Seattle - Day 2

Here's the route we took

Sunday morning, I dropped off Shellie at CD’s house so she could hang out there and watch the Seahawk’s playoff game.  Then she was going to spend the day with Grandma.

Our car as seen from the Space Needle

The kids and I headed to down-town Seattle for a fun day seeing the sights.  We parked at a lot next to the EMP museum and Memorial Stadium off 5th street and then headed to the Space Needle to see the view.  At the Space Needle we bought the Seattle City Pass which would save us money over the four attractions we were going to.

Bix and Brooke look at a time
lapse of Seattle  on Bix's Birthday

I had been to the Space Needle previously, but it was nice to visit it with the kids, and inside was warm.  Outside on the viewing platform it was cold and windy and rainy so we only stayed out there a little bit.  Inside they had a bunch of cool electronics where you could see Seattle change over the years through pictures and time lapse photos.

Bix vs. Terminator

Brooke and Sci-Fi Hello Kitty

After the Space Needle we headed to the EMP Museum, an interestingly shaped set of buildings that housed many different exhibits.  We visited a tribute to horror films with lots of memorabilia, a similar one for Space movies, and one for Fantasy…  then we saw Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix exhibits, a two-story tribute to Hello Kitty.

Brooke Jams Out

Tower of Guitars

The kids and I got to jam out in a huge music room where you could play all kinds of instruments and do everything from singing to mixing and recording.  In all, we spent about 2 hours at the EMP museum and it was our favorite stop.

Brooke's Doppelganger?

BUTT-erflies!!!

Bix's favorite: Triceratops - see his Diplodocus Video HERE

After the EMP museum, we went to the Pacific Science Center which is also on the same premises as the Space Needle and EMP Museum – the Seattle City Center.  The Pacific Science Center is like a really big kids’ museum – the average age was probably 6.  

But we really saw some cool exhibits.  




We went into a butterfly room with live butterflies flying all around, we saw animatronic dinosaurs, model trains, and a laser light show to the music of Journey.  The light show was really cool, and relaxing.  We didn’t spend a lot of time at the PSC, but enough to enjoy it and then we headed out on a hike across town to the other downtown area around Pike Place.

The walk to Pike Place Market looked short on the map: only about 2 inches, but it was probably more like 2 miles.  When we got there, we headed to the fish market to watch them throw fish across the stall and catch it to wrap it up.  It’s very entertaining, but in the time we were there, only about two fish were thrown.  So, we headed to the Aquarium. 

I liked the Seattle Aquarium – it had a lot of tide pools where you could touch sea stars and anemones and then it had quite a few mammal exhibits with sea lions, harbor seals, and our favorites - the sea and river otters.  



We watched the otters for a long time – they are super cute.  We did NOT like SeaCucumbers; they are the opposite of cute (no offense to any sea cucumbers reading this.).

By now it was starting to get dark so we grabbed a cab to Pioneer Square, which is not really square – more of a triangle.  We had a ghost tour starting there in an hour.  Seattle is famous for its underground and ghost tours, so I thought it would be fun for the kids.  

We used Spooked in Seattle as the tour company and they were pretty good.  We went on a walking tour (in the rain) and learned about many deaths that occurred in the area.  I thought Brooke would be scared, but she was OK with all of it until we went back to the shop at the starting point and went into a dark room on the original first floor to listen to recordings taken from the AGHOST team that investigates paranormal activity.  We heard eerie recordings of unexplained noises in haunted locations and it was pretty creepy, especially when the recordings were so clear, but not made by the people making the recordings… 

 

Kids and Grandma Helen

Grandma and Lucas

We were going to go back up in the Space Needle after the ghost tour, but we were tired and hungry so just went back to our car and hit McDonald’s and called it a day – we headed back to Stanwood to pick up Shellie, see Grandma, and visit with the kids’ second and third cousins Rebecca and Lucas.

Seattle - Day 1

Seattle - DAY 1

We took Alaska Airlines from Austin to Seattle direct.  Despite not getting our seats together at first because we booked through Orbitz, Alaska fixed it so we were 2 and 2 which worked fine.  The plane seemed new and the luggage compartments were angled away from the center so I could actually walk around and get out of my seat without bumping my head.  You have to watch movies on a tablet (which they provided if we didn’t use our own) and had to buy anything worth watching – for about $5-6.  We went just before dinner and landed at 9pm so tried to get something on the plane but the food options were limited – settled for spicy chicken and rice and a cheese plate.

We stayed at the La Quinta in Everett which was fairly centrally located to the things we wanted to do up north as well as being not that far from Seattle.  Hertz had a special on the Mercedes 450 SUV, so we took that for more room to haul around grandma (who, I should stress, is not very big).   

Our Route

On Saturday, we had free breakfast and then went to pick up Grandma for a day of touring.  We met up with Shellie’s friends CD and Lori Mackenzie and followed them north to the north end of Whidbey Island - Deception Pass – a long bridge that ties Whidbey Island to the mainland at the top edge. 

Pedestrian walkway along Deception Pass Bridge

Brooke at Deception Pass

At the pass we got out and braved the cold winds to explore the area.  There are pedestrian sidewalks along each edge of the bridge and on each end there are stairs below the bridge to hike along the embankment. We got some nice pictures and hurried back to the car where it said it was only 44 (felt like -4).

Then we drove to the southwest end of the island to Fort Casey, now a state park.  It has a unique fort built into the landscape with cannons that peek out over the top.  The kids had fun exploring and getting scared walking through the dark rooms.  

Fort Casey Cannons built into the Burm

In the bunker

We spent about 30 minutes exploring the different bunkers.   We saw a bald eagle flying around near the fort, then went back to the warm car where grandma was asleep.

After Fort Casey, we went to the ferry to head back to Mukilteo on the mainland across from the south end of the island.  We ate at Ivar’s, a favorite seafood place of the family. They have really good clam chowder. 

I think it's funny they had this logo way before all the Keep Calm memes came out:

KEEP CLAM

Kids Playing Skip-Bo with Grandma

Kids with Kaitlin and Poppy (the dog) :)

We spent the rest of the day visiting with Grandma and running errands, then we went to CD and Lori's house where the kids played with Kaitlin Mackenzie and we went to the Casino for a couple of hours and called it a day.