Mister Potter... our new celebrity.

Once again we found ourselves in Seattle for the day. So we made our way toward this.

And what might this be?

Why, this might be the freestanding white spires of the Pacific Science Center, O Best Beloved.

And this might be (and, in fact, is) Captain Midnight standing before a colossal mosaic near the PSC. It's one of many venues for outdoor concerts and other activities at Seattle Center.

It wouldn't be a Seattle Center trip without at least one shot of the Space Needle. So here you go.

Why were we at Seattle Center, you ask?

You'll never guess.

Yep, we were there to see the Harry Potter exhibition. A source of frabjous glee for Harry Potter geeks like unto myself, let me tell you.

Also a site of much groovy goodness for Miss V, who loves costumes -- and there were a lot of them in this exhibit. A. LOT. She was particularly geeking out over Tonks' costume and would now like to make one of her own. And, having seen a lot of the items up close, her interest in the Harry Potter franchise has gone through the roof.

Images borrowed from the Harry Potter: The Exhibition website.

The costumes really were wonderful. The attention to detail was something else, and the richness of the fabrics. You really come to appreciate the amount of work that went into making these movies. I think my favorite costume was Madam Hooch's dress robes, with the dark blue appliqued flames -- very nice, and a detail easily missed in the movie.

Not to mention all the marvelous papery goodness: wanted posters, Marauders' Map, copies of the Daily Prophet -- one of which contained a spelling error (note to Warner Bros.: for future reference, my services are available at reasonable hourly rates!) -- Howlers, exams, letterhead, "I must not tell lies"... *blissful sigh*.

Oh yes, and Ron Weasley's knitted blanket. Which I have coveted for some time now. Having taken copious notes on the actual item, I think I now have enough information to create something similar in the very near future out of bits and bobs of worsted wool. It would have been easier to take pictures of the blanket, but as you can probably guess from the dearth of pictures here other than a movie still, no photography was allowed inside the exhibition (more's the pity). I have to say I was sorely tempted, though.

We spent quite a bit of time inside the exhibit, and when we'd had our fill of the wizarding world we ambled over to Center House for lunch. Having successfully avoided temptation inside the exhibition, I instead took a lot of photos inside Center House. Here we have the mighty metal slug bank, a couple of feet long and inexplicably headed toward the salt water taffy counter.

This is an actual section of the Berlin Wall. I don't know if people who were born after this wall came down can really understand what it was like when the Iron Curtain was still firmly in place, and the East German people were literally imprisoned in their own nation. Over 200 people were killed attempting to get over or under the wall to freedom. The most fortunate thing about it was that it all came to an end relatively peacefully.

Center House is also home to the Children's Museum, a bit of which can be seen from a balcony on the main floor. Sugared-up kiddywinkies gone wild!

We all needed some out-and-about today, and this was a fantastic way to do it -- getting our fill of Harry Potter goodness. It was time and money well spent.