Day 98 -- July 7, 2003 -- Monday

Seattle is an exceptionally beautiful city. We used to have an office here, so we've both been here a number of times...but always working. We enjoyed a day of sightseeing today, and we will spend another day here tomorrow.

Our day began with a visit to the Walker Rock Garden -- a grassroots art installation in the backyard of a home on a quiet residential street in West Seattle. It's another of those amazing projects that a man worked on for over 20 years. The work of Boeing mechanic Milton Walker and his wife Florence. From the street, it is almost impossible to see. We were fortunate that daughter Sandy Walker Adams saw Boz peeking over the fence with a camera, and she welcomed us into the yard to look around.

The garden is made of rock and concrete. There is a central volcano fountain with jagged walls that shoots water and fills rivers and a lake in a miniature mountain scene with tiny roads, houses, and bridges. There is also an 18-foot high tower, arches, and walls and winding paths for walking and exploring. There are large stone mosaic butterflies and slabs of polished petrified wood.

The Walkers moved into the house in 1939. It had a sloping backyard full of blackberry bushes. Their small children needed a swing set, so Mr. Walker dug out the basement, terraced the yard, and built one. Twenty years later, when the youngest child moved out, he began building the rock menagerie that stands today. He first built a pond, but he wasn't happy with how it turned out. So he built a beach next to it, and then a mountain. But that didn't seem right, either. So he dug up a corn patch and built a mountain range in its place. He kept building and building and building.

We then saw several sights in the Alki Beach area of West Seattle -- the Alki Point Lighthouse, the West Seattle Weather Watch Park, the Alki Monument, Alki Beach, the Alki Beachhouse, and a miniature Statue of Liberty replica. The Alki Monument was erected at the spot where Seattle was founded.

From Alki Beach, we went to Fremont -- a Seattle neighborhood that has made a name for itself through wackiness. The award for the community with the most personality will have to go to Fremont. We learned a little about Fremont years ago when Greg Brisendine, the manager of our Seattle office, suggested that Barbara be sure to see Fremont when she went out for some sightseeing. Boz came back and told me these bizarre stories about a Troll that lived under a bridge and grabbed cars as they passed.

We crossed a blue and orange drawbridge with neon sculptures to enter the "Republic of Fremont." A sign on the bridge proclaimed this to be "Center of the Universe." Not to be confused with the "Center of the World" in Felicity, California.

Fremont has a troll holding a Volkswagen Beetle under a bridge, a rocketship, a neon Rapunzel, dinosaurs, a Lenin statue, the world's first walk-in outdoor theater, statues, oddly adorned buildings, and more.

The Fremont troll has been lurking under the north end of the Aurora Bridge since 1990. The sculpture was designed and produced by four Seattle area artists -- Steve Badanes, Will Martin, Donna Walter, and Ross Whitehead. The idea of a troll living under a bridge was probably derived from the Scandinavian folk tale "Three Billy Goats Gruff." However, after seeing and learning about Fremont, it is just as likely that none of the artists had ever heard of "Three Billy Goats Gruff," and just dreamed up this idea all on their own.

The troll glares out from under the bridge with his shiny metal (hubcap) eye. In his left hand, he holds a crushed old-style Volkswagen Beetle. The 18-foot tall Fremont Troll is made from rebar steel, wire, and two tons of ferroconcrete.

It all started in 1989 when the Fremont Arts Council was approached about doing something more imaginative with the space under the Aurora Bridge other than letting it turn into an urban grotto and tire dump. A national competition was organized to select the best ideas. The result is an unbelievably popular landmark and tourist attraction. The Fremont Troll is known far and wide. The Troll can be seen in the movie "10 Things I Hate about You."

The Fremont neighborhood is also home to a controversial statue of Lenin salvaged from Slovakia by a Seattle art lover who was teaching in the area at the time. This cast bronze sculpture of Vladimir Lenin was created by Emil Venkov, a Slavic artist who has worked in bronze for over 30 years and who is widely exhibited in Europe and the United States.

Weighing over 7 tons, the sculpture took 10 years to complete and was installed in Poprad, Slovakia in 1988. It is unique as it is believed to be the only representation portraying Lenin surrounded by guns and flames instead of holding a book or waving his hat. The sculptor, while fulfilling the requirements of his state commission, was nevertheless able to express his vision of Lenin as a violent revolutionary; not just an intellectual and theoretician.

Lewis Carpenter, an American veteran teaching in Poprad, found the sculpture lying face down after it was toppled in the 1989 Revolution. He recognized Venkov's skill and craftsmanship and the boldness of his portrayal, and he was determined that the statue be preserved. Carpenter mortgaged his house to acquire the sculpture and brought it back to Issaquah, Washington. He died in 1994. The statue is now owned by his family.

Fremont has its own rocket. Some folks claim the Center of the Universe was discovered in Fremont in 1991. As the story goes, members of the Fremont Business Association recognized the need for a suitably unique landmark monument. Many ideas were considered, but the answer came on a live morning newscast reporting the dismantling of a circa 1950 cold war rocket fuselage. In the summer of 1993, a team of Fremont business people undertook to erect the Rocket on the roof of the Bitter's building on the corner of Evanston and 36th. Beset with a comedy of engineering problems, the site was not to be, leaving the well intentioned team with the uncomfortable stigma of "not being able to get it up." In June of 1994, the rocket was finally put on display. The Rocket bears the Fremont crest and motto, "De Libertas Quirkas" -- which means "Freedom to be Peculiar." The rocket blasts smoke on demand.

