Pt 49 – The Underground, Grunge & A Troll

Monday, June 10th, 2013

More traffic greeted us as we returned to Seattle. We parked near the “Space Meow” and bought tickets for the EMP Museum next door.

We first checked out the Horror Film exhibit which would have been more enjoyable if there weren’t so many children running around screaming. There were several field trips taking place there.

We enjoyed the Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana exhibits, and watched a “Fat Boy Slim” music video at the Sky Church before we headed to the other side of town to start the Underground Tour.

When we got to the meeting place for the tour, we met even more people from back home, including a young man who had went to the same high school as me. Small world. The tour started with a very funny introduction about the earlier years of Seattle and its struggle with the handling of sewage. Apparently, the tide would rise and the people of Seattle would get a geyser full of doo doo spattered back into their homes. Those were the days.

After the pleasant intro, we walked down the street and down some steps where we entered “the underground” or the original streets of Seattle. The city rebuilt on top of itself after a massive fire back in 1889. It was an interesting tour!

We worked up quite an appetite, so we returned to Pike Place Market to eat at “Saffron Spice” where we enjoyed some Indian chicken wraps, then grabbed more coffee at “Local Color”.

Now for those who don’t know me well, I was a big Nirvana fan in my youth. Trevor knows this and so he got us a cab to search for the late Kurt Cobain’s house. When in Rome, right? We ended up getting dropped off in the wrong neighborhood at first, then we found the right neighborhood. Strange enough, a house in the wrong neighborhood was blasting Nirvana songs from the balcony which had us a little baffled.

Once we were in the right neighborhood, we couldn’t locate the street. My feet were blistered and I was reaching a point where I was done running around in circles. Fuck that house, fuck this, let’s go. But Trevor was determined. Then we found the right street, but couldn’t find the right house. We thought we were in the right place and sat on a neatly decorated bench to take a break. Trevor was convinced the house was up the hill. A man walked by with his young daughter, and Trevor asked him about the house. He said it was up the hill, but advised Trevor not to go up the steps to get there since it was private property. This would later be determined to be a lie, and who could blame the guy for lying to a couple of crazies in search of a dead guy’s house with unknown intentions. Trevor ran up them anyway. Frustrated, I followed him. Still no sign of the house.

We returned to the same bench where we had been sitting at before and shortly felt really stupid once we did. Apparently, we were next to the house the whole damn time! That was a lot of effort in search of a dead celebrity’s house, and in hindsight, was an idiotic way to spend an afternoon. It was a small accomplishment, but a huge relief. I was just glad to get on with our day.