly gorgeous (see this vlog episode for a walkthrough), I’m not a big fan of the U District. Unless you have a particular stop in mind here (like meeting up for friends), I’d recommend staying clear. There are many other Seattle neighborhoods worth your attention—Capitol Hill certainly being one of them!

The best mojito I’ve ever had outside of Hawaii, courtesy of Herb & Bitter Public House

The pedestrian and biking improvements around Montlake are simply fantastic

The view from U District’s rooftop bar Mountaineering Club

A Note About Shayne’s Baller Music

I should put in a word about Shayne’s musical prowess. In case you’re not aware (why would you be?), we used to perform together in a Celtic band called Distant Oaks many moons ago; more recently, Shayne has been a prolific producer of retro-flavored electronica (as have I!).

Shayne’s latest release, or I should say 15th anniversary re-release, of Curve is a truly fine work in my opinion—especially the title track which is actually a brand-new composition. If that tickles your fancy, They Tower Above Us is another one of my all-time favorites.

And Here’s Where Things Get…Uncomfortable

Now before you start to wail why does EVERYTHING have to be about politics?!?!, let me just say…nope, sorry, I got nuthin’. This section is about politics.

As a final destination during my trip, we returned once again to Seattle to complete our trifecta of museum trips by visiting The Museum of Flight. Now on a superficial level I did have quite a nice time here…all of the displays of historical aircraft, a large exhibit centered on rocket science and the moon landing, a tour of a to-scale Space Shuttle replica, extensive displays of planes used during the dogfights of World Wars I & II, and even a walkthrough of what was once the Nixon administration’s Air Force One—well it was all very thrilling.

But upon reflection after the fact, a nagging thought in the back of my head blossomed into a full train of contemplation on the fact that the museum was essentially one giant love letter to the Military-Industrial Complex. Honestly, it was a bit odd that many of the exhibits were a backdoor into extolling the endless virtues of The Boeing Company. Perhaps that’s simply a matter of convenience, as the original “red barn” of Boeing where early planes were manufactured is on museum property—and Boeing is of course a Seattle institution.

However it’s like if you were to go to a “Museum of Shoes” in the Portland, Oregon area and a huge portion of the exhibits were simply adverts for Nike. Sure, it makes sense in a way…but also, ick?

Despite what you may have heard, airplanes are not “neutral” technologies. They consume vast amounts of resources. We are in the midst of a global climate catastrophe and people are increasingly questioning the merits of travel via these airborne vehicles which burn carbon-emitting fuel like crazy. Not only that, there are countless historical wrongs of Eurocentric Colonialism which were made all the easier by the use of planes. Heck, the museum even had exhibits on how the invention of flight (aka “bush planes”) helped foster rapid American settlement of Alaska in the early 1900s; and here I am wondering how the existing native populations felt about all that.

I suppose I would have similar qualms about a “Museum of Automobiles” based in Detroit or whatever. 🇺🇸 Rah rah USA! USA! 🇺🇸 (Let’s not talk about how gasoline extraction, engine & tire pollution, and multi-ton metallic boxes are destroying our environment and killing children…)

All that being said, I got some cool photos. Here are a few. 😅

The O.G. plane design of the Wright Bros

I forget the make of this shiny specimen, but whoa boy that's a lot of chrome

An early example of a freight plane

It's mandatory that any photographic exploration of aircraft MUST include a lens flare

Look, I even got to go to the moon!

Left: Yours truly in the main hangar
Right: Shayne about to fly away!

Aboard what was once Air Force One…Nixon in China and all that

Ice Cream, Green Lake, and Saying Goodbye

I’m not often an ice cream guy, and my brother even less so, but nevertheless once we finished our museum tour I talked him into taking me to my favorite ice cream spot in Seattle, Molly Moon. And the sundae I got there was even better than I could have anticipated!

Left: So happy to be back
Right: Disgustingly delicious

After this, we headed over to Green Lake for a leisurely afternoon stroll around the lake and the broader neighborhood. I’d never been to this part of the city before, and I’ll definitely be returning here again in the near future.

An artsy photograph of the Green Lake public library

Such a dreamy location

Walking alongside the lake

And with that, I bid my brother Shayne a bittersweet farewell and waved goodbye to Washington. Over the next few days, I made my way back down to Portland and eventually landed once more in Eugene, Oregon to spend Spring Break weekend with my kids. I’ll share a few more photos from that timeframe, and then finally tease a shot of the incredible destination I arrived at next (but that will have to wait for a future travelogue installment!).

Left: Tally ho, I'm in England!
Right: 5th Street Market has a fantastic courtyard

Left: Enjoying grabbing coffee at Washburne Cafe in Springfield
Right: You’ll never believe what happened next…

Thank you once again for joining me on this rousing installment of my travel(b)logue. Stay tuned for Part IV coming in the not-so-distant future!

#nomadlifestyle #washingtonexplored