A trip to Seattle to see Harry Potter The Exhibition and Picasso: Masterpieces from the Museé National Picasso, Paris seems like the oddest of juxtapositions.  On one hand we have a child’s story, full of witchcraft and fantastical creatures, stories that have become a world sensation.  A sensational pop culture phenomenon.  And then there is Picasso, an artist born more than a century before even the idea of Harry Potter.  Picasso once said “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”  He was also a pop culture phenomenon – one that could paint with great grace as well as great harshness.  Harry Potter is a boy becoming a man, while Picasso was a man who seemed to be becoming a boy.  As odd as the combination is they made for a great weekend.

Getting ready for Harry Potter the Exhibition!

I had been wanting to see Picasso for a while (as the Museé National Picasso in Paris was closed while I was there) and when Rachael posted that Harry Potter was on in Seattle as well it was too good for either of us to pass up.  We made some last minute plans (“advance tickets online? nah! we’ll wing it!”) and got ready to go.  The plan was for me to take the West Coast Express train Friday night out to Pitt Meadows where Rachael lives.  From there we’d leave early Saturday morning for the border, attend the noon time slot of Picasso, the 4:20pm showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at the IMAX and then the 7pm time slot for the Harry Potter Exhibition.  After that we’d head home.  A nice neat day trip.  Only…

The Seattle Space Needle - built for the 1962 World's Fair!

Really, Friday started oddly for me.  I woke from a dream of winning 38 million quarters on a slot machine (just the ticket kind, I wasn’t buried in quarters pouring out of the machine).  I had hoped that it meant I was going to have good luck that day.  I did wind up having maybe something resembling luck throughout the weekend, but I’m not entirely sure it was the good kind.

I took the West Coast Express out to Pitt Meadows and met up with Rachael.  I guess I don’t look like a typical commuter (may have been the silly grin plastered to my face).  I wound up in conversation with a man from Port Coquitlam for most of my ride; he had a constantly perplexed look on his face.  I suppose if you ride the train everyday it isn’t that much fun, but it was my first ride and I was pretty excited about it!  Anyhow, once I’d met up with Rachael we went and got dinner to have at her house.  Once we were in the door she mentioned something about passports… which it suddenly occurred to me that I had forgotten, back in Vancouver.  In downtown Vancouver.  And I was now in Pitt Meadows, one hour each way from downtown.  Drat!

Rachael kindly lent me her car and I drove all the way home to get my silly darned passport.  Two hours later I was back at Rachael’s.  She had kindly waited for me to get back to have dinner.  So at nine o’clock at night we had dinner and watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth movie in the Harry Potter series.  Because of my goof we went to bed a bit later than we should have.  Which of course resulted in us sleeping a bit later than we should have, meaning that once coffee was obtained we were a bit later to the border than we should have been, resulting in about an hour and a half wait at the border.  (Rachael has a Nexus pass that gets her across the border lickety split, but I don’t.  I am working on that now!).  Past the border and on the road again.

A fun billboard in Belltown.

It was noon before we got to Seattle.  We had decided that we didn’t want to feel rushed so we would skip the Picasso exhibit this trip and just concentrate on Harry Potter.  We found parking near the Pacific Science Center (where Harry Potter the Exhibition is) and then walked to Pike Place Market to find lunch.  Why did we not stop and buy our tickets for the Exhibition as we walked past?  Neither of us have a good answer for that, but we didn’t.  We had a nice lunch at Rock Bottom Brewery (I had a beer sampler with 8 different beer!!) and then we did a tiny bit of shopping before catching the monorail back to the Pacific Science Center.

Pike Place Market

We lined up (neither of us noticing the four self-ticketing machines available) and then were astonished when the couple ahead of us got the last tickets for the Exhibition that day.  What?!  How could we have screwed that up (-please no lists!).  Drat.  ”Umm… let’s stay the night and do both tomorrow?  Okay, yeah, we can do that… Should we see the movie tonight anyhow?  That’s a good idea.”  We quickly bought IMAX tickets for the 4:20pm showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and to the 10am entry to the Harry Potter Exhibition (see, we’re a bit slow but we learn eventually!).  We went straight in to the IMAX and got ourselves some seats.  This was another good move as apparently the show had sold out too!  We must have bought some of the last tickets available.  Whew!  Lucky that time.

One of the knights from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - the only prop we could photograph!

