OMG! It's the Edgewater Inn!

A short news item about a hotel package including a tour of one of the crab boats in the Discovery Channel series: The Deadliest Catch, drew my eye to the Edgewater Hotel in Seattle.

"Wait a minute! I know that name!"

Mispent teen years spent listening to Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, especially their famous live gig at the Fillmore East, ensured that for me and thousands of others, the name 'Edgewater Inn' would be seared into our brains.

Back in those days, the hotel - built on a harbour side pier out over the water and a regular haunt of travelling rock bands - used to rent out fishing poles to guests, which they could use from their room windows. It all led to the legendary tale of Led Zepplin, Vanilla Fudge and the mudshark, which circulated in the music industry in 1969 and was made semi-public in the Frank Zappa live recording in 1971. (If you want the grisly details, and be warned they are a bit unpleasant, they are covered in Wikipedia. Search for 'Mudshark Incident'.)

These days, the Edgewater (now "Hotel") is much more glamorous and a part of the upmarket Noble House Hotels & Resorts group, which has some stunning properties around the USA (one of which, Little Palm Island, features in my list of secret hideaways). So I'm guessing any mention of mudsharks is likely to be met with tightly curled lips!