Vandrea Does America: Day 16- Seattle, WA (Volunteer Park and Arboretum)

Friday 7/6/12
This being our last day in Seattle we were starting to feel that we knew the city pretty well and therefore the city decided to remind us who's in charge. Our first stop was the huge Volunteer Park. Volunteer Park has been around since the late 1800's and is home to an observatory tower which has a higher view than the Space Needle. Though the view is exquisite I should also mention that due to safety concerns the view is through metal screens. However, if your camera is adjusted just right you can still get some fantastic shots of the city. In the park is also the Seattle Art Museum's second museum building holding their collection of Asian art (another of the museums that were free on the first thursday of the month) and a conservatory full of some of the most unique flowers and plants we have ever seen. Just getting to see some of these incredible creations was quite a treat and hopefully their beauty will come across in the photos below.
Now is the point in our adventure when we get lost and thirsty. Since the weather had finally come around on Wednesday it was a hot and the sun was bearing down on us. We were attempting to find the University of Washington's Arboretum and Japanese Gardens. When the last drop of water was gone (we had forgotten to refill the water pack) and the arboretum was nowhere to be found we almost gave up. Since we are both stubborn by nature and giving up is not really in our reportorie we instead rested and feasted on the sandwiches we had smartly packed. With renewed energy we set out again. We did eventually find the park just to discover that its massive size dwarfed Volunteer park and we were too thirsty and tired to enjoy it at all. We settled for a bus ride back to Bellevue to get our van.
Once again Isaiah's thorough research payed off and we drove like the wind over to Woodinsville to catch the 5 o'clock tour of Red Hook Brewing. As we learned on the tour Red Hook is in the top 3 craft breweries in the states and possibly the world and now I know why. The very informative and defintely recommended tour also had five taste tests. As a pale or amber drinker myself (Don't worry she's been getting sun-I) I can safely say that even their ESB (Extra Special Bitter) and IPA (Indian Pale Ale) were excellent and not too rough on my delicate taste buds. Our guide talked not only about the history of Red Hook but also the history of beer in general. To make a craft beer as they do you have to have 4 ingredients: Barley (or wheat), Hops, Water (90% is water) and Yeast. We learned that early beer makers in the 1500's were frustrated again and again when trying to make beer with the first three ingredients only. It wasn't until a "magician" used his staff to stir their beer that it would finally ferment. Well as history eventually revealed the staff was full of yeast and that's why using it created the finalized alcoholic product. Out of curiousity we ended the night by trying to follow a crowd of people to a concert in a vineyard and learned that it was Steely Dan reunited but the tickets were sold out. -A