Liberty and the Pursuit of Lamp Happiness

Today we visited Seattle's National Nordic Museum to explore the 45th Annual Julefest.

There was a good number of people inside chowing down next to a virtual yule log in the fireplace.

Hattie's Hat is an amazing divey diner that was opened in 1904. Everything about the place is one big "they don't make em like this anymore". The decor is weird and awesome and retro. The food is diner fare that I didn't realize how much I've missed from the Midwest.

How many places are so confident in their menu that they'll just paint a friggin' mural of it permanently on the wall?

I've had my eye on this amazing Restoration Hardware lamp for a little while. The lighting in our apartment currently is probably a hand me down from someone's dorm room. It doesn't look great but it's doing its job. Fine. But what if instead of that we had an OTTIMO TORCHIERE FLOOR LAMP that some might say is 

"A study in proportion and balance, our reproduction of an Italian lamp celebrates the bold minimalist spirit of the 1950s. Subtly patterned at the base with rhythmic fluting, the elongated conical body extends dramatically upwards, culminating in a simple round reflector shade."

Now, I'm not saying that a ton of lives have been changed by a lamp. But if that was ever going to happen for me, it would be by this $3,600 lamp that looks like something the Statue of Liberty might hold up.

I wanted to see this work of friggin art in its natural habitat at the gigantic Restoration Hardware store in University Village. The place is like 5 stories tall. They didn't have a single one in stock. The things must be flying of the shelves. If only we'd gotten here sooner.

Things are beginning to get festive back at the apartment.

Our finest gifts we bring, pa rum pa pum pum

To lay before the King, pa rum pa pum pum

Nordic Museum and Fremont Traversal

Seattle got a new NHL team this year, the Kraken. They are also is in the process of refurbishing the old Key Arena into the new and improved Climate Pledge Arena.

I'm new to town, and Lydia has a second job, so I thought it might be amusing to apply to a few of their many openings and see what happened.

I have a sickness where I like free things no matter what they are. Free museum is a good find though. There were a few locations on the list, but this particular time we went for the National Nordic Museum.

I thought it was cool how they covered immigration to the US from lots of different Northern European countries.

There were these fun golden pretzels with crowns on top in front of all of the bakeries in Denmark. I thought that was fun. I would pledge my allegiance to King Pretzel no problem.

The museum itself had a fun Nordic style to it as well.

We went to the museum in Stockholm where the giant ship Vasa now rests. It was super cool. This museum is like half John Europe trip memory lane.

"The phrase En Svensk Tiger was part of a Swedish public campaign during World War II to prevent spying and ensure secrecy. Tiger refers to the Swedish verb tiga (to keep silent), meaning that "A Swede keeps silent." The expression is similar to the American slogan "Loose lips sink ships."

"Nordic America

Between 1840 and 1920, nearly one-third of the total population of the Nordic region migrated to the United States. The earliest arrivals tended to settle near the East Coast, while later immigrants ventured to the American Midwest and the far West, including the Puget Sound region. They worked on farms, in mines and mills, in fisheries and logging camps. Over time, many entered professional life and became national leaders. Today, more than 10 million Americans are descended from immigrants from the five Nordic countries.

Yesterday we volunteered at Fremont Oktoberfest and so now it was time for them to pay the piper.

I was impressed with how little everyone seemed to give a crap that it was raining. Seattle drunkards are a hardy bunch.

All that pretzel talk earlier got me thinking. I needed a giant baked good in my life!

I was amused that there was a McDonald's food truck on site.

The Fremont Rocket attached to a random shop is a real circa-1950 Cold War rocket fuselage.

You can see the Fremont Troll prominently featured on this Oktoberfest poster.

We decided to visit him in real life.

You can pick your trolls and you can pick their nose.