SEATTLE — Best known for its 1990s tenure as the grotto of grunge, the Pacific Northwest also has become a geek's paradise.
Music geeks can pay homage to locales frequented by the late Kurt Cobain. Computer geeks can sniff around for signs of Bill Gates, whose Microsoft is headquartered outside Seattle in Redmond. And for pop-culture geeks with an affinity for television, the Seattle area is chock-full of day trips down memory lane.
Within a two-hour drive of Seattle, fans can traipse the streets of Roslyn, which served as the fictional town of Cicely, Alaska, in the TV series "Northern Exposure" (1990-1995, CBS). Or they can gaze, understandably awestruck, at the beauty of Snoqualmie Falls, seen in the TV series "Twin Peaks" (1990-1991, ABC). Top it off with a visit to Seattle's Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, and you're likely to come away one satisfied fanboy/fangirl, even if you only have a weekend in which to do it all.
It's been 10 years since the warm and quirky dramedy "Northern Exposure" ceased production, but remnants of the show still linger in Roslyn, Wash., where Pennsylvania Avenue played the starring role as the main drag in Cicely (interior scenes were shot on soundstages in Redmond, Wash.).
A high-school friend and I — both "Exposure" fans in its initial run — set off from Seattle on a Saturday morning in June to see Roslyn, driving just under two hours in conditions that varied, as I was told they often do in this region, from overcast to drizzly to sunny and back to overcast several times during the trip east on I-90.
From Exit 80, we followed Route 903 east for about four miles into Roslyn, a productive coal-mining town from 1886 to 1963. It's immediately recognizable as the setting for "Northern Exposure," primarily due to the camel painting on the side of the Roslyn Cafe (renamed Roslyn's Cafe for the TV show) seen each week in the show's opening credits.
Most of the series' familiar locations can be found in the one-block business district, including The Brick (Holling's tavern), Central Sundries (Ruth-Anne's store) and the Northwest Mining Company storefront (Dr. Fleischman's office). Both Central Sundries and Northwest Mining Company, now Cicely's Gift Shop, offer "Northern Exposure" trinkets for sale.
Cicely's Gift Shop proprietor Marjanne Ojurovich has kept the building, whose interior was used in some filming, as it looked in the series, complete with false walls and the desk where Fleischman's receptionist, Marilyn Whirlwind (Elaine Miles), sat, though it's now covered by a pile of "Northern Exposure" shirts. "I thought it was great," she said of the years the series filmed in Roslyn. "They were nice to us. When they first came to town, it was a little different because we never knew when they'd be here, but they'd put up signs that said, 'Film crew ahead.' They take over your town, so you work around them."
Ojurovich sells a variety of "Exposure" goods, including a denim shirt with the show's logo ($34.99) and a KBHR radio station mug that goes for $9.99, although Ojurovich said she's seen it for sale for $50 on eBay. "I've met people from all over the world, and the best part is they're in a good mood (when they get here) because they loved the show," she said.
Photos of the cast are sold at Central Sundries, which also offers free photocopies of a town map that lists additional locations used in filming, including nearby houses whose exteriors were used as the homes of assorted characters. Roslyn continues to celebrate "Northern Exposure" at an annual Moosefest every July (www.moosefest.org).
From Roslyn, we worked our way back west again on I-90, taking Exit 32 and following signs toward North Bend, home of Twede's Cafe, previously called the Mar-T Cafe and dubbed the Double R Diner in ABC's "Twin Peaks," which was known for its cherry pie and a "damn fine cup o' coffee," according to "Peaks" FBI Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan). The diner was damaged in a fire five years ago, but has since reopened.
Framed collages containing articles about the show, photos of the cast and reports of the diner's fire hang in a hallway at the back of the restaurant, offering a nostalgic kick for "Peaks" freaks.
Finding notable "Twin Peaks" shooting locations is difficult because scenes for the program were in a more spread-out area around North Bend, most prominently at Snoqualmie Falls. Fans are best advised to plunk down $2 at Twede's for a map that shows shooting locations, including the high school, sheriff's station, the Packard Mill, the Road House Tavern and Ed's Gas Farm.
The day of our visit, North Bend seemed fairly prosperous with people shopping, and Twede's was filled with customers (while Roslyn had resembled something more akin to a ghost town). The clouds hung low over the town, clinging to the mountaintops and obscuring the top of Mount Si, the nearest peak (with no twin in sight).The series is still fondly remembered around these parts and commemorated with an annual Twin Peaks Fest (www.twinpeaksfestival.com). This year's festival, July 29-31, featured an organized tour of the filming locations, a Pine Weasel Scavenger Hunt and a celebrity dinner attended by some of the show's supporting players, including Catherine Coulson (The Log Lady), Phoebe Augustine (Ronette Pulaski) and Charlotte Stewart (Betty Briggs).
Snoqualmie Falls is about four miles west of Twede's on Highway 202. The Salish Lodge, dubbed The Great Northern Lodge in "Twin Peaks," clings to rocky ground above the falls.
Inside, the Salish offers no remembrances of the series. Even its gift shop is devoid of "Twin Peaks" merchandise (it struck me as too upscale to stoop to selling TV-show trinkets). No matter. There's plenty of free parking across Highway 202 from the hotel, and a pedestrian bridge over the roadway leads to a scenic falls overlook. Alas, here's where the geek's guide should really kick into gear, but the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame at Seattle Center was a disappointment.
Opened in 2004 adjacent to the more intriguing Experience Music Project (both were brought to life by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen), the Science Fiction Museum includes costumes and props from many science-fiction movies and TV shows, including "ET," "Alien," "Star Wars," "Star Trek," "Babylon 5," "Lost in Space," "Logan's Run," "Terminator," "RoboCop," etc.
But the facility is truly less a museum than a series of exhibits. Though divided into themes (Science Fiction Community, the Hall of Fame, Fantastic Voyages, Brave New Worlds and the like), there's not a lot of substance to any of the displays. Few offer interesting interactive elements, and anyone who's been to exhibits at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C., devoted to assorted sci-fi franchises will have a definite feeling of "been there, gawked at that."
We breezed through in 90 minutes. Later in our Seattle sojourn, we learned a lot more and had a better overall experience at Experience Music Project (housed in a building designed by famed architect Frank O. Gehry), which offered a wealth of interactive exhibits that put the history of music into a cultural context that was sorely lacking at the Science Fiction Museum.
Compared to some exhibits at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, EMP displays go into greater depth explaining the place of a musician or a music genre in the culture, whether it's a remedial course on modern pop music (parents, grandparents and the generally clueless, take heed) or the history of Bob Dylan's "American Journey 1956-1966."
In addition, EMP's Sound Lab allows children of all ages the opportunity to make music, or at least a lot of noise, on guitars, keyboards and drums.
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