The City Of New Orleans

I just booked tickets for an epic trip - flying to Chicago, then taking the train down through the South to New Orleans, then flying back to Seattle from New Orleans. The train is actually a bit of a historic pilgrimage, with stories from hard times of slavery and prejudice. The train is called "the City of New Orleans" and has been immortalised both on the stage and in music. I watched the stage production "The Pullman Porter Blues" at the Seattle Repertory Theatre a few weeks ago, and it was the inspiration to book this trip. The Pullman train was a train line most popular during the 30's/40's/50's that ran from Chicago to New Orleans and employed mostly black men as their 'Pullman Porters'. These porters had a huge reputation for the service they provided. The men were made to work long hours with strict standards to meet, they were paid a pittance and treated as slaves. Despite all this, the Pullman Porters were pillars in their own communities, saving up money to buy houses and carrying themselves with dignity and mana. The famous song "The City of New Orleans" also talks about this very train line - Chicago to New Orleans. It really is an historic rail line to follow! The song was covered famously by Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. Here's a video of the song, a version by Arlo Guthrie, with some pictures of the train trip. I've been watching a hundred different version of this song all morning and feeling so excited!

Black Friday USA

Black Friday is the notorious bargain shopping day in the US, right after Thanksgiving, people line up at midnight and camp out all night to be the first through the doors when they open at 5am. The discounts are somewhat impressive, but the extreme behaviour of the shoppers is what makes this famous.

I debated on whether I should go just to experience the craziness of it, although I had nothing in mind that I really wanted to buy, and I didn't have any money to spend anyway. At the last minute, I decided to enjoy my lovely warm snuggly bed and sleep instead of waiting outside in the cold and rain for hours on end, waiting for a store to open. Of course, for 1 second I lamented my decision, having missed out on a cultural experience, however, when I saw this video later on, I knew I had made the right decision - watch and see why!

Thanksgiving, USA

The other week it was Thanksgiving! My very first American Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving originates from the first settlers to America, the Pilgrims. After arriving from a harrowing 66 day journey, they endured a frosty winter with lots of deaths, surviving mainly through stealing food from nearby Indian tribes. Then another Indian tribe took pity on them and took them under their wing, teaching them how to grow crops and other survival skills. After a successful summer harvest, the Pilgrims and Indians shared a huge feast in order to celebrate the harvest, a few years later it was dubbed as 'Thanksgiving', giving thanks for the harvest, and all that they had.

In New Zealand we do not have any sort of Thanksgiving celebration, and I was curious as to how it was to be celebrated.

Turns out I absolutely loved it - it is not commercial at all - no gifts are given, just a day to spend with family and friends (mostly family) and have a huge feast! It was so laid back and relaxing. The food consisted of roast turkey, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, salads, vegetables, fresh bread rolls; followed by a delicious dessert including pumpkin pie, ice cream, apple pie, and jelly with berries in it.

Around the lunch table we spoke of the past year and all the things we were thankful for in our own lives. I have so much to be thankful for, and it was great to reflect on the year. The food was delicious!

After lunch we were so full, so we took a break from eating and played outside and then took a nice long walk through the neighbourhood as an entire family, including my host dad's parents, and his sister and husband, and my au pair friend who celebrated with us. Walking around the neighbourhood was great, we walked to a lookout over the puget sound, so nice. There were lots of other groups of people walking around too, working up an appetite before eating more!

When we got home from the walk and cracked in to dessert! It was the first time I had tried pumpkin pie, and my my it was delicious!

I think Thanksgiving is something I will bring back with me to New Zealand, I love the idea of a non-commercial get together with family to be thankful for all the things we have and all the things we have done.

Around Seattle: Pacific Science Center and Experience Music Project

I had a coupon for half price entry to the Pacific Science Center and the Experience Music Project, so of course I just had to go! haha. I took an au pair friend of mine, Patrycja and we had a great day looking around both museums, then, we had dinner at a very popular Vietnamese restaurant and then went to a theatre production called "The Pullman Porter Blues".

The Pacific Science Centre is mainly for the kids, lots of hands on stuff, dinosaurs, bugs, sea creatures and interactive things. After I went with my au pair friend, I returned a few days later with my twins and we had a blast doing all the kiddy things!

The mechanical movements of the dinosaurs were hilarious!

globetrotter

World's largest electric guitar

Giant acoustic guitar

I am just little!

Finished the puzzle!

Fun with water

Workin' 9 to 5

The Experience Music Project is on the same site as the Pacific Science Centre - just around the Space Needle. I had been wanting to go here for a long time, it is a music museum with lots of memorabilia and information, as well as lots of hands on music making opportunities!

guitar art! and believe it or not, these guitars have been programmed to play themselves!

