Mural Amphitheater
From the moment it started pouring in Leavenworth, we wondered how we’d get a shot of the Space Needle. I ruefully commented on the rain to a toy shop keeper during our time there, and while she agreed with me, she said she was grateful to see any moisture after such a long dry spell. Our timing was ironic, but dispelled any fears of the wildfires raging up and down the West coast.
We’re relatively used to weather doing what it wants around Seattle, which is to say not cooperating with whatever plans we so pretentiously have in mind. So we put some effort into where we should stage a shot, whether we should or could visit the Space Needle itself, and what our Plan “B” would look like if nothing was cooperating.
After some poking around and weighing options, I found the perfect shot on a travel site much like this one. It was a shot from right down at the tower itself, in a small amphitheater park. Another moment of clarity for me. I knew that was the shot that I wanted! Not a speck of doubt.
Now, if only the weather would cooperate. I resigned myself to the possibility that we may not be able to extend the streak of blue skies and brightly lit foregrounds that we’d enjoyed at our two previous destinations.
We only had one morning to make it work, too. Trevor had worked hard to rearrange his schedule for our stay, and we wanted to maximize our time with him and his family. So we set out in the morning, but got on the road a little late. It didn’t make sense to drive hungry, so we decided to go the opposite direction. We endured the rain a little while to get a Gold Bar special… a burger and fries at Vick’s Burger Shack! Worth it.
Tummies full, we bid farewell to Trevor and Ryen and headed in toward Seattle. It was pouring rain, and mist hung heavy all around. Hopping on the 405 from the 522, the rain let up a little. We even saw some sunshine and a little spec of blue sky as we passed Bellevue. There was hope!
But that all soon was dashed as the rain whipped up again. I kinda blacked out a little in my memory as I was driving in unfamiliar territory in thicker and thicker traffic as we approached the city. I remember needing to suddenly and urgently merge, and we managed to do that without any disasters… and then it was calm. My grip loosened on the wheel, and I breathed a little easier. We found ourselves on sparsely populated city streets, with the Space Needle looming overhead.
Rain still spattered the windshield, but my heart was soaring. Black Lives Matter signs were everywhere! They were painted full on to the sides of city sky scrapers. Any pressure we felt from being the fish swimming upstream in Yellowstone was the complete opposite in downtown Seattle. We and our message felt welcome.
Not knowing if the tower was even open, we found a parking lot right next to the entrance off Broad Street. Rain still spat down at us as we loaded up the stroller and made our way up Space Needle Loop. The wind was kicking up, and it was kind of miserable. We’d been in the car for a bit, so we ducked our heads into the Space Needle gift shop to see if it was open, and it was! We camped out inside and used the restroom while waiting for a break in the clouds.
“Masks are like underwear for your face holes.“
Katrina got excited and pulled me aside, saying look! She pointed outside where she saw some sunshine. The rain had stopped briefly. It was time to go! We exited the gift shop and started walking up toward Mural Amphitheater past Chihuly Garden and Glass, an art center located at the base of the tower. There was a street performer playing electric violin just outside the center. He was standing underneath a canopy that ran up the length of the path, out of the rain. We lingered there for a moment and then continued on.
As we walked I thought about how we were all wearing masks, as we’d done tons of times by this point in the trip, and how everyone in the gift shop was wearing them too. I had watched an attendant firmly ask a guest to leave if they didn’t put their mask over their mouth and nose, just moments before we left. It was basically a “no mask, no service” situation. And that got me thinking about how similar “no shirt, no shoes, no service” policies existed around the United States. I thought it was interesting that people reacted to the mask mandates, but not this notion of requiring full clothing to shop in a store. Like, that was common sense, right? You can’t just shop in your underwear, because ain’t nobody wanna see most people in their underwear. And then I had a thought that I spoke out loud. “Masks are like underwear for your face holes,” I said. Katrina punched me and gave me a look.
The sounds of violin faded and gave over to the sounds of guitar and drums getting louder as we approached the park. There was a small setup at the top of the hill, and some artists were playing there, too. Tori was happy, and she started swaying to the music. As we rounded the bend and the amphitheater opened up ahead of us, sunlight spilled over into green grass. My pulse quickened. I looked up at the sky and realized that we only had a very small window of time. This was the place, this was our moment!
We got to work quickly unfurling the flag and setting up the tripod. The kiddos had masks on and were already running around the grass in the empty park. This was so much easier than Yellowstone had been! But we were racing against time once again.
