Day 11, Wednesday, July 29: This day will always be remembered as the hottest day in Seattle's history. I don't just mean the hottest summer day, or the hottest day in July. I mean the hottest day EVER in recorded history. As interesting as it can be to be a part of history, this is one day that I could have lived without.
Just to make things clear for people who don't live here. No one has air conditioning here. Seattle city buses are also lacking air conditioning. Restaurants, apartments, dorm rooms, houses, etc...none have air conditioning, except for a few very rare situations.
We had tickets to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in IMAX 3-D at the Pacific Science Center, and I have to say it was the best choice ever to see it on this day. Our tickets were for 11:00am. It was opening day in IMAX 3-D and this was the first showing. By the time we got in line, I think it was already close to 100 degrees. At 11am. Thankfully, while 99% of the city lacks air conditioning, the Pacific Science Center is well equipped to keep people cold. Thank God for museums - they have to have climate control! Needless to say, this was a very big deal. Once everyone was seated in the IMAX theatre, an employee stood up at the front to welcome us to the opening of the movie in IMAX theatres. He said something along the lines of "Are you all happy to be here? Its opening day of Harry Potter in IMAX 3-D AND you guys are in one of the very few places in the city with air conditioning!" People clapped and cheered a little bit, but apparently, not loud enough. When the guy didn't get a good enough reaction, he said "I'm sorry people, but did you hear me? I said that this is one of the few places in Seattle that has air conditioning!" That got a bigger cheer that time. We still didn't know that the day was going to break records.
So after spending close to 3 hours in a nice cool theatre, enjoying Harry Potter for the 2nd time (for me and Carol...It was the first time Alice and Jan were seeing it), we decided to explore the museum for a while and take advantage of the coolness. The PSC was interesting, but honestly, not all that impressive to me. I love the Franklin Institute Science Museum back home in Philadelphia, and the PSC just didn't really compare to it. We used to have Girl Scout camp-ins at the Franklin Institute, which was the most popular trip that we ever took, so I guess I was expecting something a little more up to par with it. But for what its worth, it was an interesting place. After a few hours exploring around, we went outside and we were greeted with a blast of stagnant hot air. Walking just 2 blocks up the street had all of us covered in sweat. It was pretty gross.
We went to meet Elizabeth at a bridal shop. She just got engaged shortly before this trip and she wanted everyone to help her look at wedding gowns. The bridal shop also had air conditioning, so we got lucky twice in a row. However, before we went to meet her, we stopped at a Rite Aid to pick up some random stuff, and we were greeted by an angry woman talking to the cashier, who was pretty irritated with Rite Aid because she couldn't find a fan. Apparently, all fans, all over the entire city had sold out and the people who didn't buy one were just out of luck. I think thats when it hit us that this heat was actually a serious problem. Alice and Carol had come from Texas where they were used to weather like this. But we realized that there is a difference between being used to weather over 100 degrees and having a/c to cope with it, and not being used to weather like this and NOT having a/c to cope. The city was pretty much in a panic which we witnessed more as the day went on.
After watching Elizabeth model and try out various different dresses, we went to eat dinner at an Indian restaurant. We chose to sit outside because even though it was still insanely hot, even though night was setting in, this place was one of the unlucky restaurants without air conditioning, so it was even hotter inside the small building. I've never eaten Indian food in my life, so I was a little apprehensive, especially since I'm a really picky eater. Apparently, Elizabeth is known for getting people (like Alice) to try new things, so she was very helpful when it came to trying to figure out what would taste good and what didn't have any onions in it (I hate onions). We ended up ordering a bunch of stuff that we all shared, and I have to say that coconut curry chicken is AMAZING. I'm a little bit shocked to admit that I liked something new, but I did, and I'd happily eat it again.
As a random side note, Elizabeth had been carrying a fan around with her all afternoon. She got it from someone at work to cool us all down in her apartment. On our way to the bus stop, some random guy a few stories up in a building yelled down to her and started asking questions and talking about her fan. Apparently, he was also an angry person who was greeted with the lack of fans in the city when he went to buy one earlier.
Day 12, Thursday, July 30: We woke up to the news that the day before Seattle had reached its highest temperature ever. 103 degrees. First of all, I'm a little surprised that 103 is the hottest its ever been. I've definitely been in hotter temperatures than that before, but I guess when its not expected, and very unusual, and in a city with no a/c, then its a really big deal. A nearby town - Puyallup - reached record temperatures of 107 degrees that day. So while it was hot in Seattle, it was even hotter in some surrounding areas.
It was still pretty hot on this day, although news articles were happy to reassure us that the heat wave was going away (which translates into - "today its only 101 degrees. See? Its cooler!") We decided to go to the Seattle aquarium. A nice air conditioned building (yay for buildings that are required to keep things cool inside!), was just what we needed. We spent quite a bit of time at the aquarium, which is fairly large and packed with all kinds of sea creatures. Our favorite part was the otters. We all wanted to take one home with us.
And then, of course, we all had to get our individual picture taken on the cute wood carved otter bench.
The rest of the day was spent enjoying the local surroundings. We wandered around Pike Place Market for a while, and then checked out the first Starbucks across the street from the market. The last time I went to Pike Place, my friend, Mrs. M, introduced me to an amazing Russian bakery called Piroshky's. Since Mrs. M is from Poland, I took her word on the fact that this place was delicious (not that Poland = Russia, but its close enough!). So I dragged everyone to Piroshky's and they were all very impressed. I bought a delicious apple cinnamon roll, and imagine my surprise and delight when I realized that they also sell marzipan rolls! (If you've read my past blogs, I love marzipan, even though everyone around me seems to find it disgusting.) So I bought a marzipan roll too, which was absolutely delicious! Everyone else was very happy with the choices they made (apparently the potato, onion and cheese thing is really good, but since I hate onions, I can't imagine that I would agree), so I highly recommend checking this place out if you're ever in Seattle.
We then set off on a long hot walk. Actually, it wasn't that long, but it was so hot, that it felt long, to Elliot Bay Bookstore, which is apparently pretty famous, although I had never heard of it. Sadly, the bookstore was one of the many places in the city that did NOT have air conditioning so it was pretty uncomfortable. But its a huge bookstore and I could have spent hours in there. I ended up buying a Weird Washington book (great series that started with the original Weird New Jersey magazine), and a used hardcover copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I have the first 4 Harry Potter books in softcover, and I want to get them all in hardcover before they stop publishing this particular edition, so they all match. So I was pretty excited to find an almost perfect condition, used, hardcover book for only $10. Now I just need the first 3 in hardcover and my collection will be complete.
We set off back to the area of Pike Place Market to start heading home, and this walk was even worse than the one to the bookstore. I didn't realize we had walked downhill to get to the bookstore, so walking uphill for 10 blocks or so, in 100 degree weather, was not a very fun walk. The end was ok though because we ended up getting ice cream, and if you know me, ice cream can always make things all better :-). After ice cream we checked out some local cheesy tourist shops where we all purchased various magnets, sweatshirts, t-shirts and postcards. This was also when I bought the newspaper with the headline about the prior day being the hottest day ever in Seattle history. I thought that headline would be a good souvenir to keep.
Finally, it was back on to the hot, no a/c bus and back to Elizabeth's house for the night to rest up for a long, fun day at Mt. Rainer the next day!
(All of us at Pike Place Market)
(Jan and Alice with their drinks from the first Starbucks, and yes they are iced drinks since no one in their right mind would be drinking hot coffee on this day.)
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