Smith Tower

Today Lyday and I ventured to the Smith Tower. I've wanted to go there for quite some time, but haven't made the time. The elevator is one of the last manually operated elevators. The building was built in 1914 and I believe the elevator has been in operation the whole time. The view from the top is supposed to be awesome. Let me tell you, it is. There's another reason I've wanted to go but I'll detail that later. :)

This is the exterior of the tower. We couldn't have picked a more beautiful day to go. It was so clear outside. The sky was beautifully blue. It was great!
This photo is the south of Seattle. If you look carefully in the sky you can see Mt. Rainier. I like how it is floating above the lower clouds making it look like Mt. Olympus or something.

Yeah, I have no sense of direction. I think this is southeast. I just like how the city sprawls so far out. Also I like how the cars are little like matchbox cars.

This is the Columbia tower. That's the one I volunteer in in the spring for the Stairclimbs. Isn't it cool? It's seriously tall.

That's the waterfront (obviously).

Can you see the Space Needle in this picture? I like that building with the green dome on top.

I like the juxtaposition of the teeny tiny church with the giant Columbia Tower. I also like the shadow that the Smith Tower is casting.

The cool thing about the Smith Tower is the Chinese Room on the 35th floor (same floor as observation deck). It's just beautiful! This is the ceiling of the tower. The whole room is supposed to be extraordinarily full of good luck. There are phoenixes, cherry and plum blossoms, peonies and the little bird all in the ceiling. There are several dragons and shi dogs. Everything is hand carved. (Totally unrelated I like how Seattle seems to have some very obvious websties... the Woodland zoo has zoo.org, the Smith Tower has Smithtower.com and the Chinese room has Chineseroom.com. That's kind of funny to me.)

Here's a close up of one of the tiles. It is the cherry blossom tile. They are so colorful and are carved in Teak. I believe that Teak is a very hard wood. (I could totally be wrong about that.)

There's also a rather famous chair up in the top of the tower. This is a detail in the back of the chair. Can you see the dragon's face?

This tiger is in the back of the chair. Isn't it exquisite? The chair is carved Mahogany. Isn't that also a hard wood?

And here's me in the chair. The reason the chair is so famous? It is the Wishing Chair. From the website:

Be sure to take a look at the famous Wishing Chair. Legend has it that a single woman who sits in the chair will marry within a year. Happily, this legend came true for Smith's daughter.

Of course I believe in this so y'all are invited to my wedding around this time next year. :)

I will say that Lyday found a blog where it totally worked for a friend of the blogger. And it wasn't like she was dating some guy for years and he finally proposed - she was totally single with no prospects. I believe. I do.