Tat’s Bizarre Travels

Fremont, WA - My last stop on my walking tour of Fremont was “Waiting for the Interurban,” a strange little statue of people waiting for the bus and dressed… well differently almost every hour. I must have seen then in at least three outfits while I was about. It’s appearently tradition for the folks of Fremont to dress these poor commuters up as they see fit. And directly behing them is another pile of cloths. I’m not sure if they were the ones they were just wearing or if they’re the next intended outfit, but it’s like a Walmart for the less fortunate back there!

The Interurban statues have their own nifty little but stop complete with coverage, I guess so their fancy duds don’t get wet, and are on an island in the middle of the street all on their own. In fact they’ve got the nicest bus stop I’ve seen in or out of Seattle! Of course no bus goes past. I guess that’s supposed to be the poetic irony of the statue, but something tells me it would be a little more awesome if they had the opportunity to mingle with the regular commuters and feel their pain.

Ballard, WA - My 1^st and 4^th day stops on my Seattle tour were to the always incredible, always awesome Archie McPhee store. I’ve been shopping their online store for years and and was a ball of nonstop excitement about visiting the real life place. It is the rubber chicken and bacon floss mecca of the world. I was in heaven.

When you first enter the store you’re assaulted by a sheer wall of crazy plastic bits hanging from the celling, tacked to the walls and in bins for your buying pleasure. They have a section of wallets, shelves bobble heads, a wall of Jesus’, wigs, masks, urine specimen kits. The place is a wonderland of junk, and yes it seduces you into buying it. I mean really, who doesn’t need a glow in the dark squid?

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Seattle, WA - I’ve seen the AWESOMENESS of gum art before. Having lived in Philadelphia I became acquainted with the strange revolution and attraction that comes from seeing gum donnors cover a surface with gum…but never like this. In Philly we have gum trees, but in Seattle they have a gum wall. And WOW what a gum wall it is. Almost every square inch of the brick from the reach of a person’s arm down is covered in gum. And not just globs of gum, but words and symbols written in gum, items stuck to gum, gum icicles, gum phrases, gum memories. One of the chef’s of a nearby restaurant was taking a rare Seattle smoke break staring at the wall and the select groups of tourists the took pictures and added their mark. I asked him how many of the pieces were his, he said none, he tries to stay as far away from the wall as possible…but his mom had left more than a few pieces behind. This gum wall has history.