Well, we slept in a little this morning and didn’t get moving until after 8am. Our having a separate room from the girls ROCKED. Grace grinds her teeth so badly that if I’m in the same room with her I need to wear ear plugs, so we closed the door and I slept soundly. The Space Needle had a big US flag rising above it in honor of Independence Day, which was really cool.
We had a nice La Quinta breakfast and started walking down to Pike Place Market. It’s strange when we ask for walking directions; so many people are surprised we’d want to walk “all that way.” Are there really that many people who can’t walk 14 blocks? It’s kind of ridiculous. It took us about 15 easy minutes and we were there.
I got suckered a few times and bought some things for the girls, but I did get a wheel of local brie, dried apple chips, cranberries & almonds for myself. 
Brad got a big cinnamon bun and bottles of oil & vinegar to sate his needs.
After the market we had to decide what to do with the rest of our day. I REALLY wanted to go to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation visitor center, but they were closed for the holiday. Instead we trooped up to the Space Needle park. We’d considered visiting the Chihuly Museum and Garden but it seemed a little expensive for our family. There’s a humongous yellow Chihuly thing that’s visible from outside anyway.
Ever since the San Diego Zoo Grace had wanted to get her caricature done, so she and Caroline both had theirs done. It was pretty cool.
Outside the EMP (Experience Music Project) was a little carnival-type area. The girls rock climbed then we decided to head into the EMP. If you buy your tickets online you’ll save $2 per adult and all you have to show them at the ticket counter is your confirmation number.
We really loved the EMP. What they don’t really tell you is that it’s also a science fiction and horror museum. Well, they’ll mention that, but music definitely takes center stage. We went straight into the Avatar exhibit which was totally AWESOME. I could have stayed there for another hour. There were movies about the making of the film and it was mesmerizing to compare the “real life” acting (they were wearing weird black outfits and were covered with dots) with the final computer generated images. They also had a lot of the original gear that was used to create the CG stuff, like head pieces, necklaces, garments, etc..
The horror section was cool, but not quite as spectacular as the Avatar area. Part of the horror area was props and clothing, the other part showed clips of the most famous horror flicks along with commentary by directors and pros in the field. It made Brad and me want to run out and rent a couple of the films.
The last parts we hit before the museum closed were the music areas. Of course, there’s a huge section devoted to Nirvana. Grace has decided she would like me to buy her “Nevermind.” There’s also another devoted to Jimi Hendrix and another to AC/DC. I got a kick out of the AC/DC stuff and kind of kicked back and enjoyed the old videos.
The coolest music-related gallery was all hands-on. The girls jammed together with one on the guitar and one on the drums. It was hard to pull them away. The EMP is a better museum than I expected. I had read reviews that said the same, but until I checked it out myself I was skeptical. I would visit there again; it was one of the highlights of our Seattle trip.
Another highlight was dinner at New York Pizzeria & Bar. BIG YUM. I had steak fettuccini alfredo, the girls had pizza & Brad had a burger. All yummilicious. We had this on the way (walking) to South Union Lake Park, where we sat to watch the fireworks. A word of warning – sunset doesn’t occur on the west coast until you totally wish you were in bed, like around 10:15. Another warning, although it’s what I would consider mid-summer, the air there doesn’t agree. We FROZE sitting out there for over an hour waiting impatiently for the big sky-sparkles. Eventually they happened and we were all very relieved. They were cool, but not cool enough to keep us warm through the finale and we cleared out just before it started.
We got back to our cozy hotel room and crashed for another good night’s sleep.
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