It’s our annual trip to Seattle for the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival. We go every year, since 2001, making this our 19th year in a row. And we love it more than ever. This year our granddaughter Josephine went with us again. Also traveling, our friends Mama O and Claudia, and Margaret from Portland.
I’ll post some pictures soon, but first, here’s what we did on our trip.
Monday August 26th
We took the Blue Van to the airport and caught our Southwest flight to Seattle’s SEA-TAC airport. From there we took the Link Light Rail, easy-peasy, to a few blocks from our condo at the Worldmark Seattle aka The Camlin. It was too early to check in so we stowed our luggage and walked down to El Borracho, near Pike Place Market, for some tasty Mexican food (with numerous vegan options of course). Then we walked to the monorail, which we took to the Seattle Center. We went to the MoPop Museum to see the Prince exhibit. It was bittersweet but well worth going to. We lounged around the International Fountain for a while, it’s pretty and peaceful. We walked across and down the street to the Metropolitan Market and bought some supplies for the week. We took the stuff on the monorail back to the Camlin and went to nearby Cafe Yumm! for dinner.
Tuesday August 27th
We took some busses. A bunch of them. First we traveled to the University District for the excellent all-you-can-eat, all-vegan Thai Food lunch buffet at Araya’s Place. So good and as much as you want. Don’t forget the peanut sauce. Then we walked down the street to Vegan Haven, a vegan store, and bought a couple small items. Across the street and down just a little is a really nice community garden that we paused in for a few minutes. Then a bus ride to Bedrock Industries, a recycled glass place. Then bussed over to the Fremont district to check out the Vintage Antique Mall. Next, after that, by bus, was the Wallingford District to see Archie McPhee’s. You really have to see this store to believe all the wild and crazy stuff they sell. Plus they have the Rubber Chicken Museum. Then another bus to Pike Place to get some flowers for the room and then a short walk back.
Wednesday August 28th
We had lunch at Veggie Grill and then stopped at Mighty-O Donuts (all-vegan!) for dessert. Then we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island, along with Mama O and Claudia. We walked around, checking out the shops and scenery, then had a pit stop at Mora Creamery, an ice cream shop with a bunch of vegan options. We also browsed the Bainbridge Island Art Museum for a while then took the ferry back to Seattle. Hungry once again, we got take-out from El Borracho and took it back to the room.
Thursday August 29th
We took the monorail to the Seattle Center, where we went to the Will Call booth to pick up our tickets for tomorrow’s Bumbershoot Festival. Then we had some lunch at Center’s Armory building. It’s a food court but has one totally vegan place, the Plum Pantry, and others with options including a Mod Pizza. We watched the International Fountain for a while and looked around at the Bumbershoot preparations. Then we saw all the Visual Arts for the Festival at a free day-before preview. That was nice because it was a lot less crowded that way. Then a quick trip to the Metropolitan Market and the monorail back to the Camlin. Oh, and Cafe Yumm! to go. We had some planning to do for the Bumbershoot Festival tomorrow.
Friday August 30th
Day 1 of the Bumbershoot Festival. It’s always a wonderful three days of the year, and this year was no exception. We had lunch at Veggie Grill and then took the monorail over to the Seattle Center grounds, where the festival takes place. We had bought mid-level VIP tickets so we skipped the line and walked over to the VIP area for some complimentary drinks and snacks to take for the afternoon. Next door to that was the Verizon Up Lounge, which also gave us free drinks and snacks. The first music act we saw was the School Of Rock band, a house band which was ok but after a few songs we moved on. Josephine went to the Pandora booth (all three days, actually) for some “body marbling” on her arms. The we headed to the main stage for Morgxn, a pop guy with a minor hit on the radio. He was entertaining, then we went to a different stage to see Flora Cash. They were really good and we got the set list and met them and had them autograph it! That was also where we met up with Margaret from Portland. The next band was Shaed, who were pretty good as well, we got that set list too. After that we had some food, then went back to the main stage for Hippie Sabotage. A few songs was plenty and we moved on. We sat by the fountain for a bit then saw The Dip, a soul-blues-jazz horn band. The were good at what they did, but not my favorite type of music. Still ok though and we got a set list there too. And that ended day 1. And day 2 looks even better!
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