Another fun thing at the EMP was to make a music video! You could choose a band name and pick a song from a list and then go into a room set up like a stage, with lots of instruments and lights and a camera pointing at you! We made a 'band' with some other people at the museum and rocked out on 'stage' to the classic song I Love Rock and Roll! Our band name was "Wild Jam", we are destined for stardom I am sure!

The EMP was so inspiring, it really was. It was so fun and I felt so free being surrounded in music. It reignited a love of music in me and made me feel so excited, it was like honey to the soul.

Tacoma Day

A few weeks ago we decided to truck down to Tacoma and experience the city. I have been past Tacoma so many times, but never stopped in their downtown area, so it was really great to go and see what it was all about. Actually, I really loved it. It had a great smaller-town vibe to it but was also buzzing with colour and art!

We drove to Port Defiance park, a beautiful park to the edge of the downtown area. There we found a replica fort set-up from 1852, it was so neat to see all the little houses and fort buildings! We did not go inside because it was expensive, but we saw and learned a lot just from looking from the fence.

welcome to 1852

I briefly mentioned the colours and art in Tacoma, but it was really a big theme running through the town, large murals adorned many buildings, spurts of colour all over the place, just magic!

We soon learned that Tacoma was famous for its antique shops, so we took a look through a few. I fell in love with all the different tea and dinner crockery sets they had. Thank goodness I didn't buy any!

We then went to a very 'happening' little lane and had lunch in this gem of a restaurant that was luxuriously decorated in amazing fabrics and other little accents.

The table opposite us - beautiful textures and fabrics, so plush!

the girls!

the bathroom! crazy beautiful!

After lunch we were strolling around the downtown area when we passed by an art gallery that was having an opening to a new showing of youth artwork. They invited us in and gave us free refreshments and snacks - how could we possibly refuse? Also there was a face painter- but not a child's face painter, an artist who would put the most amazing designs on people's faces. I asked her if she could give me a 'theatrical eye' and this is what she did:

We all got a little bit of colour and sparkle before we left the gallery!

Feeling so cool with our facepaint, we finished up our walk of downtown and headed towards the famous Museum of Glass.

On the way to the car we saw this amazing colourful graffiti art

another amazing mural!

The museum of glass was fitting with Tacoma as all the glass pieces had such lovely colours in them. I enjoyed the museum, although, in my opinion the Glass Garden in Seattle just could not be beaten.

an amazing glass bridge design

After the museum we went to a Mexican restaurant because I had a coupon to go there (coupons for life!).

Always love having dinner out with the girlies!

Near to the restaurant was a huge outlet mall called "Supermall" we went in and got some great bargains! I got a brand new dress for the grand total of $2.38, as well as a couple of other items. We drove home, exhausted and full of stories of our unique day in Tacoma! This is travelling at its best: no plan in mind, stumbling upon things, chatting to locals, learning the great secret spots, being in the right place at the right time. Love it!

Around Seattle: Free First Thursday

One thing I love about Seattle is Free First Thursday. What it means is that every month on the first Thursday of the month, most of the museums and art galleries of the city open their doors for free! Thanks to the Free First Thursday, so far I have been able to visit Seattle Art Museum (SAM), North West African American Museum, Henry Art Gallery and the Museum of Flight.

This first Thursday just past was when I visited the Henry Art Gallery (an interesting multi-media gallery on the University of Washington campus) and the Museum of Flight. 

The Henry art museum was interesting, I loved the architecture and many of the pieces were really beautiful.

this picture has nothing to do with the Art museum, I just thought it was funny

The Museum of Flight was really interesting. I only had 1 hour there because I raced there after work and before their closing time. I raced around and saw pretty much everything, except going into some of the planes and spacecraft they have in a hangar on the other side of the street.
What I found fascinating was seeing all the different planes used in the first and second wars, and the displays were really well-done, with props and backdrops to put the aircraft in the right time period and country landscape. There also were volunteers around to answer questions. In the space section I learned a lot about how they off load cargo into the International Space Station, using tiny hooks that look so flimsy, but in space hold so much weight! I also got to see the sleeping suit that astronauts strap themselves into, and their space treadmill (its on the ceiling!).

Learning about the very beginning of air travel was also so fascinating, imagining the excitement and ingenuity of the men who began piecing planes together so long ago.

I asked the volunteers about B17 planes - a WWII American bomber plane, the 'flying fortress' and darling of the American fleet, dropping 640,000 tonnes of bombs during the war. They were known for their sturdiness and reliability. Below is a picture of one outside the museum. I was interested in learning about it since I have heard of a hike in the Olympic mountains, about 1 1/2 hours west of Seattle, where you can hike to the wreckage of a B17 and still see tires, and parts of wings and fuselage. It sounds like such an interesting hike, it was great to learn more about the actual plane model.

Leaving the Museum of Flight, two things stuck strongly in my mind:
1. I really want to fly in a hot air balloon
2. I really want to do a particular hike in the Olympic mountains to see the wreckage of a WWII B17 bomber plane.