Seattle, Washington!

Seattle, Washington State 2013

 

As part of our trip to the West Coast, prior to taking the Alaska cruise, we spent a few days exploring Seattle! It is a great city, awesome food and lots to do as a family!!

 

Saturday 15th June

 

After our flight landed we took the train from the airport out to Seattle. It was about a 30 min trip and rather interesting with 7 of us and all our luggage!

We checked into our hotel and headed out and about!

 

Our first stop was a trip to the top of the Space Needle! The view was amazing looking out as far as Mount Rainer and even into the Puget Sound! Sadly it was a pretty cold and cloudy day, so the mountain was not very clear to see!

 

 

Below the needle is a fabulous MUST SEE  glass garden made by Dale Chihuly. His work is like nothing we have ever seen or experienced from an artist. Just amazing!

 

We had a little walk through a park nearby and then returned to the hotel for the night. It had been a long day with flights the day before, so we were all pretty tired!

 

Sunday 16th June

 

On Sunday 16th June, we started the day celebrating Fathers Day! Col has loved having Fathers Day in the USA as it always coincides with the girls visiting, so he gets to have all 5 kids at the same time! We went to the hotel lobby for breaky and the kids had fun picking out hubbies meal for the morning lol! It was time for some quick pressies, collect the hire car and then off exploring for the day!

 

 

 

We started off with a short drive to the Discovery Park Lighthouse. It was pretty small compared to others we have seen, but so pretty! The lighthouse itself was closed but the National Park was open, so we were able to take photos of it!

 

 

 

Then visited the Ballard Locks and got to see it all work, pretty impressive! The other side of the locks is a salmon ladder. The salmon were is full swing for us, it was great to watch them! They have big sprinklers over the locks to stop the birds from eating all the baby salmon!

 

 

 

Our next little side trip was to visit the Fremont Troll! Its a fun photo op under the Franklin Bridge!

This was on our way to the Lake View Cemetery. Some people may find it odd that we went to a cemetery but it is the final resting place of Bruce & Brandon Lee. So we paid our respects.

 

 

 

We found a Safeway supermarket nearby and grabbed a hot chook (chicken for my American friends!) some fresh rolls and made a quick bite to eat!

 

We took a drive up to Snoqualmie Falls. It is a spectacular 270 foot waterfall and the drive up there was gorgeous!

 

 

 

On our way back into the city we made a detour to a place called Kerry Park. It has some really great views overlooking the city.

 

 

 

We then popped into the Pike Place Market and took a look around. I had heard about a bubble gum wall where tourists had been placing a piece of gum along a brick wall for many years. So long that it has infact become quite the unique tourist attraction! So we found a little candy store (Lolly shop for my Aussie friends!) and brought our gum to add to the wall! The market was pretty much over for the day, so we called back another time to check it out properly!

 

 

 

Our final stop for the day, given it was Fathers Day and all, was to The Pike! Being an avid home brewer, it is only natural for my hubby to taste test the local craft beers! This pub & brewery is actually under street level and the drinks were pretty good!!

 

Happy Fathers day to my gorgeous hubby!

 

 

Monday 17th June

Hubby returned the hire car and we took the train to the downtown district to join the Seattle Underground Tour. The tour is a leisurely, guided walking tour beneath Seattle’s sidewalks and streets. As you roam the subterranean passages that once were the main roadways and first-floor storefronts of old downtown Seattle, our guides regale you with the stories our pioneers didn’t want you to hear. It’s history with a twist!

 

It was really interesting and quite amazing to be walking under the main roads and shops! On the footpaths at street level you would walk over the top of these glass tiles. Once you are underground, you quickly learn that they are infact the skylights for the town that once thrived there!

 

We had read online about the ferry trip over to Bainbridge Island. We thought it would be a nice way to escape the city and enjoy a few hours looking around. The view from the ferry looking back at Seattle was beautiful. It was a great sunny day and very calm waters. We treated the kids to an ice cream and made our way back to Seattle, via the ferry.

 

 

 

 

Walking off the ferry the Seattle Great Wheel caught our eye! It is a ferris wheel partially over the water at Minors Landing. There were some arcade games and a carousel inside, that the kids also enjoyed! Again, great views to be had!

 

We finished the day with the best seafood dinner at Ivars Acres of Clams on the waterfront!

 

Tuesday 25th June

 

Today we arrived back from our cruise in Alaska, which you can read all about here: Alaska Cruise!

 

Not wanting to waste the day, we dropped our luggage off at the hotel we had booked for the night and headed back into the city for one last day of exploring!

 

Hubby came up with the great idea of taking the kids on the duck ride! Its a vehicle that can drive on land and float in water! The tour guide was hilarious! The kids thought it was the most amazing thing that this "duck" could drive and float! After about half hour of touring the land, we entered the water with a nice big splash and sailed past some pretty awesome yachts and house boats. Even the one used in the movie Sleepless in Seattle!! 

 

 

 

Upon our return to the duck station, we made a short walk to an apartment building known as Escala. For those of you who have read 50 Shades of Grey, you will know exactly what Escala is!! For those who don't, the short version is..........Christian Grey, the main character in the book, lives in the penthouse of this apartment, with a rather 'interesting' room! anyhow it was a photo op that I couldn't miss!!

 

The next stop was the Seattle Aquarium. This was a great educational experience for the kids! Upon our arrival we were asked if the kids would like to join a Marine Biologist and go outside to net plankton for an experiment. Of course we jumped at the opportunity! They all took it in turns pulling the net out of the Puget Sound and took the collected plankton back into the aquarium.

Once back inside they used eye droppers to put the plankton onto slides and looked at them under a microscope, which was projected onto a big screen. The kids were fascinated by the little creatures that they saw! We also watched the giant octopus be fed and of course, we found Nemo!!

 

 

 

 

We really had a great time in Seattle. So much to do, so little time, but glad to not only have another State ticked off but visited a great city while we were at it!

 

Here is an album of photos we have ordered through Shutterfly!







 

 

 

 

 



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