Seattle Day #3

We finished off our vacation spending the 4^th of July at Woodland Park Zoo.  While it was a pretty fantastic zoo, I think the Portland zoo is still our favorite.  Overall we decided the Seattle zoo is the best place you could be if you were a zoo animal, but not the best for the zoo-goer. J  They had huge expanses of land for the animals including an “African safari” where giraffes, hippos, gazelles, rhinos, ostriches and zebras all grazed together.  It was pretty neat, but since it was so huge, it made it a little difficult to see the animals.  One of our favorite parts was the bird sanctuary.  They had little sticks of bird food you could hold and the birds would fly right on to your hand, shoulders and head.  At first the girls weren’t too sure about it, but afterward they thought it was pretty neat.  About the time we were all ready to pass out from exhaustion, we hopped in the car for the trip home. It was sad to say goodbye to Natalie, Ammon, Noah & Elizabeth, but hopefully we’ll see them again soon!  The girls did great on the drive and to reward them we stopped and got A&W rootbeer ice cream cones on the way home.  It was a great finish to a wonderful vacation!

Seattle Day #2

Day 2 in Seattle was probably our favorite.  We ended up splitting up for the morning and our family had a fantastic time.  We missed the Pitts, but it was really fun to spend some good family time together.  We started out at the Seattle Aquarium.  It wasn’t the most impressive aquarium we’ve been to, but the girls had a great time.  They got their faces painted, got to see a giant octopus be fed & they loved the tide-touch-pool.  Afterward we walked down the pier and went on a boat tour of the harbor.  Sage fell asleep (which was a perfect nap opportunity for her since we were out the whole day), but the rest of us really enjoyed it.  I think it was one of my favorite things that we did!  Kenna thought it was neat to be on the “giant ship” and Nate & I enjoyed the beautiful views and very interesting facts about Seattle.  Then we were on our way to Ivers for some fantastic fresh fish & chips and clam chowder.  It truly was some of the best we’ve ever had!  Then we explored the piers, went to the super strange Curiosity Shop and enjoyed another day of tourism.  Afterward we met up with Natalie & Ammon and their kiddos and visited the famous Pike’s Place Market.  Most of it seemed like an oversize and upscale Eugene Saturday market.  However, the seafood market was really impressive!  There were literally fish the size of Makenna and every kind of seafood for sale you can imagine.  Not to mention, the guys who work there shout to each other and the customers as they throw the giant fish around to wrap up.  It was pretty cool.  My favorite part however, was the doughnut cart just around the corner.  We had been advised that they were delicious, but that was an understatement!  This little cart made donuts from scratch right in front of you and then gave you a bag full of the piping hot, fresh donuts.  Wow!!  They were SO tasty!  The four of us ate the whole bag in about 15 minutes.  Then we all went home, ate a delicious dinner and let the kids play until they dropped.  It was a fantastic day!

 

Seattle Day #1

Last weekend we had an amazing trip to Seattle with my sister Natalie and her family!  It is a city both of us have wanted to visit, and we thought now would be the time to go since we are both pretty close.  It also was a great excuse to spend some time together.  Since they live in northern Idaho & we live in Oregon, the only time we get to see each other is Christmas and the rare occasion we are in Utah visiting family at the same time.  Seattle happened to be a perfect meeting spot – about a 4 hour drive for us & 6 for them.  We drove up Friday right after Nate got off work & spent that night catching up & visiting in our hotel rooms.  The next day we rode the monorail to the Pacific Science Center and then the Space Needle.  The kids were a little bit restless due to a long nap-less day, but we had a great time and they loved being with their cousins.  (I do have to say the line for the Space Needle was way too long and pretty humorous with 4 overly tired, hyper and whiney kids and 4 adults who didn’t know what the heck to do with them!  What do you do in an hour long line with no where to go & no entertainment?  However, we didn’t want to skip one of the main tourist attractions in Seattle – we’ll probably only be there once – but the thought of leaving was very tempting over the several hours we were there!  I’d definitely recommend doing that one child-less.)  When we got back to our hotel, we took all the kids swimming.  Honestly I think they liked the hotel pool better than anything else we did all day!  Why do we spend so much money on tourist attractions when the kids are so easily pleased?  Oh well, it was a really fun day & every once in a while it’s great to just be a tourist!