A ten day road trip from Seattle to Rochester, NY, was filled with visits with friends and family, great road food, bizarre attractions, and more than a few photobooths. In this first of two posts about the trip, I’ll cover the booth locations I found in Seattle, Denver, and Kansas City.
I had a list of photobooths that had been in Seattle at one time or another, and whether or not they were still there or, if so, if they were dip and dunk or digital, I didn’t know. Before a visit to the EMP, we headed over to the Seattle Center, only to find that both reported booths were digital. Afterwards, we headed to the Fun Forest, where we found one color photobooth in the indoor arcade area.
After lunch, I decided to check out the Pacific Science Center complex, despite the $10 entry fee. I also managed to leave my debit card in the ATM getting money to use in the booths, but that’s another story… I asked the ticket sellers where the photobooths were, and found two traditional booths among a host of digital offerings. The first photobooth, in Building 4, had a nice red and black exterior and the island scene inside. The second photobooth, inside Building 3, was surrounded by kids and parents waiting in line to try out some new Nintendo games, I think. It was also, unfortunately, out of order.
We left the Seattle Center area and headed to Capitol Hill to walk around, and happened to park right next to a sign on the sidewalk advertising a photobooth inside a store called Galore. I hadn’t had any idea there was a photobooth there, so I’m happy they advertised it. Apparently the store has been around since March, 2005 or so, and the photobooth has been there since the beginning.
We walked up Broadway a bit to Broadway Market, another location I’d noted from some internet research. Up on the second floor, next to Gold’s Gym, we found the photobooth, a color model. All of the photobooths we came across in Seattle were managed by Photobooth Services.
After leaving Seattle and passing through northern Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, we stopped off to stay with friends in Denver. By chance, we walked by the only bar I knew of in Denver with a photobooth, Sputnik. We hopped in Sputnik’s photobooth with our friends and marveled at the $2 price — go Denver!
The long drive across eastern Colorado and Kansas brought us to Kansas City, where I’d heard word of a photobooth in an underwear boutique. The rumors were true, though the booth wasn’t actually in the store; instead, Birdies’ photobooth was outside the store in an alley, with its own metal roof and customized “Birdies” glass sign. The booth wasn’t working because the shop wasn’t open, but we’ll try it out on a return visit.
Next up, the great Chicago Photobooth Marathon.