Wanna
August 24, 2006 by Tom
4 Comments
Let’s see… Day 3 was mostly a traveling day. We first grabbed some breakfast at the Emerald Grill next door to our hotel. Skip it if you ever consider going there. After that we walked about halfway to the EMP before I asked Beth if she had our tickets we had purchased the day before… she didn’t. So after turning around and grabbing the tickets we finally got started.
The EMP was awesome. Probably the coolest thing we did in Seattle, or at least I thought so. At the front you’re greeted with an amazing piece of art called “If 6 was 9” which is a massive collection of guitars all stuck together. The title of the art was just the beginning of what was essentially a museum dedicated to Jimi Hendrix. There were a few other exhibits, but there was a very large one totally dedicated to Hendrix. It was cool reading about him and seeing a lot of his stuff, but I guess I would have liked to see some more of other stuff. There was a small portion of the 90’s grunge scene which I liked and they had a historical gallery of guitars which I thought was freakin’ sweet although Beth seemed a bit bored.
After the exhibits they have some interactive stuff you can do in these mini-studios where you can try out almost any instrument. We didn’t do much of that, but we got in line for some fake concert experience where they put you out on a stage with instruments and a crowd and lights in your face. It was probably the longest 3 minutes of our lives sitting there waiting for the song to be over while we pretty much just stood there while it played. I held a guitar and Beth pressed a few keys on the keyboard. We did get some fake concert tickets for free though with our band name, “The Rebounds” on them.
We then skipped the Ducks one more time (booo) and headed to the train station. The train ride to Portland was about 3 hours long and really nice actually. The tracks run south along the Puget Sound and then cut down through a really green area so it was an impressive view most of the way there. We checked into our hotel, showered up a bit and then went out to see Portland.
First off, Portland has a killer public transportation system. We rode their MAX train which is free in downtown areas and ridiculously cheap in others pretty much every time we had to go somewhere. It’s fast, cheap and it goes everywhere so you can’t beat it. Beth’s friend Justin had recommended this Portland City Grill restaurant to her so we went to check it out. I had actually been wanting some sushi the entire trip so I was happy to see they had an extensive sushi menu. We ended up doing an entire sushi dinner because the stuff was so damn good. We had some Maguro (tuna), Hamachi (yellowtail), Ebi (shrimp), and Karei (flounder). I think we also ended up getting a New York roll and some crab cakes as well. Either way, all of it was awesome. I would recommend eating at this place if you ever go to Portland. It’s actually a steak/seafood place, so if you don’t like sushi there’s tons of other stuff that looked good too. They had a lot of awesome drinks and martinis too. We tried most of them between the two of us. After that we were both wiped out and couldn’t go out anymore.
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I recall being the person who suggested we make sure we had the tickets before going further. If we had waited for you to inquire, we may not have found out until we were at the front doors!
Love the design Tom!
A few questions about Seattle. Where did you stay? If you didn’t know, I’ll be in Seattle next Wednesday and Thursday. We’ll be staying at the Holiday Inn near Seattle Center.
Care to rank the sights that you took in? I definitely plan to spend some time at Pike Place Market. How about these duck things you keep talking about? Is EMP worth it? Kim probably won’t care for it. We only have one full day in Seattle so I’m trying to cram everything in.
Enjoy the rest of your trip.
Thanks Ed. Actually, these posts about our vacation are a few weeks old now, but I just finally got the site up and running.
We also stayed at the Holiday Inn near the Seattle Center. Did you use Priceline because that seems to be the one that pops up the most. The hotel itself is nice enough, but it’s in a run-down neighborhood and not really in “downtown” Seattle at all. You actually have to walk 3-4 blocks to get into the downtown “Free Bus Zone”. That’s not bad, but the main problem is that we saw bums sleeping around every side of the building. Any further North and it’s not a great neighborhood. But like I said, the hotel was clean and the staff was very helpful. I’d suggest grabbing cabs everywhere if you don’t want to waste a lot of time walking.
Pike Place is awesome. Don’t skip that, but don’t bother with the Ducks. I was only kidding about riding them as a last resort thing since we ran out of stuff to do. I thought the EMP was great so if you have an hour or 2 to spare it’s worth visiting. Plus, the Space Needle is literally next door so you can knock them both out.
The Pioneer Square area is currently under construction so I’d avoid making the trek there. The harbor cruise we took was pretty neat so I’d suggest doing one of those if you get the chance.
For dinner one night we went to a place called Rock Salt that the Holiday Inn staff recommended. It wasn’t too crowded or touristy, but they had some excellent steaks and seafood. Hope that helps - enjoy the trip!
I see. Actually I think I knew that you went there a bit ago. Not sure what I was thinking.
Anyway, I did use priceline for the hotel. I’ve been reading all about the area and the not so good neighborhood. Oh well. As long as the hotel is decent, I’ll have no complaints.
Was the monorail running while you were there? I was thinking of taking that to the Market and the downtown area. I just checked on it though, and I guess it’s shut down once again. We’ll probably just take a few cabs, like you mentioned.
Thanks for the recommendations. I hope we can squeeze it all in.