Where Are We Sleeping Tonight: Astoria Seaside KOA, Hammond, Oregon
Despite getting in to our room rather late last night, we woke this morning feeling refreshed. After a quick breakfast in the busy hotel restaurant, we headed off into Seattle to explore. After parking our car, we visited the Pike Place Market which was full of amazing stores and a great relaxed atmosphere. There was one shop that sold old printed advertisements that had been taken out of various newspapers and magazines - they even had a large collection of old magazines for sale that I had to force myself to avoid on fear of spending the last of our depleting bank balance. After looking at some very expensive antique shops, we saw the very first Starbucks with a very long queue. Shame they don't make anything that I would want to taste...
After a short monorail ride, we arrived at the Seattle Centre, home of the Space Needle. Our main reason for coming here was to visit the weird shaped EMP Museum, home of the Science Fiction Museum. Starting downstairs, we squeezed into the over-crowded Avatar Exhibit. Full of lots of interactive displays of the technology from the film, there were lots of people scrambling to play with the 'toys' which made it very difficult to see anything. They really need to have someone at the door to the exhibit limiting the number of people in here at once. Passing the full scale enviro-suit from the film, we saw a giant green room where people could walk (one at a time) and have their avatar walk through a forest on the screen in real time. It would have been cool to have a go but the queue to get to the green screen room was too long.
Continuing through the EMP Museum, we found a very small sci-fi gift store on our way to the Battlestar Galactica Exhibit. Containing props from both the original and recent series, it was cool to see. The best thing was that it wasn't just costumes and small props, they had several full scale space craft, including a Cylon Raider!
Also in the EMP Museum is a music museum that houses several exhibits, including one about Nirvana. Clare was excited to explore it as she was a big Nirvana fan back in the 90's. Also in the music museum was a Jimmy Hendrix guitar exhibit where they had the remains of several guitars that he had destroyed in various concerts.
After buying a couple of funny books (including All My Friends Are Dead), we headed back to reclaim our car. On our way their, as we were crossing the road, a cyclist stopped at the lights spotted my Doctor Who shirt. He called out "who was your favourite doctor - mine was Tom Baker" and I had to realise that I couldn't stop in the middle of the intersection and have a conversation with this guy about Dr Who. I don't know which is more amazing, the fact that a random stopped me in the middle of the street to talk about Doctor Who or the fact that he was the second person in America who stopped me to talk about Doctor Who - no one stops me at home! Just goes to show how friendly people are here.
Back on the road, we waved farewell to sunny Seattle and headed south on the final leg of our holiday road trip. Stopping for gas in Des Moines, we decided to avoid driving all the way down on the interstate but to see some of the coast. Passing through the funny named town of Butte Creek, we saw an old ship that had run aground along side of the road. Continuing on, we saw a long flat bridge that suddenly went up in the sky. Rather than build a big bridge the whole stretch of the bay, they made a long cheap bridge that was flat and only made the big bridge the shortest length they could that would let ships pass underneath it - they have some weird bridges in this country. Driving over the bridge, we crossed over into the state of Oregon.
Just over the bridge we drove through the lovely town of Astoria where we couldn't help but notice a weird sound coming from the marina. Before we could guess what was making the sound, we were distracted by the sign at the local Shell gas station. We are so childish to laugh but we couldn't help it!
Through the other side of Astoria, we stopped at a Fred Meyer Superstore where we bought some supplies and a soft cuddly blanket because it is so cold. We will need it camping tonight! And as it was only $12, we don't have to take it home with us when we leave in a weeks time- ahhhh! This trip has gone by so fast but it has been a blast!
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