For Father's Day this year DH decided he wanted to head north to Seattle. Seattle is really one of our favorite cities, and we try to sneak up there once or twice a year when we have a long weekend.
Initially we envisioned this as a train ride, but after assessing what it would be like for me to carry all the luggage and manage children while dh was recovering from shoulder surgery, we opted for the 4 runner instead. After a liesurely ride up to Portland and a couple toy store stops (Hannah Anderssen for me, Fry's for him) we made it to Seattle. Friday we were up early, and we ate breakfast at the hotel before setting off on foot. Our destiation initially was the zoo, but after checking our weather reports we opted instead to hoof it up to the Seattle Center. It wasn't far, probably a little over half a mile, and we were there.
We were a hair early, so we went into the food court area to wait for things to open. At 9:30 am there isn't much happening there, except for an occassional transient trying to keep warm and catch a nap. We had some starbucks before heading down to the Children's Museum.
The Seattle Children's Museum is wonderful. The kids played nonstop for several hours. It was so much fun to watch Emma try to do everything her sibs were doing, laughing the whole time. We dressed up, they made food for us, they assembled and dissassembled things. It was grand.
We went upstairs and boy had the room changed while we were gone. By 12:30 the food court was jam-packed with people of all shapes and sizes. We finally found a filthy table and cleared it off enough to eat. It was fun to watch the crowds. Seattle is so much more diverse then our hometown. For the first time in a while I felt like we didn't stick out a bit. I think the oddest sensation was that when I saw an asian child they most often had an asian parent of two. In our town, most asian children are adopted and so you rarely see a parent of the same race.
So after lunch we headed over to DH's favorite playground, the Science Center. We saw a movie about Lewis and Clark at the omnimax theater before we went to play in the exhibits. The center has a terrific dinosaur fossil exhibit right now. We looked at fossilized eggs, and lots of great dino skeltons. Jakey was in heaven.
We ended up at the water play area. Jakey and Vi are actually about an inch too tall to go in there, but we snuck in anyway. Emma succeeded in dousing herself with water and we couldn't really get her rung out. We decided it was probably time to head out, so off we went.
I stopped at a cute little store next to the Children's theater and bought a few books. They had some really gorgeous fairy books, and of course the colorful sheep book that went with the dramatic performance going on at the Children's museum.
DH dug out garmin and we headed out for a grocery store. Safeway looks different in Portland, it has its own parking structure! After picking up supplies we headed back to our hotel and ordered italian in for the night.
Saturday was a public transit day. We found the bus and rode it all the way out to Woodland Park Zoo. The Zoo there is so nice - the critters aren't caged up in miserable spaces and are allowed to inhabit habitats more like they would have in nature. Its always a pleasant experience, and due to the big solstice celebration in Fremont District no one was there until much later!
We rode the bus back downtown and got off near Pike's Market. We walked down a LOT of stairs (carrying Emma who didn't want to walk much) and ended up at the Seattle Aquarium. The kids had a good time watching the sea otters eat abalone, and looking at baby salmons.
We ate dinner outside, which was a mistake. A cold wind was coming in and we almost froze sitting on the deck looking at the sailboats As usual the food was terrific, but we ate quickly and scurried back to the bus and our hotel.
Today we hit the Boeing Space Museum along with hundreds of other families to see the new space exhibit. It was great - they had a mock-up of the space station and lot sof lunar landing stuff. I think Em didn't get much out of it, but the rest of us were thrilled. It always makes me smile and think of my Dad too, when I get around the old planes. There was one vet from WWII there, and it reminded me of how much he also loved to fly. I hope at some level one of the kids gets that love. It was such a part of who my Dad was, and he never got to share it with them.
More later, its late, and I'm pooped!
Initially we envisioned this as a train ride, but after assessing what it would be like for me to carry all the luggage and manage children while dh was recovering from shoulder surgery, we opted for the 4 runner instead. After a liesurely ride up to Portland and a couple toy store stops (Hannah Anderssen for me, Fry's for him) we made it to Seattle. Friday we were up early, and we ate breakfast at the hotel before setting off on foot. Our destiation initially was the zoo, but after checking our weather reports we opted instead to hoof it up to the Seattle Center. It wasn't far, probably a little over half a mile, and we were there.
We were a hair early, so we went into the food court area to wait for things to open. At 9:30 am there isn't much happening there, except for an occassional transient trying to keep warm and catch a nap. We had some starbucks before heading down to the Children's Museum.
The Seattle Children's Museum is wonderful. The kids played nonstop for several hours. It was so much fun to watch Emma try to do everything her sibs were doing, laughing the whole time. We dressed up, they made food for us, they assembled and dissassembled things. It was grand.
We went upstairs and boy had the room changed while we were gone. By 12:30 the food court was jam-packed with people of all shapes and sizes. We finally found a filthy table and cleared it off enough to eat. It was fun to watch the crowds. Seattle is so much more diverse then our hometown. For the first time in a while I felt like we didn't stick out a bit. I think the oddest sensation was that when I saw an asian child they most often had an asian parent of two. In our town, most asian children are adopted and so you rarely see a parent of the same race.
So after lunch we headed over to DH's favorite playground, the Science Center. We saw a movie about Lewis and Clark at the omnimax theater before we went to play in the exhibits. The center has a terrific dinosaur fossil exhibit right now. We looked at fossilized eggs, and lots of great dino skeltons. Jakey was in heaven.
We ended up at the water play area. Jakey and Vi are actually about an inch too tall to go in there, but we snuck in anyway. Emma succeeded in dousing herself with water and we couldn't really get her rung out. We decided it was probably time to head out, so off we went.
I stopped at a cute little store next to the Children's theater and bought a few books. They had some really gorgeous fairy books, and of course the colorful sheep book that went with the dramatic performance going on at the Children's museum.
DH dug out garmin and we headed out for a grocery store. Safeway looks different in Portland, it has its own parking structure! After picking up supplies we headed back to our hotel and ordered italian in for the night.
Saturday was a public transit day. We found the bus and rode it all the way out to Woodland Park Zoo. The Zoo there is so nice - the critters aren't caged up in miserable spaces and are allowed to inhabit habitats more like they would have in nature. Its always a pleasant experience, and due to the big solstice celebration in Fremont District no one was there until much later!
We rode the bus back downtown and got off near Pike's Market. We walked down a LOT of stairs (carrying Emma who didn't want to walk much) and ended up at the Seattle Aquarium. The kids had a good time watching the sea otters eat abalone, and looking at baby salmons.
We ate dinner outside, which was a mistake. A cold wind was coming in and we almost froze sitting on the deck looking at the sailboats As usual the food was terrific, but we ate quickly and scurried back to the bus and our hotel.
Today we hit the Boeing Space Museum along with hundreds of other families to see the new space exhibit. It was great - they had a mock-up of the space station and lot sof lunar landing stuff. I think Em didn't get much out of it, but the rest of us were thrilled. It always makes me smile and think of my Dad too, when I get around the old planes. There was one vet from WWII there, and it reminded me of how much he also loved to fly. I hope at some level one of the kids gets that love. It was such a part of who my Dad was, and he never got to share it with them.
More later, its late, and I'm pooped!
1 comment:
Sounds like a great weekend. Seattle is definitely one of my favorite cities. Did you make it to the Odyssey Maritime Center? My kids loved that one when we were there. We didn't make it to the Children's Museum since my niece had just been there a few days before, but FYI the one in Everett (which we visited while the other adults when on the Boeing tour) was fantastic.
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