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.