Fabulous Friday - King Tut!

The son and his wife dropped in for the weekend to visit. This means outings and all the local-friend-hanging-out possible.

One of the outings was to the King Tut exhibit at the Science Center -

(getting in the mood. :-)

The statuary was astoundingly gorgeous -

From these enormous ones -

To ones that were merely life-sized -

To small (and rather dimly-lit. Was hard to photograph in this non-flash arena. But I *loved* this grouping. The lower right was a sculpted 'sketch'..)

And look at this head! Many of the sculptures had these extended craniums. Including the mummy of King Tut - so it was not merely a stylistic choice. They even had 'neck cradles' to support their heads as they slept.

Pet cat sarcophagi! 

Beautiful, beautiful carved frieze....

And there were a number of pieces from the tomb itself. This is a gold 'mask' that would have completely covered his head and shoulders.

In addition to all the stone carvings and statues, there were also a number of remarkably preserved ones made of wood (these things are 3000+ years old!)

Jewelry, amulets, pendants - he had over 150 things adorning his corpse (including gold finger and toe tips) to help in his travels to the next life.

Gold, inlaid coptic jars. The artistry and craftsmanship was truly impressive. It was a great exhibit.

At the very end, was a replica of the actual mummy, made with one of those 'magic' 3D printers. See here: 

Fabulous Friday - with butterflies. :-)

After spending time with all things Star Wars at the exhibit, we decided to also hit the Butterfly House before we left the Science Center -

Butterfly houses are one of my favorite things. Give me a large glass room filled with sunshine, flowers and butterflies... A thing of happy!

Sometimes the flowers are so bright that the butterflies are almost indistinguishable...

There were many many varieties - with new ones being added every day from the collection of cocoons behind another window -

-we could see several emerging from cocoons as we watched (however the reflections on the glass precluded me taking a good photo to show you).

Butterflies were on the flowers, in the air, on the sidewalk, on *people* and on the fruit left out for them to feed on (so fun watching their long proboscis plunging in and out of the banana's core).

In addition to the butterflies, there were large, lovely koi in the ponds...

Felt like you could just reach in and tickle them. :-)

Great day all around.

Music Monday - and the Star Wars exhibit..

Today we ventured into Seattle to see the Star Wars exhibit, amongst other things at the science center.

 To commemorate, I give you my all-time favorite musical snippet from the first Star Wars movie-

(And while there was very little that I liked about the latest three (other than the eye-popping visuals),  the music was worthy....) 

Seattle Center in the ephemeral PNW sunshine....

Pacific Science Center arches....

Area-appropriate sculptures in the surrounding pools...

More sculpture-of-whale -

and more exhibit pics for you tomorrow!

Succulent (late) Saturday, ie. the Harry Potter Exhibit

Got to spend a lovely evening in Seattle with friends...

Seattle is a beautiful town, especially at dusk. Glass windows and sculptures are figured prominently...

We took a stroll across the Seattle Center - pass the EMP/SFM (Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum - which has the best logo evAR) - which is sporting signage for the current Battlestar Galactica Exhibit -

- and the Space Needle is always an impressive sight at night...

But it was the Pacific Science Center - specifically, The Harry Potter Exhibit that we were there to see.

Sadly they wouldn't let us take any photos at the exhibit (which was pretty spectacular) - so I had to buy various swag, including an exhibition book to commemorate... (Even the bags were cool.)

You can see a bit of the exhibit on the video at this link, or I can give you a glimpse of the exhibit book -

(The photos are not as clear as I wish in the book, nor as close-up in most cases - but it it pretty darn comprehensive...)

It was incredibly fun to see. Wish I could have lived there! :-)

Lovely night, great company,and fabulous exhibit. Yay.