Last night James said, "We never spend too much time at the house. Do you ever think that we do too much exploring?" Hahaha, I think that he may be getting vacation fatigue... we are counting most of these days as school days, so we also may be making them learn too much at each stop;)
Wednesday we went to Pike's Place Market. The bustling market dates back to the early 1900s. They really do throw the fish around, but now days it is purely for entertainment purposes as they use the same fish for that purpose all day. There is an incredible array of flowers, fresh produce and fresh seafood. Ben went to look at a huge monkfish and when he did the man behind the counter pulled the string it was tied to so the fish appeared alive and scared him to death;)
We had arranged for a child-centric tour through the market and surrounding area. With Penny as our guide, we sipped fermented pickle brine, gazed at ostrich eggs, chewed on kumquats, moscato grapes & blood oranges. She showed us the giant shoe museum with with world's tallest man. The kids all rode the metal pig and drew their names in chalk on the garden pig. We were glad to have Penny navigate for us since the market is a busy area with hundreds of different shops, vendors and wares. She also introduced us to the Seattle Art Museum and train station.
After our tour we were left to our own devices, so we walked around in circles for an embarrassing amount of time before finding our way to the candy shop, the Indian booth with good samosas and the mini donuts. Gabe's personal highlight was the raw oyster bar. On the drive home we passed a driving range... we turned around making sure not to pass up that opportunity;)
Thursday was our last full day in Seattle and was supposed to be the nicest weather of the trip so we headed for Mount Rainier. We were hopefully optimistic that the clouds would part and the fog would lift so that we could see the mountains, but it ultimately wasn't meant to be. We did get to see the Eastern 1/3 of Rainier for about 3 minutes. The trip was still very worthwhile! We took two separate short hikes to see gorgeous waterfalls. One Trail was snow covered, so just Gabe and Noah trekked to view the bottom. On the way out we were able to take another short hike to see parts of an old growth forest with some unbelievably impressive trees. The kids got to fill out the park workbooks and become Junior Park Rangers for Mount Rainier National Park. The ranger was fantastic, made them take an oath and everything to which the others in the visitor center started applauding, so the kids felt extra special:)
Our flight home was uneventful, except for leaving our entire case of DVDs in the rental car... We made it to Portland Maine on Friday night and on Saturday morning Gabe went to his two day Maine AAP conference (we really like to pack things close together). The kids and I headed for home on Saturday, happy to sleep in our own beds!
Wednesday we went to Pike's Place Market. The bustling market dates back to the early 1900s. They really do throw the fish around, but now days it is purely for entertainment purposes as they use the same fish for that purpose all day. There is an incredible array of flowers, fresh produce and fresh seafood. Ben went to look at a huge monkfish and when he did the man behind the counter pulled the string it was tied to so the fish appeared alive and scared him to death;)
We had arranged for a child-centric tour through the market and surrounding area. With Penny as our guide, we sipped fermented pickle brine, gazed at ostrich eggs, chewed on kumquats, moscato grapes & blood oranges. She showed us the giant shoe museum with with world's tallest man. The kids all rode the metal pig and drew their names in chalk on the garden pig. We were glad to have Penny navigate for us since the market is a busy area with hundreds of different shops, vendors and wares. She also introduced us to the Seattle Art Museum and train station.
After our tour we were left to our own devices, so we walked around in circles for an embarrassing amount of time before finding our way to the candy shop, the Indian booth with good samosas and the mini donuts. Gabe's personal highlight was the raw oyster bar. On the drive home we passed a driving range... we turned around making sure not to pass up that opportunity;)
Thursday was our last full day in Seattle and was supposed to be the nicest weather of the trip so we headed for Mount Rainier. We were hopefully optimistic that the clouds would part and the fog would lift so that we could see the mountains, but it ultimately wasn't meant to be. We did get to see the Eastern 1/3 of Rainier for about 3 minutes. The trip was still very worthwhile! We took two separate short hikes to see gorgeous waterfalls. One Trail was snow covered, so just Gabe and Noah trekked to view the bottom. On the way out we were able to take another short hike to see parts of an old growth forest with some unbelievably impressive trees. The kids got to fill out the park workbooks and become Junior Park Rangers for Mount Rainier National Park. The ranger was fantastic, made them take an oath and everything to which the others in the visitor center started applauding, so the kids felt extra special:)
Our flight home was uneventful, except for leaving our entire case of DVDs in the rental car... We made it to Portland Maine on Friday night and on Saturday morning Gabe went to his two day Maine AAP conference (we really like to pack things close together). The kids and I headed for home on Saturday, happy to sleep in our own beds!
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