Tat’s Bizarre Travels

Seattle, WA - Deep within the bowels of Pike Place Market is the Giant Shoe Museum. It’s a little unassuming museum that costs a max of 75¢, only you must have quarters. There are no tickets or docents, just a storefront converted into what is now the Giant Shoe Museum. It’s very reminiscent of an old side show, complete with a tease that reals you in. For the astounding cost of free you can peep at the story of Robert Wadlow’s shoes (a sideshow wonder in his own right) as well as a genuine pair of clown shoes. And then for the admission price of 25¢ you can see other enormous shoes, including what I’d guess is the biggest pair of chucks ever made (if there’s a bigger pair let me know and I’ll jump at the chance to visit). As I dropped a quarter into each machine to see curtains pulled back to lights come up to reveal the shoes inside I loved every moment of it. The best was the moment when I was hanging back taking photos that I heard a group of teenagers complain that the show wasn’t worth it…seriously? Not worth the quarter you just paid? I’m sure I could come up with a list of things that weren’t worth the $150 they spent on it. But just like a good sideshow blow off I’m always willing to pay a little extra to have not to miss a little bit of weird. Of course I also have a soft spot for coin operated entertainment.

Seattle, WA - All of the rumors about the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop are true. The place is spectacular. Having been around for the last 100-odd years and owned by the same family the place has a wondrous collection of everything from shrunken heads and two headed calfs to t-shirts and plastic beads. And that is why the “for sale” items are not nearly as fun as the “please don’t touch” items.

Primarily a store, the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop is located right on the water, Alaskan Way, on a corner next to a souvenir store and the pier. Strangely it’s nestled among some of the most mundane fast food seafood eateries and souvineir shops. Perhaps that’s why there were so many more people inside than I expected. Of course, if they were freaked out by the shrunken heads they didn’t show it.

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Seattle, WA - If you head down to Pioneer Square, one of the only parts of Seattle that reminds me of an East Coast city, you’ll find Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour. I typically don’t like the ideas of tours, unless, like the Seattle Underground, it’s the only way I’m going to see a place that is otherwise off limits. I guess I could break in, but I’m much too old for prison. Besides this tour is a humorous look at the history of Seattle and the of the subterranean areas that are left to explore. Like any good subterranean adventure you are only permitted to explore the bits that are on the tour, but I suspect that there’s more to see for someone with the right set of keys to see.

The tour boasts “irreverent humor” which is directed mostly at the founders of Seattle. It mostly talks about the founders follies, including the inability to correctly build a working sewage system. Learning the history of Seattle’s early waste management system includes some of the best jokes on the tour. Everyone loves poo humor.

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