Seattle Center Day

We drove into town leaving the house at our usual 10:15 or so.  Parked near the Gates Foundation but walked straight over to the MOPOP to see the Gehry building, the playground, the water fountain and then to the Chihuly Gardens.  Since I had been there last week I went to the Science Museum instead.  I saw an interesting display on growing plants in outer space (remembering the book Endurance), made a hat with origami, solved some puzzles and read about famous “failures”.

We met in the Armory for a quick lunch so that we could get to the 2 pm tour at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  I am not sure but I was sort of expecting something about Microsoft, not the foundation, and I was pleasantly surprised by it all.  We had a terrific tour guide and heard many interesting things.  For instance, it is planned that when Bill, Bill Sr, and Melinda are all gone the money must be spent within 20 years.  No ongoing family trust.  We had a lengthy session on the experimental toilet.  All waste is suitable for adding to your garden.  It was an inspiring experience and made me think that I should be doing something more.  Duh!

We next caught the monorail downtown and went to the Amazon spheres.  Amazon has built (and still building) an enormous campus in downtown Seattle.  The spheres are the core with an impressive collection of tropical plants.  While beautiful, I found myself thinking it somewhat rediculous to build a tropical garden in Seattle in 2018.  The exhibit talked about the importance of green spaces and Amazon’s desire to provide green spaces for staff.  But, Seattle is very green -everywhere there are lush trees, shrubs and flowers.  It seemed to me that a native garden would fit the bill and be more environmentally responsible.  Anyway, the art and architecture are very nice and I am sure it is nice to work there.

Next we found the Mayflower hotel for cocktails. Then we decided to head home for dinner instead of eating out.  We picked up some prepared foods and ate an assortment of foods while Jill made gazpacho.

After dinner we had an exchange of book recommendations.  Here are a few that are up:

From Carolyn:  “Behold the Dreamers”, “The Invention of Wings”, “The Warmth of Other Sons”, “When breathe Becomes Air”

From George Ann: “Kindred”, “Sing unburied, Sing”, “Outlander”, “Shadow of the Wind”, “It Ends With Us”

From Nancy: “The Language of Flowers”, “Everybody’s Son”, “The Essay”, “Every Note Played” and others by Lisa Genova

From Jill: “Blood Done Signed my Name”, “Oil and Marble”, “Mad Enchantment”, “Ordinary Grace”, “We Need to Talk”.

So many books to read…