Jason and Harrigan Visit

My brother Jason and sister in-law Harrigan came out for an extended weekend visit. I would say they managed to cram in the full Seattle experience in that weekend. 

The Bowmans

All of us.

Picnic on the beach.

Brothers.

At Gasworks Park.

Random cool artwork.

Jason and Harrigan

We were all over the map, experiencing samples of the things that make Seattle…Seattle. Such as:

‘Green’ Living

We stopped by Seattle Tilth’s Harvest Fair which is where a lot like minded people converge to share/educate/and benefit from: urban farming, composting, green building, organic produce, CSAs,   pesticide-free zones, urban beekeeping, collaborative consumption, and locavorism. You know… the kind of common sense things that we would all get behind, if wasn't for the looming fear of being labeled a hippie.  Luckily for us all, there is more contemporary term: ‘Granola’ – has the values of hippie but with the amenities and financial means of the average, modern, middle-class, family. This was definitely a Granola-lifestyle type of event, although a few hippies and yuppies may have infiltrated.  :)

Art

We saw Samsara, a film for which I have been waiting to be finalized, for years. It is a fantastic look at the contrast of how fascinating and bizarre civilization/society is. I absolutely recommend it to everyone.  I think it is a bit edgier than Ron Fricke's previous work (which is all also spectacular).

We checked out were the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) and the Olympic Sculpture Park. Both have been on my to-see list and each had some very interesting pieces.

Inopportune: Stage One by Cai Guo-Qiang. He directed the visual and special effects for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics! 

I really like these masks.

"We all wear masks, metaphorically speaking."

The Porcelain Room of SAM

Split by Roxy Paine. 2003.  Stainless Steel 

Eagle by Alexander Calder. 1971

Unfortunately, Jason and Harrigan had already seen several of the installations before, either in Central Park (in the case of the sculpture), or in some museum called the “Guggenheim”. Maybe you have heard of it, but frankly…it sounds made up. So if we can’t impress them with Seattle’s art scene, maybe we can appeal to some other interests that Seattle is better known for:  food, coffee, and music!

Food

Jason and Harrigan are what you might call ‘Foodies’, so we directed some time into eating a lot of delicious food. When I say delicious, I mean DELICIOUS. The places we ate spanned many neighborhoods and cuisines, but had one common theme… it was all really stellar food. But don't take my word for it, ask Yelp!

Some of the places we ate included Paseo, Bitterroot BBQ, Honore Artisan Bakery, Pike Place Chowder, Beechers Handmade Cheese ,and OddFellows Cafe. When we weren’t dining out, we were cooking up our own dishes: several fantastic breakfasts and one evening we bought mussels and cooked them down at the beach! Gourmet even at the beach!

Coffee

We did our fair share of consuming coffee throughout the weekend as well. Not that we necessary were seeking out great coffee, but great coffee kind of finds you in Seattle. Some of the coffee shops we sampled included Caffé Fiore, Honore, Fonte, Chocolati, and of course Starbucks! [wow, what a pretentious sounding list of coffee shop names... but they can back it up].    : )

Music

A band we know from Blacksburg, Wild Nothing, who subsequently have made it big in the indie music world, was touring through Seattle, so we all went to check it out. It was fun evening, and a good show, but I wouldn’t call it a great show…. The keyboardist had a recently broken arm, along with a few technical snafus, contributed to a lack-luster performance. But a fun night, none-the-less.

Wild Nothing

Throughout the visit, all four of us took pictures using the photo sharing app Instagram.  Some of us took more pictures than others and some of us might have an addiction to Instagram…but it paid off.  In an attempt at an experiment in modern technology and social media, I have combined all of the pictures we took into a collage. They are without description or context, and there is no rhyme or reason to the organization to the pictures.  Just 270(!) pics, documenting all of the things we did, the food we ate, and what we collectively experienced. Enjoy!

Another fantastic bunch of visitors! Who is next?!




[Photos courtesy of Harrigan, Jason, and Tess. I would also give some credit to Instagram!]