The needle was built for the World's fair in 1962. It is 605 feet high, and offers a 360 degree view of the Seattle skyline. There are windows surrounding it, and you can also walk around the perimeter outside, which is awfully windy but really cool. There are also high-powered binoculars and telescopes that are so effective you can spy on people in their offices.
I'm glad I made the trek up. It was pricier than going up the Columbia building (Columbia was 72 stories up and only $5, whereas the Needle was $17) but the shots I could take from a lower vantage point were totally worth it. However, the whole time I was up there I was excited to check out the amazing looking Jimi Hendrix/Science Fiction museum below.
The building does not have a single right angle on the outside. Neat, eh?
The inside was as amazing as outside. If you are a music lover, you should go. If you are a sci-fi fan, you should go. I heard it's sort of pooh-poohed by the locals because it was built by a rich mucky muck at Microsoft...sort of a pet project I guess. Regardless, I applaud the end result.
On the music side, besides seeing the memorabilia, the impressive display of guitars, and listening to the incredible music pumping through the building everywhere, you can go play the adult version of Rock Band. There are drums, guitars, keyboards, and mics all enclosed in little sound studios. A helpful computer teaches you the rudimentary steps towards playing the instrument, and then you can jam with songs you know or other people. You can even record your own CD or DVD! I decided against doing that because I would have felt like a turd performing badly by myself. But really, how friggin' cool is that?
The dork/movie lover in me enjoyed the Sci-Fi side as much as the music side. There is some neat movie memorabilia, as well as an awesome display of influential sci-fi media, including The Jetsons, Blade Runner, and The Matrix.
I noticed a trend at both the Space Needle and the museum...there's a lot of amazing blown glass on display and for sale. So I asked where I might find a shop to poke in, and was told about a place on 5th St - the Seattle Glass Blowing Studio. I meandered over and got a great behind-the-scenes look at the artisans at work.
Many of the items for sale had price tags as large as my entire vacation budget. Now I understand why that is...not only is glass blowing a labor & time intensive process, but the materials are crazy expensive. As one of the employees explained to me, there are only four or so places in the world where the raw blocks of glass can be purchased from, and most of them are in Germany. Apparently how they create these blocks is a pretty well-guarded secret. So a.) they have to be shipped overseas, and glass is pretty damn heavy, b.) there are minerals in some of the glass, which gives it both that metallic glow as well as color (for instance, all red glass is made with gold!), and c.) the furnaces can never stop running, as it would take weeks to get them back to the temperature they need to operate at.
In the end I bought a little glass pendant with a blue flower (also glass) in it, partly because it's beautiful, and partly because they were so nice to me I had to buy something.
You can see my complete set of photos (another 200...sheesh) here.
Tonight is my last night in Seattle. I couldn't have asked for a better visit here, nicer weather for January, or more flexible hosts.
A thousand thanks to you guys!!!
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