Vancouver vs Seattle Frye Art Museum Pike Place Market Olympic Sculpture Park Washington Park Arboretum Seattle Japanese Garden

This morning we awoke to an inundation of rain in Seattle...it is Memorial Day which is a holiday and we discovered that the Frye Art Museum was going to be open so we went there as there as we wanted to view the founding collection...some beautiful paintings exhibited in one room in salon-style...

The museum building itself is architecturally interesting...we found the modern art to be lacking but the founding collection though not up to many European standards lived up to our anticipation and exceeded it! Wall to wall, ceiling to floor...allow for some artistic liberty here...the works were hung salon-style.

We particularly liked The Shepherdess by William A Bouguereau along with his Flight of Love...also very gratifying to spend time with were The Coming Storm by Hans Dahl, Sun Maiden by Lillian Genth, Landscape with Snow by Arnold Gorter, Rosario Guerrero by Friedrich Kaulbach and the voluptuous Voluptas by Franz von Lenbach...a room worthy of at least an hour of your time...and it is free! This beats anything similar in Vancouver unless the Vancouver Art Gallery gets in a travelling exhibit...

We then went to Nordstrom’s for the gigantic shoe sale (a must for the ladies, with plenty of entertainment value for the gentlemen)...we walked around downtown Seattle experiencing the cities towers and peoples...including the always busy and exciting Pike Place Market (another must see with fish tossing fish mongers!)...Nordstrom is better than the Hudson Bay Company...I will give Vancouver’s Granville Island the vote in comparison to the market...but it is close...

We walked around the nearby waterfront Olympic Sculpture Park (when the sun came out to play) which provides a nice setting by the water and pleasant atmosphere for walks...English Bay in Vancouver is much nicer...and a must see...

We followed this up with a pleasurable exploration of Washington Park Arboretum and the wonderfully surprising Seattle Japanese Garden (loved it!) nicely cultivated with the care to detail that brings smiles to the face of those who take pleasure in nature deftly touched by human hands...Vancouver’s  Stanley Park is spectacular nudging to take the best park pick...and Queen Elizabeth Park is I judge in a draw with its Japanese style counterpart...both great visits...

We recommend everyplace we went today...The Frye Art Museum and Seattle Japanese Garden being our faves of the day...but in fairness we had been to all the other locations before...

A good steak dinner ended the day’s adventures leaving us full but waiting for the coming days of Seattle adventures...