In 1979, sculptor Richard Beyer created Seattle's most popular interactive artwork, and it is in Fremont. It commemorates the light rail Interurban line that used to connect downtown Seattle with all of its neighborhoods. The piece depicts five people under a shelter and a curious dog, with a human face. Made from cast aluminum, the statue has attracted the imagination, mischief, and creativity of hundreds of people each year. The Interurban has hosted costumes, displays and "art attacks" celebrating everything from weddings, birthdays, bon voyages, congratulations, I-love-you's, memorials, good times, and friendships to popular causes and demonstrations. This continuous stream of interactive genius has made the Interurban Fremont's most recognizable landmark and a symbol of the fun and creative energy for which the neighborhood has become famous.

Fremont has free Saturday night outdoor movies. There is a big parking lot with a giant screen on the side of the neighboring building. The movies shown include pop classics, cult favorites, independent films, video shorts, and more. On warm summer weekend nights, adventurous people of all ages arrive with lawn chairs, rubber boats, sofas, costumes and fun attire to join in the popular late night pastime. The audience is often the best part of the show. It's the original interactive theater where people are actually encouraged to join in the atmosphere of humor and laid back good times. Admission is by donation. The season typically runs from June through September. Movies start at dusk and the parking lot opens for seating at 7 pm for those who want to get the prime spots.

We also saw a display at the Fremont History House that includes a big hunk of the Berlin Wall. It seemed like every time we turned, we saw something else Quirky.

An old-fashioned signpost is at one intersection with arrows that point to such important locations as the Center of the Universe (straight down), the Fremont Troll, Rapunzel, Atlantis, and the North Pole. In addition, signs throughout Fremont give such helpful advice as "Set your watch ahead five minutes," "Set your watch back five minutes," and "Throw your watch away."

Someone that we met along the way asked if we had seen Rapunzel. We were told we must have missed it when we crossed the Fremont Bridge. So, we walked back to the bridge, one of the busiest drawbridges in the United States. It spans the Lake Washington Ship Canal. As we approached the north side of the bridge, we looked up and saw a neon Rapunzel in the window of the bridge tower on the west side of the bridge. Neon hair and all.

It is easy to find the Quirky sights in Fremont as the neighborhood powers-that-be have put helpful maps everywhere. We saw two topiary dinosaurs. We saw very unusual buildings. I am sure we missed a lot of clever stuff. We absolutely loved Fremont. Clever, clever people. Harry of Harry and the Natives in Hobe Sound, Stanley Marsh 3 from Amarillo, and Lynn Winter from Louisville would all be so at home in Fremont.

On to Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle to see the various vendors, watch the guys throw the fish at Pike Place Fish Market, see the bronze pig, and generally see the sights.

Pike Place Market is a public market overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle. The Market was opened in 1907, and it is the oldest continually-operated public farmer's market in the country. It is a place of business for many small farmers, craftspeople, and merchants. It is also Seattle's most popular tourist destination. One of the Market's major attractions is Pike Place Fish Market, where employees throw fish to each other rather than passing them by hand or allowing the poor dead fish to sit quietly on ice. The "flying fish" have appeared in an episode of the television show "Frasier" that was shot on location and have been featured in other movies, TV shows, and videos.

Pike Place Market's official mascot, Rachel, is a bronze cast piggy bank that weighed in at nearly 600 pounds. It is located at the corner of Pike Place under the "Public Market Center" sign. Rachel was designed by local artist Georgia Gerber. Rachel receives thousands of dollars annually in just about every type of world currency. The money goes to social services. Locals and visitors-in-the-know rub Rachel's snout for good luck. We rubbed and dropped some coins.

We went into the first Starbucks ever built -- just across from the Pike Place Market. Starbucks Coffee was founded in 1971 near Pike Place Market at 2000 Western Avenue. The first store relocated to Pike Place Market in 1976, where it is still in operation. The sign outside this branch, unlike others, features the original logo - a bare-breasted siren that was modeled after a 15th century Norse woodcut.

We went down the hill from Pike Place Market to the waterfront and visited Ye Olde Curiosity Shop. Ye Olde Curiosity Shop has been in business in Seattle since 1899. Lots of strange stuff inside. It is a souvenir shop packed to the rafters with animal freaks, oddities, mummy love couple Sylvia and Sylvester, and much more. We were told it has been in continuous operation by the same family for over 100 years.

We finally had some excellent seafood -- Elliott's Oyster House -- on the Seattle waterfront. Cindy was our waitress. If Elliott's were to open a location in Anchorage, I suspect the waiting time for reservations there would be weeks.

Seattle is not easy to navigate. As beautiful as it is, it is not a pleasant city in which to drive.

The lowlight of the day was watching a man ram his car into two other cars as he somehow managed to get his car into a space that was not as long as his Dodge Intrepid. His wife spoke to him by cell phone as she gave him instructions on the to-ing and fro-ing. The couple spent 30 minutes moving the car back and forth and back and forth. We couldn't believe our eyes. Everyone who walked by was as shocked as we were. The Dodge Intrepid was literally longer than the parking space he squeezed it into. Please look at the photos on the web site to see the car, the space, and the end result.

We met Brittany, Tiffany, and Glen and the nice folks who owned the car that was rammed when they weren't looking by the unbelievably rude folks in the Dodge Intrepid.

I guess the lesson for the day is that you can get your square peg into a round hole if you care only about yourself and care nothing about the owner of the round hole. De Libertas Quirkas does not apply here; this was downright outrageously wrong.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we've been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we've seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this web site. Other pages of interest include the running report of "vital statistics" on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you'd like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest and the full itinerary is shown.