Seattle

July 15, 2012: we just spent two days in Seattle. James and I have never been there so we were excited to see a new city. We arrived mid afternoon on Friday and checked in to the Marriott on the waterfront with Donna and Lou and Melissa and Jon. After checking in we set out with the kids to explore. They love the word "explore" and all that it implies. We always try and build excitement with them by saying we are going to explore or going on an adventure. We walked along the waterfront for awhile then headed up into Pike Place Market. It was filled with all sorts of vendors, especially beautiful flowers, fruit, and seafood. We got some huge peaches and nectarines as a snack. We saw the seafood place where they throw fish too. After that we had to walk to pick up our car from getting the oil changed and we discovered a delicious donut shop called Top Pot Doughnuts. It turns out it is a well known place in Seattle. The doughnuts were enormous and we all enjoyed them. After that we took the kids home and put them to bed. James went out to sushi with his family and I stayed on the balcony to babysit the kids. Saturday we woke up to Seattle fog. We had a little bit of a lazy morning in the hotel and then headed out. We walked on the waterfront and checked out different piers and the cruise ship scene. We walked into Olympic Sculpture Park and then up towards the space needle. Each girl had their own map and had fun trying to learn to navigate. Casey led us around a bit and had fun trying to read street signs and find things on the map. It was too foggy to go up the space needle so we took the kids on a ride on the monorail. We sat right in front next to the driver and she let Julia say "all aboard" on the microphone. Afterwards we hit up Top pot for some more doughnuts and then went into a glass blowing studio. You can watch them blowing glass. When we were there it was only students doing it but it was still interesting for the kids to see. We took them home for naps and then in the afternoon we met up with everyone and took a ferry out to Alki, which is a peninsula across the sound. It had turned into a beautiful day and we just wandered around along the water. The girls hoola hooped with a hippie lady, saw seals swimming, swing on Jon & Melissa's arms and just played around. We took the boat back and sat by the water to give the girls fish and chips for dinner while we enjoyed a beer. After bedtime James and I hung out on our balcony trying to plan our trip home. Sunday morning we packed up and said goodbye to everyone and now we are heading East.