Day 4 of our music trip to Seattle in April was the last morning we woke up here:
I seriously loved our hotel: Marriott SpringHill Suites. The beds were SO comfortable, the rooms were spacious, the showers were hot, the breakfasts had multiple choices, and the beds were perfect. Yes, I talked about the beds twice. I'm so grateful for the good beds. After being on the bus or on foot for 15 hours a day every day, the only thing that rejuvenated me to get up the next morning was from sleeping so soundly on the amazing bed each night!
The kids all loaded up their stuff on the bus one last time, and I had our "Bosses" take a photo before we left the hotel: John: the director, Darcy: the navigator (after the directional disaster at the Space Needle our first morning in Seattle, she gave driving directions to our bus driver), and Donna: the bus driver.
On the road again... the kids sang a song once again on the bus
And John video'd it all! (notice how the ones he's already passed by in the aisle are no longer clapping as they sing (except Virginia and Logan--bonus points for you!!))?!!
We were dropped off at Pier 55 for a morning of FREE TIME!! The kids had been begging for free time since we'd arrived in Seattle to do what they wanted without adhering to the itinerary, and this was it! Everyone was so happy, and immediately went their separate ways (in small groups, of course).
I headed straight for this place:
I'd wanted to go to the aquarium the last time I was in Seattle, but didn't get the chance. So I was elated at the opportunity and the close proximity, too! Although I was the ONLY one in our group to go there, I loved going at my own speed--which was pretty fast. I did the entire aquarium in under an hour! The first room in the aquarium is a giant tank, and two scuba divers were speaking from inside the tank to a room full of spectators:
The next room was the touching pools. There's several pools full of a variety of starfish and sea anemones that you can touch. It was super cool, and one of my favorite parts.
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| me getting all touchy-feely! |
This was the side of the arch without the light, to show what their regular color is:
Seeing live jelly fish for the first time made me think of that SpongeBob episode where he runs after them and catches them in his butterfly net and squeezes them to make jelly come out to put on his crabby patty lunch. And then he has to get more and more for the customers who want them, and he keeps getting stung by them. Anyways...that's what I was pretty much thinking about when I got this photo taken!
I had just eaten octopus for the first time the day before, and then I got to see a live octopus for the first time, too!!! It was impossible to take good pictures of it, but it was a lot smaller than I thought it would be--I guess I was thinking that octopus were more like the size of Ursula (from Little Mermaid).
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| the backs of its legs were stuck to the glass |
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| this was the best view I could get of its side/front |
This fish was so big compared to all the other ones in its tank, that it sort of looked fake! Its face kind of creeps me out...
Look! I found Nemo! He was playing peek-a-boo, and kept going in and out of that carpet-looking-thing. I think it's called reef...I was going so fast through the aquarium that I didn't really retain any accurate information!
Here's a whole bunch of salmon babies in the water-ceiling above one walkway! I thought that was so cool! It kind of reminded me of when we were in Chihuly's Glass Gardens, and all those colorful glass shapes were in the ceiling, too.
In addition to the touching pools, the outdoor section with water mammals was my favorite part of the aquarium. I loved watching them move and play. I had never seen any of these animals in real life before, and I was fascinated!
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| Seals |
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| Sea Otters |
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| Fur Seals - this guy is named Chewbacca, and was my most favorite |
When I had finished walking through all the exhibits at the Aquarium, I walked a few blocks to Pike's Place--where a majority of our group had gone that morning.
I had been there before back in 2005 with Josh, so I was familiar with its set-up. It's a unique and famous market in Seattle. Even though I had seen it before, I was still just as in love with all the varieties and colors of sales displays. I loved walking around looking at it all and taking in the sights and smells and sounds.
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| I loved the colors of all these tulips |
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| it's not every day you see large, full crabs in a market! |
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| the orange fish in the top left corner of the box is freaky...just sayin |
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| This looked so inviting to me! |
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| The assortment of fruits looked so appetizing |
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| I have no idea what some of these vegetables are: ramps? fiddle head ferns? "little green balls of death"? what?! |
I ate the chicken hombow, and it was scrumdiddlyumptious! Oh my goodness--it had the perfect marriage of so many textures and flavors: hot inside & cool outside, savory sauce & sugary bread, melt-in-your-mouth chicken & chewy roll. I was in heaven as I ate it.
I ate as I walked because we were supposed to meet back up together as a group at Pier 55 at noon. On the way back, I also ordered fish & chips along the Pier. The chips were huge--it was one potato that was cut into fourths. I shared it with several of the kids that were waiting in front of the Curiosity Shoppe, which was the same location that we had been dropped off at that morning.
As we waited for the remainder of our group to join us, the kids enacted a scene of live organ pipes going up and down as a song was played in the coin machine...
When everyone finally arrived, we began our trek on foot to the final destination of our Seattle trip: the Mariners baseball game at SafeCo field.
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