While sitting in the theatre Rachael called around to some local hotels listed on our city map.  Holiday Inn $129.  Comfort Inn $129.  Quality Inn $69 – sold!  So we had a room, seats for the movie, tickets for tomorrow.  Things were looking up!  The movie was great.  The hotel was tolerable (but conveniently nearby).  Shops were open late.  We had Mexican food for dinner.  It was rather a fun evening, if entirely unexpected.

The Space Needle at night.

We had the free breakfast at the hotel Sunday morning (they had waffle makers there, crazy!) and then walked back to the Exhibition.  We were a bit early for the gate opening, but we seemed to be the only ones with tickets in hand, so when the gates opened we ducked under the barriers and were the first inside!  We had time for a few quick photos before getting in line for the Exhibition.  It was rather fun to be first!  And maybe just a little bit odd to be the only adults there without children in tow (I’m sure that it’s not all that unusual, but we were a rarity that morning).

Entry gates at the Pacific Science Center.

Harry Potter the Exhibition was really quite good!  (Though no photography allowed ). It started with some actors, one sorting a few of the children into Hogwarts Houses (yes, I sort of wanted to stick up my hand too… but I behaved).  After watching a few clips from the movies and walking past a steam engine (it didn’t look very Hogwarts Express to me) we entered the exhibit space.  There were costumes and props from all of the movies, yes, including Deathly Hallows!!  Wands and robes, brooms and mandrakes (you could pull the mandrakes out of their pots and make them scream!).  We got to throw quaffles through upright rings and sit in Hagrid’s chair!  The detail on the props was truly amazing.  What a wonderful job it must have been to be involved with making the props and costumes.  We both enjoyed our visit, and somehow I magically escaped the gift store with no Harry Potter anythings!

After the Exhibition we hopped back on the monorail, found some coffee (yes, at a Starbucks, come on, we were in Seattle!), and walked down to the Seattle Art Museum.  A short lineup and we had our tickets for the Picasso exhibit for the 12:20pm entry.  (Both Harry Potter and Picasso are timed-entry exhibits, to keep the crowds ‘lower’ and moving).  We perused the gift shop and a few of the galleries before lining up for our entry.

This exhibition of Picasso’s works was very different from what you will see of most artists because it is formed almost wholly from pieces that he kept for himself that he felt represented his work.  It is made up of what he wanted an exhibit of his work to be.  It was an exceptionally educational experience.  Though I liked some of Picasso’s work before I think my now greater understanding gives me a greater appreciation, even of the pieces I don’t really like all that much.  If you get a chance to go, do pick up their free audio guide or better yet, download it to your iPod and avoid having to carry around their wand thing-y.

Two women running on the beach (The Race), 1922 by Picasso. We got to see this piece and I've included the image because of how strongly I felt there was a similarity between this painting and a sculpture I saw in Budapest. I wonder if the artist of the Communist piece had this in mind when he created it?

One last item about the Seattle Art Museum was their lobby installation.  I have come to the conclusion that my favourite pieces seem to be in the lobbies of art galleries (for example Snow White The Banquet at the Pompidou in Paris).  In Seattle it was a series of Ford (and one Mercury) sedans that had light exploding from them.  It really captured my attention!

Lobby of the Seattle Art Museum.

Installation in the lobby of the Seattle Art Museum.

After Picasso we headed back towards the monorail.  We grabbed a quick lunch at a cafe in Macy’s, did a tiny bit of shopping, then headed back to get the car.  Now, Rachael’s husband Dave had flown to California with a couple of his buddies a few days before.  We had known there was a possibility of needing to pick them up from the airport or some such while we were in Seattle but we hadn’t heard anything yet and we were about to head back to Canada.  So Rachael texted Dave.  Dave texted Rachael.  And everything got crazy again.  For full details, read Rachael’s blog here, but basically I got on a Quick Shuttle back to Vancouver and arrived home at 9:30pm Sunday night (from our ‘day trip’ to Seattle).  Rachael wound up staying most of the night at a hotel at SeaTac airport while waiting for Dave and his friend to drive from Sacramento, California.  They arrived at SeaTac at 4:20am, returned their rental car and drove back to Canada arriving in Pitt Meadows by 9am.  Crazy.

Anyway, despite all of the craziness we had a really great weekend.  I am certainly looking forward to going back to Seattle, but maybe I’ll just plan in advance to stay the night and save some craziness!

For more photos from the weekend see my Flickr album here.