Seattle ~ The Emerald City

Seattle is “the Emerald City”. How much FUN IS THAT!!?? THE EMERALD CITY! If Seattle was a tiny little town that needed a roadside attraction, it’d be the Horse of a Different Color, and hot air balloon rides.

 

But, we aren’t “off to see the wizard” or “following the yellow brick road” – we are following the I-90, to visit Brian and Taunya (with whom we visited The Grizzly Bear Encounters and Virginia City, mentioned in previous blogs.)

 

Some of our friends (Derek and Jessica) had to go to Seattle for business, so we managed to squeeze ourselves into their roadtrip. I think it went something like: “OH! If you happen to go to Seattle, we would be willing to come with you and share the gasoline expenses.” And, they were agreeable!

 

Seattle is my favorite North American city, and not just because I was born there, but it is just a beautiful, beautiful city.

 

It rains a lot, so everything is green all the time! and clean. It rains so much, another one of Seattle’s nicknames is “The Rain City.”

 

Annually, it rains, on an average, 980 millimeters! (That’s about 38.6 inches.) Wikipedia says that it’s “cloudy 201 days out of the year and partly cloudy 93 days”… But, it turns out, that despite it’s nickname, it just barely cracks the Top 10 list for most rainy cities of the United States. (Shockingly – to me – Atlanta, Georgia is the rainiest at an average of 48.6 inches (1234 mms) per year!)

 

On this particular trip, I thought it’d be fun to go to the Blues District for an evening.

 

Once upon a time, Seattle was known for its Blues scene.

 

Years ago (I guess it was a long, long time ago), we went somewhere, paid a cover charge at the first Club, got a hand stamp, and meandered all over the area, from restaurant to restaurant, under the first cover charge. Many of the musicians also were going from club to club, and we kept running into the same musicians, but playing in different groups - mixing and matching.

 

Once! we even got to see Bo Diddley play down on the pier, during a 4th of July Festival – for free!

 

What I didn’t take into account is that Seattle keeps up with (and often is responsible for) the latest thing happening in music. And, the latest thing happening, while we were there, seemed to be Indie Pop and Rockabilly… Blues could be found on Mondays, and at three restaurants (two in Tacoma, which was too far for us to take a cab) and one at New Orleans Creole Restaurant (Blues and Jazz, but Blues on Saturday nights). (There were more options for Jazz, and we were going to go listen to Jazz, if we couldn’t find Blues.)

 

Seattle’s music goes way back in history. Did you know that the first electric bass guitar was invented in Seattle? by a man named Paul Tutmarc, around 1930. It was actually an electronic bass fiddle, but is attributed with being the first electric bass guitar – at least it kicked off the trend.

 

In 1942, Jimi Hendrix was born in Seattle. In 1958, Jimi’s dad bought him his first acoustic guitar. And in 1959, Jimi acquired his first electric guitar.

 

If he hadn’t fully hit the scene before, in 1967, The Jimi Hendrix Experience released their first album, “Are you Experienced”, which, to this day, remains one of the most popular rock albums of all time! (I can’t decide if I’m surprised or not-at-all surprised that Jimi didn’t know how to read or write music…)

 

 

As for the rest of Seattle’s music history, Wikipedia summarizes it: from 1918 to 1951, there were almost 2 dozen jazz clubs in the International district, launching careers from artists like Ray Charles and Quincy Jones. It also launched “grunge” music in the 1990′s, known for music groups Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and many, many other bands. (Incidentally, the people we were travelling with on this trip had Pearl Jam about every other song on their IPod shuffle list - thank goodness we all like them ! )

 

It seems that Jazz is always a staple, but Blues is harder to find. For anyone “in the know” – PLEASE! tell me! We saw Lady V.O and Tracy Neely, and we really liked them! But it’d be really good to have a selection!!

 

We weren’t there long enough to do any sightseeing at all, but Seattle certainly has sights to see! I think I’m going to have a blog series just about Seattle… (As if that wasn’t my plan from the beginning )

 

We did make absolutely certain that we could make time to go to our favorite Mexican restaurant. (If you’ve been reading my blogs regularly, you will see that I’m on a constant search for Mexican food, anytime we are travelling.) THIS restaurant isn’t a “risk”. This one is a “sure thing”. We have been to Viva many, many times, and it never fails to live up to our expectations!

 

We talk about Viva so much, we started to be concerned that we’ve “oversold” it. You know how you imagine something to be so delicious, but then, you come back, and it isn’t quite as good as you remembered? NOT the case with Viva. It is so good, that Derek is already planning what he’s going to order next time.

 

My favorite thing is the enchiladas; Peter loves the chili rellano; Derek loved the flauta; and I’m not sure which entrée Jessica liked best, but I know she liked the margarita. They do have THE BEST margaritas.

Oh, this is funny! I ordered a mango margarita – that’s my tradition. BUT, we saw other people with a margarita glass full of something almost black, and “Blackberry margaritas” are on the menu. Intrigued, we decided we need to order those! When our margaritas came, I was SHOCKED to see that my margarita was more of a light purple color… so I said, “Ummmm… I totally thought this was going to be a darker color… what do those people have?” … The server said, “ummmmm those people are drinking Coke.”

 

(Our favorite place is the location in White Center – well, we haven’t been to the other two sites..I’m sure they are excellent, too, but we can vouch for the White Center location.)

…
Well, I didn’t even talk about the things that obviously identify Seattle, like the Space Needle, and Pike Place Market, and Puget Sound, and the Pier, and Boeing… But, like I said, there’s more to come… after all, it IS my favorite city.

 

Seattle has another nickname – “Gateway to Alaska”. Since my next blog, on Wednesday, is going to be about our first trip to Alaska, this is really appropriate!!

