The Seattle Aquarium and EMP

Meesha and I decided to buy a city pass since it would be a better deal than paying admission to all of the stuff we wanted to see in Seattle. Too bad they didn't have a parking pass while they were at it. We probably paid 80.00 in parking while we were there. First on my list of things to see was the aquarium. While this wasn't as impressive as Monterey's aquarium, it was still wonderful. I loved it.

Dreamer's tide pool. This had all of the animals I wish I could see when I go to the tidepools out at the shore.

Lots of "pisaster ochraceus" which we found all over Monterey when I was there for a spring semester in college, but maybe 5 other types of stars? A couple of which I don't think I've ever found on my own.

Jellyfish arch. Strobe light magicality. 

My favorite again, just like in Monterey, was the giant octopus. He was so active and intelligent! He climbed up the walls of his tank, changed colors, added spots to his ensemble, got rid of them, and looked at us with his cat eyes. Loved him. The docent told us that the other day they were trying to feed him, and he'd decided that the feeding stick (they reached into the tank with his food) was his way out, and wouldn't let go of it. They had to just leave it with him because nobody was strong enough to get it away from him. Did I tell you about the video Jeff and I watched one time where an octopus and a shark got into a fight? Guess who won? Yeah. It wasn't the shark.

Next on our list was the "Experience Music Project" or EMP . Huge unique museum about music and media. The opening room was called the "Sky church". Whatever with calling it a church, but it was so cool! 

While we were there they were playing huge i-max size videos of the group OKGO. Even little Brin was mesmerized. None of us planned on stopping in this room, but it was kind of amazing.

They also had three new exhibits: one about the fantasy genre, one for science fiction film, and one for horror film. Very interesting reading about universal archetypes in the three genres. They also had original artifacts from the films including stuff from the "Princess Bride", "Matrix", "Star Wars" "Men in Black", "Alien" etc. That was awesome.

I didn't spend long in the horror section. I'm a nightmare girl. I don't need fuel for that fire! Going down to the basement/dungeon where this exhibit was, they filled the walls with pictures of people screaming. Coolly freaky. 

In a way, the outside of the building was the best part. I had looked at it from the Space Needle, and it didn't seem that impressive, more like somebody got overwhelmed designing a building and finally just threw a bunch of sheets of metal over the whole thing and called it a day. But on the ground, it was a different story. It was amazing. Designed by Frank Gehry, not surprising I had mixed feelings about it. His stuff is often controversial.

The museum also had a big exhibit with artifacts on Jimi Hendrix, which was neat, but I didn't take any pics, and then a huge rambling exhibit on Nirvana (of course). I was impressed to a point, but stopped short at the over the top descriptions of genius. I don't believe that. On my way out, I looked into this exhibit of landmark buildings made out of legos. They were cool, but I mostly just took pictures for Kai to see. HE would have loved it.

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