STARR TREKS THURSDAY 5/28/15 ISSAQUAH WA
We got moving before 8 am to drive to the park and ride. It takes about 40 minutes, even going in the express lane where only buses and car pools are allowed. I feel sorry for the single passenger cars creeping along in the slow lanes. After getting off the bus, we had to walk about a mile to the Space Needle which opened at 8 am. There were no lines at all, so we got up to the top quickly. Larry does not like heights, but this did not seem to bad for him. We had a nice view of the harbor where we had cruised yesterday, but the fog had not completely rolled out yet. But beautiful sunny weather again!- we have been very fortunate. There were free telescopes around the outside 520 ft up deck.
All our planned activities were within a few blocks of the Space Needle. We had to wait till the next museum opened at 10, so walked around, saw a delightful children’s playground, and walked a labyrinth— It must have been about 1/4 mile. We then used our Citypass to go to the EMP (Experience Music Project— founded by Microsft co-founder Paul Allen in 2000)) museum — it did not appeal to us a lot, tho our son Brian would have loved it— history of guitar exhibits; sound labs where you could try drums, keyboard, & guitar with mixing consoles; a science fiction area — good if you were into Harry Potter; a horror film area; a historical area about Nirvana, punk rock, and Kurt Cobain, with several of his guitars that he would crack in half at the end of a concert! The outside of the museum was more impressive to us than the inside!
We then walked over to the Chihuly Garden and Glass— this was truly lovely! The colorful glass exhibits were beautiful, both inside and outside. They had several short videos of Chihuly working on different exhibitions in Europe and in Jerusalem.
After lunch, we walked to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Visitor Center which is free. It was very inspiring to see the wonderful things they are doing to help — “every person deserves the chance to live a healthy productive life”. We were especially interested in those that Larry’s Rotary club supports— eradicating polio, and providing Shelter Boxes for families who are made homeless by disasters in the world— they contain tents, blankets, a wood burning or multi-fuel stove, basic tools, and children’s packed with coloring books, crayons and pens. They also had exhibits about water purification kits. They had several short videos about improving sanitation and helping families around the world. Bill Gates’ father is an active leader in the foundation.
After supper we drove to Richmond to play bridge. We left here before 6 pm, but still got caught in some traffic, so we arrived around 7:40. Nick, a young man maybe in his late 30’s, was running the game. They have day games daily and several night games. Day games are a lot larger. We had 5 1/2 tables. People were nice, but not overly warm, and we played pretty lousy (for $9 apiece!). We did place 3rd in the C bracket, but got no points. (We were 2nd to last overall!!) I asked Nick if he had a day job and he said this is it. He actually owns a club in another part of town, and then is paid to be director in other clubs — says he can support himself doing this. I asked if Bill Gates ever came to play— he said that if Bill wants to play, there is a fancy country club that will host him— and his bodyguards! It is 10:40 pm now, and it has not been dark all that long. We plan to get up early tomorrow and drive to Mt Rainier.
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