Mount Rushmore, South Dakota

Once Upon a Time, there was a mountain that looked like this:

and it was called "Six Grandfathers" by the Lakota Sioux.

In 1885, it was renamed "Mount Rushmore" after a lawyer, from New York- Charles Rushmore. Mr. Rushmore was in the Blackhills area, helping people with their mining claims. When he asked what the name of this mountain was, to be schmoozy*, they told him that since it didn't have a name, they'd call it Mount Rushmore.

 

(*Since I don't know how "schmoozy" translates, the dictionary says "To converse casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection.")

 

The giant sculpture was an idea dreamed up by Doan Robinson, who was a South Dakota State Historian. He originally wanted to have something sculptured into the section of the mountains called the Needles, but when he invited the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, out to examine the possibilities, Borglum determined that the granite of the Needles was of poor quality and that the spires weren't strong enough (too thin) to support the sculptures, which were going to be of famous people, "parade of Indian leaders and American explorers who shaped the frontier." However, Borglum the four Presidents, to "elevate the memorial from a regional enterprise to a national cause". (http://www.travelsd.com/Attractions/Mount-Rushmore/History)

 

Construction began in August, 1927, and ended October 31, 1941. Although I can't tell, I guess if you are "in the know", it's obvious that the carving is not finished.

 

Anyway, a couple things happened: 1) Mr. Borglum passed away on March 6, 1941, and 2) World War II started and the government funding stopped. Lincoln Borglum (Gutzon's son) and crew continued working on the sculpture, until the money rand out, October 31. At that time, Lincoln ended the project, and there it continues till today. (That is, other than it's erosion rate of approximately 1 inch every 10,000 years.)

 

The Presidents are, from left to right: George Washington (1st president of the United States, commander of the Revolutionary War), Thomas Jefferson (3rd president, author of the Declaration of Independence ), Theodore Roosevelt (26th president, signed legislation to establish National Parks & Monuments, supported of the completion of the Panama Canal, and personal friend of Borglum's), and Abraham Lincoln (16th president, and previously discussed in my blog on November 17, 2012, "Springfield IL and Abraham Lincoln").

Some interesting facts about Mount Rushmore:

• 5,725 feet (1,745m) high in elevation
• each head is about 60 feet (18 meters) high (approximately the height of a 6-story building - or to compare, The Great Sphinx in Egypt is just over 66 feet tall
• the eyes are 11 feet wide each, and the pupil of each eye is a 12 inch shaft, giving the illusion of a sparkle
• the noses are 20 feet long (except Washington's, whose nose is 21 feet)
• the mouth is 18 feet wide.
• Lincoln's mole is 16 inches across (almost the size of a basketball hoop's diameter)

Additional details about the Presidents' accomplishments include:

 

 

Washington:

* Ironically, he's the only president who didn't live in Washington D.C.;

* that's his real hair! he never wore a powdered wig;

* when he was born, the Julian calendar was being used, so his birthdate was February 11, 1731 - however, in 1752, the Gregorian calendar was adopted, and he opted to acknowledge his birthdate as the equivalent date of February 22, 1732 (and why wouldn't he? that made him a year younger!);

* he raised and loved hound dogs, some of which he named True Love, Sweet Lips, Vulcan, Madame Moose, and Drunkard;

* he supposedly once owned of the largest whiskey distiller in Virginia;

* he joined the British Royal Navy when he was 14 years old...

 

Jefferson:
* He was known for the Louisiana Purchase, which pretty much doubled the land size of the United States;

* he commissioned the Lewis & Clark Expedition (topics for future discussions);
* he wrote his own epitaph for his tombstone, and didn't include that he'd been President;
* from France, he brought back a recipe for vanilla ice cream, which is now in the Library of Congress (here, supposedly, is the recipe)...

Roosevelt:* He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for helping negotiate a peace treaty ending the Russo-Japanese War;

* he officially named the President's House, "the White House" in 1901;

* he was the first President to ever fly in an airplane - in 1910, he flew in one of the Wright Brothers' planes, for 4 minutes;

* rumor has it that he skinny-dipped in the Potomac River (apparently this discussion is in his Autobiography, in which he states, "If we swam the Potomac, we usually took off our clothes.") He isn't the first President to do so, either;

* even though he hated being called "Teddy", he lent his name to a toy bear, thus the Teddy Bear was born!

 

 Lincoln:
* He was the tallest President at 6'4 (7 feet tall with his stovepipe hat on - which, by the way, he apparently used as a filing cabinet);

* an 11 year old girl wrote him a letter, recommending that he grow a beard - he did, becoming the first President with a beard;

* he was the first President photographed at his inauguration (John Wilkes Booth is actually in the background of the picture;

* a man named Edwin Booth once saved his son Robert's life, by pulling him to safety after he'd fallen - Edwin was John Wilkes Booth's older brother;

* he's the only President that holds a patent - he invented a device for keeping boats buoyant in shallow water;

* he only had about 18 months of formal education - the rest was self-taught;

* he had a pet turkey named Jack

 

I had the privilege of meeting a man named Don "Nick" Clifford while at Mount Rushmore. He was one of the workers on Mount Rushmore from 1938-1940.

 

 

 

Nick was born in 1921 and grew up in the little town of Keystone. He and his 4 siblings started working at an early age to help their mother support their family. Starting at age 7, he delivered the local paper, chopped firewood, and milked cows. By age 14, he managed the local pool hall - cleaning, running errands, selling concessions, and racking pool balls. When he was 17 years old, he was recruited by Lincoln Borglum in 1938, to come to work at Mount Rushmore, primarily because Lincoln wanted him on their company baseball team ~ and the rest is history!

Sunday, we'll be en route to Rapid City, SD.