A Day in Seattle

There are days when you sit like a sloth in a Las Vegas hostel - away from the strip and closer to the desert - in a communal room with other people going on about their lives expressing the shit out of their emotions in Spanish, and there are days when you get so stimulated and go through such a large variation in emotional states in the short span of a single day that you wonder whether it's worth going through the former in order to document the latter. And yet, here I am doing exactly that.

My final travel plans to the US involved only two cities: Seattle and Las Vegas. Now that I'm in LV, it's time to reflect upon the Seattle experience, especially the one day that stood out for me, one that will always stand out - the boxing day of 2013.



Tearing up at the Gates
Two days before my Seattle trip was to come to an end I accidentally learned, while looking at a map at the Space Needle (SN), that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had a visitor centre in Seattle.

Seattle Space Needle: a boring place for people who prefer 'doing' stuff over seeing things.

I literally rushed out of the SN to check it out as it was within walking distance. Alas, it was closed. But, I put it at the top of my itinerary for the following, and last, day in Seattle.

It was closed but I managed to read the quote in the back: "Whatever the condition of people's lives, wherever they live, however they live, they share the same hopes, the same dreams as you and I." - Melinda Gates

The following day I headed to the B&M GF in a lot of anticipation. Entering the doors was a quiet feeling of satisfaction. There were testimonials of people from around the world on what the foundation had done for them, what their dreams were and how they could achieve them with the support provided. There were messages from both the co-chairs - Bill and Melinda - and a photo of the number of people who help make the foundation tick. This was just the first room.

He used to be one of my heroes before the foundation. Now he's something more.

I spent about 15 minutes just taking it all in, realising the geographical scope that the foundation covers and the various aspects it covers them in e.g. education, sanitation, climate change, biotechnology, vaccination/health in general, etc. Next thing I knew my eyes teared up. I was crying and I didn't know why I. It was the first time visiting a place had incited such an emotional reaction.
I didn't know what to do. I wanted to help, but didn't know how. I wanted to be a part of it but priorities and past experiences dictated a reminder that I make my own life stable first.

I continued on to the other sections, each of which was devoted to certain issues that the foundation focuses on. They had video interviews of various people sharing their thoughts on those issues. There were even multiple areas where one could contribute to the discussion and add their thoughts on how specific things could be improved e.g. if we owned a foundation like this, "What would your foundation do?"
I made it a point to enthusiastically type in whatever thoughts I could muster in that state of mind, on most of those stations which included "What would your foundation do?", thoughts on climate change, thoughts on biotechnology, thoughts on teacher effectiveness,

"Regardless of whether we have to adapt biologically or technologically to climate change, or whether it is human induced, the fact is that the climate is changing and something needs to be done for our biosphere - as it stands today - to survive. The political and economic sphere today is too local and short-term to be conducive to such a change, the people too un - and mis - informed. ~Abhi [Fiji]" - the last statement on the screen.

I couldn't finish seeing the entire place as I had my next commitment coming up soon...

An Ear-to-ear Grin on a Segway
While I'm not into tours that much as much as seeing an advanced tech-contraption in action, I just had to book the Segway tour just for getting time with the machine itself.
Upon arriving at the shady looking location underneath an overpass, I was come upon with a feeling of excitement by looking at the dozen or so Segways that were parked and charging inside the room. It was a plain old room with barely anything other than the machines themselves and the helmets. Not much more was needed.
The guide gave a quick intro to the machines and how to manoeuvre them. All of us got to try a hands-on experience before taking them out for a proper spin on the streets.

The feeling of being on a Segway is amazing! It's a relatively rock-solid platform when one is standing still but once you shift your weight in one direction, the Segway's 8-gyroscope system senses this and moves the wheels in that direction to prevent the rider from falling and, of course, to move.

An hour later, I felt on top of the world as I'd totally gotten the hang of it, was sliding it around, going in circles around objects, racing my group member via timed laps, maxing out the Segway's 20 kph speed limit on a pier in the city, driving through the pedestrian traffic on the city footpaths and kicking babies on the way (not really).

Riding while not holding the handlebar takes extra cojones.

Since the machine is considered a Personal Mobility Device or a Personal Transporter, it is allowed on the sidewalks in Seattle. However, it is banned in most other countries and many other states in the US itself which is a rather sad situation. This also means that the device is limited to use on personal property in most other places thus making it rather ineffective as a form of transportation between places connected via roads/footpaths.

Sadly, like all good things, the experience came to an end and I was forced to use my rather slow legs.
Luckily, the day was not over.


Marvelling at the Concorde
A half hour bus ride later, away from the busyness of the city and past the Boeing factories (something to visit next time), I arrived at the Museum of Flight.

One could just feel the awesomeness radiating from the door.

It was a race against the clock with only 2 hours left until the place closed for the day; my last day here.
Right after buying the ticket I jetted it to the open air museum where the planes were parked.

There it was, in all its in-your-face glory: the Concorde. I took a minute to just absorb the sheer beauty of the machine.

The characteristic pointy nose. So cool.

Then a bit of sadness engulfed when I realised that the bird would never fly again; a supersonic passenger aircraft - only one of its kind in the world - grounded because of people's irrational fears. The crash of 2000 that resulted in the death of everyone on-board caused - despite being a very unlikely event caused by another aircraft - a massive panic among flyers who refused to fly on the those planes thus forcing the only two airlines in the world - Air France and British Airways - to ground their entire Concorde fleet and put them in the history books. This is despite the fact that these planes had the highest safety record when compared to almost any other type of aircraft.

There was a line-up for entering the aircraft and I waited patiently. After having been made fun of for being by myself i.e. not in a group, I ascended the stairs and entered the belly of the beast. It was tight and narrow, clearly designed for speed and function and not looks or comfort. Nothing special to see inside.

The next plane I visited the heart of was an ex-Air Force One plane. As expected, it was a lot more posh on the inside with large interior spaces, meeting lounges, the 'oval office' area and a communications centre.

The flying oval office. Maybe this is where Bill and Monica joined the mile-high club.

Another highlight of the museum trip was getting to sit in the cockpit of an SR-71 Blackbird. What a machine! Too bad they only had the nose section of the bird. Luckily, an entire M-21 Blackbird was present for one to pour their eyes all over.

The museum also had a couple of simulators and the only one I got to go in was the i360 setup. It offered a completely enclosed experience flying the F-22 while being engaged in a dogfight. Best part: the capsule rotated to match the plane's roll and I did a fair bit of inverted flight causing the blood to rush to my face and to feel the effects of increasing blood pressure.

Other notable items checked out included a flight trainer setup for the Space Shuttle in true scale, the Russian soyuz capsule and the space toilet.

A relieving sight.

I loved the Blackbird so much that I ended up buying a small toy and a dog-chain in memory.


End of the Day
Returned to the hostel and slept after a very long satisfying day to re-energize and de-fragment the memories that will always be associated with this one time that I cried, laughed and dropped my jaw in awe, all in one day.