In 2011 I visited Seattle ostensibly to attend a music festival called Bumbershoot (it's more than just music; comedy and all of the arts have spaces provided for exhibitions) but also to see some good friends who had moved up to the Pacific Northwest just a couple of years previous. The festival is held near the downtown, or Belltown neighborhood, of Seattle where we were staying at one of the hotels located in the area. I was really excited to finally be at a music festival that didn't require baking in the heat of the sun or your tent. Also, in an earlier trip to Seattle I had been close to the Space Needle (i was at the EMP Museum and the museum happens to have been designed by Frank Gehry, from the first video we watched in class) but nowhere near as close as I would be during the three day festival. I am not so good with heights, even if I am in a building, so going inside and to the top would be another thing experienced in life.
I was only familiar with the Space Needle from television so when I got a sense of its' scale I was blown away. It dominates the skyline of Seattle but also manages to make the EMP Museum, along with all other buildings in the area, seem small. Unfortunately the line was way too big for me and my companions to wait in without grumbling excessively so we opted to try and get in at some point over the long weekend. The grounds of the Seattle city center arts area are huge, with stages set up all over including indoor concert halls...that had air conditioning.
A good time was had by all, especially when our little group was able to see a really great band underneath the stars and the Space Needle. It was a defining festival moment for me in that I will never attend another one that is outside during the summer, anywhere. Also, it's the trip where though my fear of heights was never confronted at least I meant to go to the top of the needle.
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