HUNZIKER AND KRAPF*

Ross had a birthday. Sloan and Jenny took us to brunch and I enjoyed myself so much I forgot to take photos. (Thanks S & J. It was fun and delicious). After drinking way too much coffee and eating lingonberries and whipped cream, Ross, TS, Jerritt and I walked down to the bike shop. To get there, we had to walk down this accordion staircase.







Then I got terribly sick, so Ross didn't get a birthday cake until a week later, but I included enough butter to make up for the delay.


And the delay meant we got to eat the cake with Sarah and Nate, who flew out from Kentucky for a visit.


The gum wall alley, down by Pike Place Market, is full of fantastic papering and graffiti, but my camera ran out of batteries after I took this one.



Of course we took Sarah and Nate to see the library.


Sarah's fear of heights seemed contaigious. I've never felt uneasy on the top floor of the library, but once she pointed out that it was a bit scary, I got completely woozy.











And we took them to the Locks. There are no salmon there now, though...just green water and algae. It was strange--there weren't even any boats passing through that afternoon.












Archie McPhee's photobooth was my first Seattle photobooth, too, way back when Ross and TaraShea and I were the visitors, and Myles and Carey were the tour guides.














I left Archie's with a new bendable moustache. I guess you'll have to wait to see it in person since I didn't take any photos of myself wearing it, and it is a personal moustache, meaning it clips to the septum. No one really wanted to borrow it considering my snuffy nose.

< But they were willing to borrow my special eyeglasses.

Late one night Amerigo Vespucci and Chauncey LeFleur drove off to the airport to pick up their other pal, Gordon P. Cummerbund. It had been a while since the three had seen each other and Amerigo and Chauncey were afraid Gordy wouldn't recognize them so they brought a sign. (Somehow, Gordy--a.k.a. Hans--escaped my camera while he was here. He was only able to stay for 2 days).


I dragged Sarah along on a mission to find Kinderegg prizes for some of my students. The secret Kinderegg supplier was out, though. I guess it isn't as secret as I thought. So Sarah had to settle for a drive along Alki Beach.




We met TS and Jerritt, Sloan, and Cassandra at the Twilight Exit for St. Patrick's Day drinks.


Nate made gnocchi one night. He kept warning us it might turn into mashed potatoes, but it came out perfectly.



And Sarah made brussel sprouts, which I now know are quite tasty when prepared with proscuitto.

One evening we drove down to Tacoma, where museums are free once a month. First stop: UW Tacoma library, which was in an old factory building. Our wet sneakers squeaked so loudly on those shining floors.


Everywhere we went Ross and Sarah obsessed over brick patterns...English bond, Dutch bond, Flemish bond, stringers...They wanted a photo in front of this building so they could send it to their vernacular architecture professor back in Kentucky. I'm not sure you can zoom enough to make out the brick pattern though...

We spent most of our time in the history museum, but the glass museum was right next door. Dale Chihuly is from Tacoma, so there is a lot of glass art and art glass around town.




The Museum of Glass is a slick, modern building surrounded by reclaimed industrial spaces. I like seeing them together--the old and the new.




The cone is actually the vent for the "hot shop" where they demonstrate glass blowing.






Then there was "Twin Peaks Day." Just the sight of Snoqualmie Falls gets the creepy theme music looping through my brain.

The R&R Cafe burned down in the late 90s, but they rebuilt it. Still, it doesn't quite match with the show.








Twin Peaks Day was supposed to wrap up with a visit to the Black Lodge room out at Gainsbourg's. But we filled up on sushi, and Greenwood was so far away, so we just walked down to the bookstore instead. So Sarah and Nate escaped the evil void of the Black Lodge this time...



*According to Wikipedia, in 1941, two Swiss fellows named Hunziker and Krapf defined "tourism" as "the sum of the phenomena and relationships arising from the travel and stay of non-residents, insofar as they do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected with any earning activity." First of all, it just seems funny that there is a science of tourism. Second of all, I like their names. Finally, part of the fun of having visitors is that it allows you to be a tourist in your own town. Hunziker and Krapf don't seem to account for this idea. I suppose there must be a separate scientific field for the phenomena of touring your own town. I also wonder how Mr. H and Mr. K would account for tourism that leads to permanent residence, which has happened twice in my life so far.