Gaaaaah! I just don’t like hot weather. Tobias and I are lying about like limp
rags, panting and complaining. I
am taking frequent cold showers to cool off, but Tobias says he doesn’t go in
for showers – sorry, but thanks for offering.
Last
Saturday, it was hot, but not unbearably hot.
Michelle and I went on an outing to partake in the centennial celebration for the
Smith Tower, once the tallest building west of the Mississippi. Now, of course, it is fairly dwarfed by
the other buildings in town, but it still holds its own for a beautiful and
amazing interior. Somehow, while the Tower has always
been a Seattle presence in my mind, and one for which I have long felt a
Seattle affection, greeting it every time I walk to Chinatown and see it from
across the Denny Woo Garden, or go to Pioneer Square and look up at it, I had
never been inside. It had never
even occurred to me that it had an inside, its outside being so special. The lobby sparkles with its marble and wood, and the Native
American chief carvings which decorate the cornice.
The elevators, brass and glass cages,
and still run by a human operator, are worth a trip in themselves. At the top is the Chinese room with a
360 ° view beyond the city to the east and to the west beyond the bay to the surrounding
mountains. The room is
furnished with gifts from the Empress of China, Cixi, and includes a “Wishing
Chair.” The maiden who sits in it
is supposed to be married within a year.
Somehow, I do not think this is what Michelle has in mind.
This fellow looks like a nurse I used to work with. He was not Chinese, but had a similar looking attitude to life.
 |
| Details from the ceiling |
Afterward,
tea at the Panama Hotel, another spot prominent in Seattle history, and then a
tour of the Denny Woo Garden. The
gardens always give the sagging spirits a lift with their serene greenery, soft
breezes, and even on the hottest day, a sense of perfect weather, cool in the
summer, comforting in the winter.
The Smith Tower peeking up over the Denny Woo Gardens
3 comments:
So glad I checked your blog. What great information and photos.
I've never even thought of going to the Smith tower. Always admired it from afar. When I rode the Greyhound bus to get to downtown Seattle, it was always a high point. for some reason I thought it was a work place filled with offices and not much else. Thanks for the information.
Your friend is pretty.
I would like to do all those things on a cool day!
That was a too hot Saturday! Smith Tower is always so interesting to see from every view of it outside. I never thought of getting inside!! From Salty's I have recently viewed it across the water and it looks adorably old and small nestled among the tall modern buidings.
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