Hat 'n' Boots

During my Pike Place Photo Stroll with Meg-A-Rooni a couple of weeks ago (apparently I didn't blog about that trip...) I discovered this book in her car that had me intrigued.  I thumbed through it and was instantly hooked on the coolness, and oddness of the book.  The book is called Washington Curiosities. The sub title says, and I love, "Quirky characters, roadside oddities and other offbeat stuff".

We all do it. We travel the world in search of cool and fun stuff in other states, cities, or countries. Often we miss the fun stuff in our own backyard. I've been collecting things to do in my own backyard for a couple of years now.  This book, along with my love for photography and scrapbooking, has opened a whole new light for me. I spent an entire two nights reading through this book and collecting places I want to go see. Most not that far from where I live.

As you can tell by the pink stickies I have a few places I need to visit. Yesterday during our photo stroll through the Georgetown neighborhood (more on that later this week) we stopped to see the hat 'n' boots.

Photo from miscmedia.com

 The story of the hat n' boots is a simple one.  Back in the 1950's the hat 'n' boots served as a Texaco gas station.  The cowboy themed station was dreamt up and built.  The hat measures 44 feet across and the pair of cowboy boots are 24 feet tall and were elaborately painted - they served as the restrooms. Clever huh? And odd. At it's peek it was the highest grossing gas station in the state of Washington.  I surely would have driven to see it back in the 50's if I were alive and driving then. Legend has it that Elvis filled up his Cadillac while in town shooting "It Happened at the World's Fair".

Photo from Seattle Collections.

As the years passed, as you can imagine, the hat 'n' boots lost it's gleam. The landmark was headed to being demolished in until locals came together and saved it. Ahhh a Cinderella story. 

So at the end of our photo stroll, truthfully we almost forgot, we swung by the park the hat 'n' boots now live in. They have sure come a long way and look pretty good. 

I imagined giving directions to your house if you lived in that house in the back ground. "Oh I live right behind the 24 foot boots. You can't miss it."

 On to the next curiosity.