North America Circle

Next stop on my self-guided tour of Seattle was the Space Needle.  I've never been to the top, because it seemed like kind of a tourist trap, but I am embracing the role of tourist on this trip so up I went.  And I must say I was very impressed with the whole thing.  Partly that was due to the fact that we had great weather (for Seattle) and there were very few people there to block my view (a combination of this being the mid-week and not in prime touring season).  

Your ticket gives you access to two levels, both with complete 360 deg. access.  The upper level has an open air viewing platform.  The lower level has a rotating platform with a glass floor.  Both were great, but they were a little disconcerting for me and I love heights.  If heights aren't your thing, you may want to pass.

It was also fun to watch the families with kids.  There seemed to be two universal experiences: parents of young children (under 2) would invariably set the baby down on the glass floor to see their reaction.  Some kids didn't even notice.  Some were terrified.  All of the parents were amused.  The second commonality was that I heard every parent of an older child at one point or another say something along the lines of "don't put your face on the glass, people walk on that!"  Sometimes it was more like, "don't lick the glass ..."  Read more