Famous Seattle Landmark

.Today was our anniversary so I took the day off so I could spend the day with Jenny. I swear it's only been 5 years but Jenny informed me that we have actually been married for 21 years. Who knew. Anyway, Jenny had done a usability study for Microsoft a while back so we took a trip to Redmond to pick up the software that she had earned. Since we were in Redmond we also stopped by the Performance Bike Shop to take a look around. I just can’t be that close to a bike shop without stopping. My mother in law seems to think I have a one track mind. She’s probably right I do have a one track mind and it’s on two wheels.

Anyway, since we were already in the area we drove into Seattle to hang out.


Once we found some parking we walked over to Pike Place Market. If you haven’t been there it’s a very old farmers market with every type of produce imaginable. There’s also a lot of sea food available there as well. Basically, it’s Seattle’s version of Fisherman’s wharf complete with street performers and strange sights.

After wandering around for awhile Jenny took me down a set of stairs to show me something amazing that I had never seen before. Honestly, she was surprised that I had never seen it because it’s one of the most popular tourist attractions in Seattle. As I got to the bottom of the stairs and rounded the corner the sight took my breath away. What an amazing sight. How could I have lived by Seattle for so long and not seen this? But, wait this attraction could be in any city and I’m thinking should be in every city. Here is a shot of what I saw.




At first glance it looks like an incredible piece of popular art that could only be seen in a funky metropolitan art gallery. If this were the case misunderstood artists would probably gather around to analyze the meaning of the different color patterns. Yep, it’s that cool and hip. But….. if you stand back from it becomes abundantly clear what it really is.


It’s the Famous Seattle Gum wall! So here’s the scoop. The gum wall is located next to a theater. One of the policies of the theater is that no gum is allowed to be chewed by their patrons so people while standing in line to enter the theater would have to find a place to put their gum. Naturally, some teenagers started putting their gum on the wall before entering. The theater cleaned the wall repeatedly but at some point they just gave up and thus it became the famous Seattle Gum Wall. I wasn’t chewing gum at the time but if I had been I certainly would have added to the art. From what I understand this wall has been in existence for many years and people from all over the world have added gum to it. They say one man’s trash is another man’s art. I think this is really taking it to the extreme. Welcome to Seattle.