Today I got the kids out of the house to join me for Maker Faire in Seattle.
We took the light rail which was pretty reasonably priced at $2.50 per child. I had my Orca card so it was free for me. We travelled from Seatac Airport to downtown Westlake Mall. The ride was pretty fun, something new for them. We left Seatac at about 11:20 and arrived at Westlake almost exactly at 12.
First thing we all kind of had to do was use the bathroom. Westlake was being renovated and the only available bathrooms were on the 4th floor where the food court was. My daughters each ordered a crepe and we all took bites as we walked to Seattle Center.
When we arrived at Maker Faire there were some booths outside. We checked them out before heading, and that is where I saw my first 3D printer in person. I was impressed, immediately I thought this is cool, I need to get one.
There were other things like a pressure rocket launcher, computer controlled water fountain, and a marble paper artist.
We headed inside and I prepurchased tickets so it was no problem getting in. We went to a smaller section first on immediately to the left of the entrance.
The thing that impressed me there was something called openbeam. Normally it would not be something I would look into but this seems to be where people are headed when doing 3D printing.
Before leaving that side, I spoke to some book people, mentioned that I was interested in authoring a book.
We then left and headed to the right side and there were three times more stuff there. My kids did some sewn electronics, and artistic stuff. Too much to post in this blog. It was a busy day after all.
But the two things caught my attention on that side, a google team, and a sole Raspberry Pi team. I told them of my plans to integrate the Pi and Arduino and they were for it.
We wrapped up and were hungry headed towards EMP where we had a year membership.
On the walk there we noticed more electronics (specifically engineering stuff) outside. It was not really hackerspace makershed kind of stuff but more engineering and schools. BUT there was a huge surprise on the way there… apparently there was a Filipino Festival going on, we had some Bar B Q steak, Lumpia, and Pancit. We checked out the Filipino booths and it was pretty interesting. Was proud to be Pinoy.
Also met some relatives while we were there, one of them mentioned we go check out the old home console museum. I saw the venerable Atari 2600, Nintendo etc etc. Just another cool stop in our awesome journey today.
Day was not over, by any stretch…
We continued on to EMP where we checked out the Fantasy gallery they had set up. I was pretty surpised the kids took a liking to all that. Then we checked out the bottom floor where we saw the the Sci portition and a Horror Movie section.
By now kids were beat, I wanted to walk on back from Seattle Center to Westlake (where we had to go back and catch the light rail). So we took the monorail which I believe is another first for my daughters.
We got to Westlake and had another meal… we were still hungry. After a bio break we jumped on the light rail and headed back to Seatac. My wife who did not come with us had to stay at home to greet some relatives and take care of her mom called me and said she wanted some fried small fish called “dilis”
I quickly drove to the Asian store and just made it, they were closing up and I was the 2nd to last customer. They also gave me some free palabok.
Took the I90 route home and saw the kids were beat. My day was almost done too. I still had to return some DVD’s to Redbox. One of the things I wanted was a bent needle nose pliers, they for some reason seem rare, but I found out they are also used for crafting, so tomorrow, its on to Michael’s or some other art store to see if they have this kind of pliers.
So I am here, day almost done, just need to get my pushups and situps in, the walking was certainly a workout though.
Overall it was a GREAT day A++.