Visiting Seattle- Part 3

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!

Visiting Seattle- Part 2

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

We spent most of our day Sunday visiting with some of Gabe's friends from college that we have not seen in many years, like 9.  It was wonderful to hang out, meet their family and spend time playing in the rain.  Thanks for hosting us Fudge Family:) We also took some time in the rain to drive around the city and check out different neighborhoods.  We stumbled upon the beautiful Golden Gardens Park.  We got to play on the beach, throw rocks in the water and climb on the playground.  It was the perfect way to burn off some energy after dinner.  

Monday we traveled to Seattle Center in the morning. Despite our reservations, our first stop was the Chihuly Glass Museum and Garden.  It is a museum of fancy, intricate glass which sounds like a nightmare with 4 young kids, and I was scared to death, but we let the opportunity for education prevail and we took the plunge.  It was first thing in the morning, so I was hopeful that everyone would be calm and stay close.  Everyone did a fantastic job!  They took their guide geared at kids and really got into the activities in each room.  The glass artwork was so amazing that it was impossible not to be enthralled by it.  It was totally worth the risk with an amazing experience as a reward. Noah and James were so baffled by some of the pieces that they had lots of questions for the museum attendants.  We took so many pictures, but they could never do it the same justice as seeing it in person. So, if you are ever presented with the opportunity to see some of Dale Chihuly's work, you won't be disappointed!

After the glass museum we went up in the Space Needle for lunch... finally! The kids have been talking about going up in the space needle since we started researching Seattle. They have various theories and stories about what the Space Needle is and why it is there;)  The restaurant was revolving which really blew their minds. Eating lunch while "on top of the world" (per James) was pretty amazing. While on the observation deck, the kids spotted a playground, so that was the next stop.  It was an impressive climbing structure with some height to it.  James spidered his way to the top with ease, while everyone else got about half way up and opted for activities with their feet on the ground. 

After leaving the center we traveled out to Snoqualamine Falls. It was a clear, sunny day in the city, but started raining on our way to the falls.  It was a quick shower and we had great conditions for viewing the falls from several different vantage points including a boardwalk that passed the hydroelectric plant and got up close with the base of the falls.

Today we took in the Seattle Zoo.  Like the museum a few days ago, we spent almost 6 hours!  I am not sure how everyone held it together, but there is always so much to see and learn. The most surprising section of the zoo was the Northern Trail.  At first I thought we would buzz right through it because we are from the north and have visited many zoos there, but I was wrong.  We spent the most time here mainly because there were so many animals we have never seen.  They had two brown bears, grey wolves, great gray owls, mountain goats and a Stellar's sea eagle (the Russian cousin to the bald eagle). The coolest part about the section was that all of the animals were very active, which is unusual during the day.

By unanimous vote, the favorite part of the zoo was the penguin.  More specifically the Humbolt penguins from Peru and Chile.  The kids went back 3 separate times and laughed so hard each time.  I believe that this was mostly due to the fact that their current favorite book and movie is "Mr. Popper's Penguins" so they spent a lot of the time pretending that they were the same penguins as in the movie;)

The least favorite part was, quite conclusively, the bird feeding station in the Australian exhibit.  Everything happened so quickly that we didn't have time to prep the kids about what was going to happen (mostly because all of the signage said that bird feeding was only on the weekends). We bought the sticks and handed them out and before I could grab my camera or a kid, Ben and Audrey started screaming because a bird immediately landed on all of our hands/sticks at once.  Audrey was just terrified and Ben claims that the bird really scratched his hand and he wanted to leave immediately. Noah and James were taken aback, but ultimately thought it was a cool experience.  Noah even had one roosting on his hat for a bit. So, we traumatized the kids in this instance, but they will live to visit another zoo;)