I had trouble framing the shot due to the field of view and focal length of my iPhone 6. We didn’t use anything more sophisticated than that for all of our Flag & Sign shots. Photogs undoubtedly already noticed if any had been paying attention to the series. Some of our shots featured in these posts came from Katrina’s iPhone 8, but that’s the most sophisticated our equipment got. So I did the best I could, framing the shot in the only way that made sense, and took the picture! Tightly. Too tightly for my tastes. I wanted more margin around the top of the tower, so the shot wouldn’t quite be so “full bleed.” That’s one of the biggest photographic regrets that I have of the trip, actually, that I wasn’t able to frame the shot in that park more to my liking.
We had wildly varying light conditions as clouds floated rapidly in front of the sun. So I set my camera to HDR mode and set the timer for 10 seconds. Once again, the best shot we got was the first shot we took! And this time, it was without burst mode. We had exactly a couple minutes of consistent sunshine, and we took our shot and made a hole in one.
I tried to get another shot with different framing. And the only way I could accomplish that was to move to another location. My equipment wouldn’t allow for any other alternative. I had to physically move the camera lens further from the tower. We’re featuring a couple of our attempts in this post’s gallery. But after that moment in the park, poor framing or not, we never got a second chance to snap another pic while bathed in sunlight. Believe me, we tried!
After some effort, Katrina calmly let me know that I had to let it go. I agreed. We walked back toward the tower, and I smiled at the good fortune that we’d already experienced.
The Tower
As we set up for the shot in the park, Aiden pointed to the gondola-like exterior elevators gliding up and down the outside of the tower. It was clear that people were going to the top, and Aiden was excited to go up too! Katrina let me know that doing that was ALL me. She didn’t have an appetite to confront any fear of heights that day, and I completely understood.
I wasn’t keen on going up either, but, like my drive to go for a second shot in Yellowstone, I knew that we had the moment then. We weren’t going to get another one like it. We had travelled all that way, and spent all that money, and we actually didn’t have to work hard at all to simply find out what it would take to go to the top of the Space Needle. So, I agreed that if it wasn’t too expensive, we’d go. Aiden smiled and we headed back down the hill to the gift shop.
It was pretty expensive, even for general admission tickets. They had VIP bundles and packages that got very expensive, but we just choose the cheapest available. Ain’t no shame in that, and queued for the next elevator ride. COVID actually meant that we couldn’t hop on, as groups were limited to help somehow maintain distance in an elevator. Kind of absurd on the face of it, but we could at least appreciate the attempt. They also limited speaking of any type while the elevator doors were closed. Aiden did better than I thought he would, and everyone held their tongues both on the way up and down.
So we bought tickets and found our time slot and went on up! I’m really glad we did. Aiden and I had a bunch of fun together. They had professional photographers that snapped a pic of us before we actually got on the elevator to the top. They were positioned at the end of a spiral that we walked around that looked down and out over the gift shop. The upward-leading spiral was decked out with the history of the tower. From its inception, to various remarkable occasions and milestones. It featured construction and design illustrations and pictures, and showcased information on the people that made the thing happen.
Stepping out into the lobby, we were met with brilliant light through all the glass panes. It was bright, and slightly crowded. Not too bad. There were inclined seats of two-inch thick plexiglass, and massive layers of even thicker plexiglass separated us from thin air; with uncomfortably large gaps between panes.
We had a little bit of trouble finding a bench to just enjoy by ourselves. It wasn’t a problem, since we knew so many others were enjoying their trip to the top, but I noticed that there was a section carved out for guests that had purchased something to eat or drink. So, we stopped by and bought a soda so we could go and enjoy ourselves for a moment. Sitting atop that bench, we looked down and could spot our vehicle parked across the street. I helped Aiden point to it and snapped a picture.
Coming down from the tower meant waiting for the elevator beside the rotating restaurant on the lower deck of the Space Needle. I’m sure many of those areas were what more expensive tickets bought access to. I was content to watch the floor move and thought of reference frames. From our perspective, it looked like the tower itself was rotating as if on a massive drive shaft, instead of the outer shell itself simply turning around our fixed position. Aiden was having fun putting one leg on the outside ring as it spun away from us on the inside fixed floor. The motion was making him do the splits. I took a video of him where he slowly came into view and then disappeared with the rotation. Ding! It was our turn to ride the elevator down.
Pike Place
Of course, no trip to Seattle would be complete without dinner and a visit to Pike Place Market. We found some convenient parking down by the market and had a super chill and enjoyable dinner at the brewery there called The Pike Brewing Company. We’d walked past it several times in years past, and I always wanted to try it. Given the COVID situation, the pub had a novel “order from your phone” solution that helped us relax and order on our own time. The manager even gave us a deal on drinks, and the food was good! It was a stress-free end cap to a successful Seattle visit. We were all ready to crash as we headed back into the rain.
