Day Two Aug 31, 2000 Thursday Seattle and Tacoma: a Busy Day and a Baseball Game, too Our only day in Seattle and Tacoma proved to be long and busy with LOTS of pictures. Click here to visit "Virtual Seattle", a site with hundreds of Quick Time Panoramas. (Their pictures turned out much better than ours).  We started by heading downtown, circling Pioneer Square, Pike Place market, and downtown generally, seeing the new Safeco baseball field (the Mariners were out of town) and the new football stadium under construction. We clicked these pictures when we stopped for bagels and coffee to go. We decided to "postpone" the Underground Seattle tour until our return to Seattle at the end of the trip on Day 18. We headed to the space needle and the old world's fair park. The new rock-and-roll museum had been constructed since Dave and Jesse's visit in 1997, joining the familiar science and children's museums. We stopped at the base of the tower to snap some pictures and pick up brochures when we became aware of a larger than expected crowd staring up for an unexpectedly long time (like the mob of onlookers when someone is threatening to jump off a ledge). There was music being piped in from loudspeakers when we finally noticed that there was a performance art troupe attached to the tower with repelling cables and they were ... dancing! Yes, they were jumping and swinging out to the music, sometimes crouching, other times spread eagle or like angels. We joined the crowd staring at them, then felt overcome with the surreal event. We packed and were on our way. We drove through the Queen Anne neighborhood around Lake Union and to the Gasworks park. Dave had taught a client around there a few years back, and was familiar with the quirky items to be found. We headed for the somewhat famous Troll under the Aurora Avenue bridge. A year previously, we had watched the youth movie "Ten things I hate about you" (the modern rendition of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew"). It was set nominally in Seattle, but filmed at the famous Stadium High School in Tacoma. One scene was shot with the troll. It was fun to watch the film again just before we left home, then stand there today. A few blocks away in loopy Fremont is an authentic statue of Lenin, retrieved from the Soviet Union after the fall of communism and now stationed between a bus stop and a parking lot. Of course, we had to stop by Archie McPhee's outlet store. Dave and Jesse found him on the web before their trip in 1997 and so enjoyed their visit that they wanted to take Lyn to witness. Unknown to us, Archie had moved to a much nicer facility about two miles away. Of course we could not leave until we bought our glow-in-the-dark alien head, punching nun puppet, and wind up jumping false-teeth. How could we? From Archie McPhees, it was down to the Lake Union waterfront for lunch at Ivar's. The seafood lunch is famous and the picnic tables around back by the docks were just right for our mood. Lyn had developed an allergy to shellfish (so she had to skip the clam chowder) but she enjoyed with us all the other fixins. Of course the location is marvelous, on the actual waterfront, up from the park and just below the gargantuan freeway span. Under the bridge are old boats docked in run down marinas, looking over the old fashioned drawbridges (still working) and onto the University of Washington campus. What a delightful hour with just a hint of sunshine peeking through from time to time. From Ivar's we headed south to Tacoma, planning to catch the Rainiers game that night. We first stopped at the famous Stadium High School, originally built as a railroad hotel but abandoned during a century ago downturn. As mentioned, it was famous to us from the movie "Ten Things I Hate About You". We also made a brief side trip to the Tacoma Narrows for a quick peek at the bridge that replaced the famous "Galloping Gertie" suspension bridge that toppled from excessive cross winds on that famous old newsreel. We can attest that the new span is rock solid and has been so for decades. We happened to arrive on "chicken growers appreciation night" (or somesuch) so we got DOUBLE mascots with the live chicken also walking around and posing for pictures. The chicken people sent a mascot, but no free samples. Drat. We ended our evening in Tacoma, Washington with a visit to see the Tacoma Rainiers minor league baseball team. Since the players strike and city after city being held hostage by major league  teams, we have lost interest in Major League Baseball. The minor leagues, however, are a great place to have a great family time. The evening was cool and the seats and food were cheap (in comparison) and the baseball was every bit as good as that played anywhere. The entertainment, however, was once again the reason for going. How can you explain "Bunny-Man"? Each team has a mascot and has lots of between inning antics (dizzy bat, sumo wrestlers, etc). However, BunnyMan was something directly from the same realms that brought us Monty Python. He was nominally a superhero, with black bat cape and black eye mask but then dressed in a full-fledged white and pink Easter bunny suit. As every tragic hero, he was born to be a superhero by nature, but born into the wrong family. So the "rolly-polly bunny-wunny" suit was masked and caped and the superhero spoke only in the same deep baritone and mono-syllable of the Superman cartoon show. What a hilarious comedy concept. And to play it on a stage as large as a baseball diamond, to boot. Between innings he would be the one to throw and shoot souvenirs to the fans.  He actually climbed on top of the overhanging roof and threw t-shirts to the throngs below (you become dizzy each time you just think about it). But mostly he entertained and was the highlight of our baseball game in Tacoma. Later we read of the success of the man behind the suit: Brian Schalk. At the age of 24, with two years as minor league baseball mascots (Wisconsin and Tacoma), he was offered the job as director of merchandising for the NBA's Seattle Sonics. Congratulations and good work. Original Web Upload May 2001 Last Update: August 5, 2001