Off-Beat Seattle: Trolls, Rockets And A RUBBER CHICKEN MUSEUM!

It has to be said that Seattle isn’t my favourite city – which is why it may come as a surprise that I am writing a THIRD blog post about it (though with a title like that, I’m sure you can understand why). One thing I do really like about Seattle is its neighbourhoods – after falling in love with the trendy Capitol Hill, I was looking forward to checking out another hip neighbourhood with lots of quirky sites: Fremont.

We didn’t have a lot of time, being that it was the last day of our road trip, but I knew there were at least three things that I needed to see:

• The Fremont troll (I was tempted to re-enact the scene from 10 Things I Hate About You, just to match the intro scene from Kerry Park)
• Hedges shaped like dinosaurs
• …a rubber chicken museum. A museum. Dedicated to rubber chickens.

And so behold – one of my most ridiculous blog posts to date!

One thing I immediately liked about Fremont (apart from the fact we finally managed to park for free) is how detached it felt from the city. It feels like its own community – beautiful little houses and quirky cafés abound, set on the water (and a hill).

It was also kinda weird.

I mean, apart from the above – there’s a ROCKET. A rocket attached to a building.

Somebody had taken the liberty of writing that this is the HQ for Space Force, and there was also an entire section on a sign about the rocket, talking about a “premature erection”. *titter*

And look at some of these places!

The dinosaur hedges were fun, although weirdly hard to photograph. They are set in a lovely little park by the water, and it seemed like a really nice place to take kids. That’s about when it really felt like we were just in a small town instead of a major city.

Nothing quite sums up the community feel more than this, though:

Really one of the loveliest things I’ve seen!

And, of course, we took a wander by the troll. It really is bizarre, and I still don’t quite get it, but it’s there and it’s weirdly famous. When in Fremont…

But I know what you’re all here for – if you’re anything like me (uhh, probably not), then you wanna know all about this rubber chicken place!

The funniest thing is, it’s not ACTUALLY a museum. It’s a shop, which is totally excellent in itself by the way, with the back wall lined with cabinets full of rubber chickens and equally hilarious anecdotes.

So welcome to Archie McPhee; home to the rubber chicken museum, the Wallingford beast, a giant pink poodle, and MANY other absolutely insane wares. If you’re into weird stuff, or just want to celebrate the humble hero of comedic genius, this place is 1000000000% worth a visit if you’re in Seattle!

The pinnacle of rubber chickens. THE PINNACLE OF RUBBER CHICKENS. It’s so exciting that I’m going to leave that entirely up to your imagination and show you these knock offs instead.

I feel like if I post photos of everything, it might be seen as detracting visitors, but 95% of you aren’t logistically going to go anyway. The way I see it, if you wanna go to a rubber chicken museum, you are GOING to go to a rubber chicken museum even if you’ve read this post. Or especially if you’ve read this post. Plus, it’s all frickin’ chicken hilarious!!!

My favourite piece in the museum, which I’m pretty sure had me in tears:

Anyway, our adventure wasn’t over yet: there was still an entire STORE to explore!!!

Of course I couldn’t resist getting a photo with the LARGEST rubber chicken in the world!! That’s right – they have the smallest rubber chicken in the world, the second smallest rubber chicken in the world, AND the largest rubber chicken in the world!! I don’t know what more you could want, ladies and gentlemen.

This is almost as ridiculous as the time I stood next to a whale penis. Similar size, too.

The whole store was full of absolutely pointless crap, and I wanted to buy it all.

In the end, we left with several rubber chicken Christmas ornaments, and a rubber chicken car air freshener!

We also managed to take a trip back to Capitol Hill to FINALLY try out the Highline bar! This had been on my list since my first visit in May – it’s a vegan food place, but it’s also a rock bar. I had been planning to come here with my vegan friend, but when we turned up, there was some industrial rock festival going on and it was $30 to get in. We took a wander down the road instead, and stumbled across a great looking little pirate-y bar, Captain Blacks.

Ash and I found ourselves in both places. We started off with a drink in the pirate bar, and got some food at Highline bar – it was great food, and they had a bunch of rock-themed cocktails too! It was a very different atmosphere to last time – there was virtually no one there, and no ear-crushing metal playing. I would like to have seen it a bit livelier, but it was fine.

FYI – I had the “pig destroyer”, which is possibly the most anti-vegan sounding name they could possibly have come up with!

I think it’s safe to say that where downtown Seattle failed to capture my heart, its neighbourhoods have won me over. We took a final little wander around Capitol Hill at night, though I couldn’t remember where anything had been that I’d seen during the day last time. Instead, we stumbled across more weird things like this Donnie Darko suit leering at us from a shop window!!

I can’t think of a more apt way to end our American road trip, to be honest! I am all about finding crazy, weird, wonderful, quirky things, and I think we rather hit the nail on the head with this one, especially squeezing it in (much like you would with a rubber chicken) on our very last day. After three visits, I think my time in Seattle is probably over. But I’ll tell you what – for a city that didn’t quite catch me like others have, Seattle has given me some fantastic memories!

Like this post? Pin it to read later!