Day 7: Seattle, WA
Welcome
Yesterday we performed at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.
The first animal I saw after waking up was a seagull, a mighty bird perched proudly atop the rocks of the penguin enclosure. As Jonathan and I stood in the main cabin of Blue Paradise stretching and wiping away the morning cobwebs from our eyes we marvelled at this fine bird, and then marvelled some more when several penguins wandered into frame, Humboldt penguins from the coastal regions of Chile and Peru. At some point during the early hours of the morning Mr Bus had slipped our vehicle into the grounds of the zoo and while we lay in our bunks slumbering the animals had been preparing for the business of the day, warming up and trying to look their best for the thousands of visitors that would soon be passing through the gates.
Once we had assembled a breakfast party we set out on foot to a nearby restaurant, a spot that had run a determined lobbying campaign over the previous few weeks to get us to attend. Even though they may possess the fifth most popular name in the United States from the past hundred years with 1,395,049 christenings, it is still important for Beths from all walks of life to stick together and ensure the continuity of this great title - and that is how we ended up at the iconic Aurora Ave diner Beth’s Café. The décor was unique – walls covered with artworks in the medium of crayon on printer paper. On the first line of the menu was the restaurant’s specialty item, the twelve egg omelette, which all members of the band were too cowardly to order. Instead I ordered sausage and eggs, over easy with hashbrown, and sourdough toast. We found a cup of crayons and doodled as we ate, creating a pair of artworks that Da Vinci would have been proud of.
Back at Woodland Park we set out to explore the zoo and joined the crowds flocking to the viewing windows and platforms for glimpses for their favourite animals. My favourites were the Canadian Lynxes, stylish and handsome felines, three of which reside in the enclosure and take turns entertaining the visitors. There were Brown Bears, Komodo Dragons, and even some of the famous alpine parrots known as Kea, birds who usually reside on Te Waipounamu, a small island off the southeast coast of Australia.
Alvvays provided the soundtrack for our exploration as they soundchecked in a central location, a wide open grass space that was known as ‘The Meadow’. We arrived back at the stage once they had concluded their business and we conducted our own soundcheck, soon discovering that we had to play very quietly to avoid disturbing the animals.
At 4:30pm the doors were opened and concert-goers began arriving in force, streaming onto the grass with their arms filled with lawn chairs and blankets, eager to claim their small piece of real estate for the evening. By 6pm when we began playing the meadow had filled out nicely, a big crowd of standers up the front augmenting the hundreds of picnics that were viewing from a safer distance. We only had thirty minutes to make an impression and it felt like we did a decent job. It was pure joy for us on the stage and hopefully the humans and animals listening enjoyed things as much as we did.
The gear was packed up and the trailer was loaded and there was still light left in the sky. We headed off to explore the zoo once more, taking advantage of the late hour and having the place entirely to ourselves, and enjoying the sounds of Alvvays drifting across the grounds. Many animals were much more active when we came across them in the evening and we especially loved getting to see Sempuma the Tapir completing a thorough inspection of her enclosure.
We ended the evening in a hotel in downtown Seattle, saying goodbye to Blue Paradise for a night and experiencing the comfort of a full-sized stationary bed.