The Seattle Aquarium

Does anyone remember our last family trip to an aquarium?  It was to the Dallas World Aquarium and this is how Bentley, at 3 months old, enjoyed the whole thing:

Fast forward to June and on our trip to Seattle we decided to visit the Seattle Aquarium.  Lots of really cool things to see!  We even were able to touch some of the fish.

We also saw a ton of other cool things in the aquarium. 

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The sea otters are a ton of fun to watch swim and play.  This video is actually of them being fed.  I think they were being fed something in shells and they would put them on their stomach and roll over and then eat them.  They also were being fed something that looked like squid.  And it was kind of gross.  But hey...they gotta eat.

 

So you know I collect patches, right?  Well here's my patch from the aquarium.

Folks say when my girls and I are together they can see the resemblance.  Can you?

So you may be wondering how Bentley enjoyed this aquarium visit.  Well here he is:

 

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The Gum Wall

We then made our way down Post Alley underneath Pike Market Place to the famous Gum Wall which is yet another one of my RoadsideAmerica.com attractions. 

It is exactly what the name entails...gum stuck to a wall. 

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Unfortunately not all of us had gum (why did we not think of this beforehand?) but those of us that did were able to take part in the tradition.

 

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On the wall opposite of the gum wall was a wall full of posters.  Interesting posters.

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Me and my hunny bunny Sarah!

 

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Pike Place Market

Ask anyone and they'll tell you that you absolutely need to stop and visit Pike Place Market when you visit Seattle.

A cloudy/rainy day didn't deter us from enjoying Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle.  One of the city's biggest draws we made sure to stop by the market to visit the fish guys, check out the gross/interesting gum wall and take a break and fill our tummies at the Crab Pot and more...

One thing to remember about Seattle is the parking is expensive.  We couldn't really find any free parking and it seemed like it was around $13 a pop to park and we parked two cars several times while we were there.  After parking we headed down to Pike Place Market.

The incline is steep and will work your legs out and leave you feeling a bit winded if you are in the same shape as me. 

So once you make it down there you have to walk a bit to get to the Pike Place Fish Co. which is in the far left corner.  On the way you pass the original Starbucks and that's kind of cool.  The line was expectedly long and we've stopped and got a coffee on a trip before ...well I got a hot chocolate but that's besides the point...and so we didn't stop this time.  I like to think of it as a reason to have to come back.

On the way you also pass many street performers.  We saw this guy, Emery Carl, several years ago so it was kind of cool that he was still there doing his thing.

We finally made it to our destination.  Out front there is a pig on top of the building and one in the entrance to the Fish Company. The pig is named, Rachel the Pig. 

The pier offers lots of cool stuff to look at.

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A trip to Seattle

Preparing to head out to Seattle...

Have you ever been to Seattle?  We've been many times but the trip to Seattle passes a lot of cool places.  There's the Teapot Dome Gas Station in Zillah, Washington.  Zillah is also home to the Church of God-Zillah.  In Granger Washington there is a Dinosaur Park that is interesting to look at.  The park also boasts Volcano Toilets which sound a little more interesting than they actually are but fun to see nonetheless.

On the way we also passed a water tower

And the Google map car!!

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We stopped at a convenience store and they had this handy filter thing if you need to fill up on oil.  I don't think I've ever seen one.  I wanted to take a filter just because they were free but stopped myself.  See sometimes I can exercise self control.

Somebody wanted to help take a turn at driving.

No Bentley you aren't big enough to drive even if you are with Poppy.

Part of the thing I like about road trips is the ability to get to see cool stuff I don't normally get to see.  For example, in Texas I don't see mountains, snow on mountains, waterfalls and stuff like that.  Those in the car who were traveling with us that were from Washington had to endure our repeated..."ooohhhh - look at that!!!" over and over. 

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So to get to Seattle you cross over a bridge and as we came up to it we realized there was some sort of race going on.

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It just so happens that the Seattle Rock 'n Roll Marathon was in town. We also passed by Safeco Field and Century Link Field home of the Mariners and the Seahawks respectively.

 

Seattle, here we come!

 

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Tri-Cities Fever

We made a trip up to Tri-Cities, Washington to spend some time with the kids and our adorable grandson.

I of course play the game, "What's in the seat pocket in front of me?" and was again disappointed in my findings.  I also critiqued the safety brochure because seriously...who can actually get in this position?

Not me that's for sure.  A little too much extra padding around the mid-section for me to be able to do that.

My oldest triplet was going to be dancing at the Tri-Cities Fever game and we landed just in time to get freshened up and head that way. 

Joining us were my oldest son and his wife and of course adorable Bentley.

When I went up to the window to buy the tickets I asked for some on the 50 yard line.  The guy didn't even blink and sold me some seats.  After we found our seats I realized something that should have been obvious before.  The field is not a full field. ;)  Oh well we were on the 25 yard line and ready to watch a great game. 

During the game when the kicked off the ball one of them was stuck in the banners that were hanging overhead.

Now part of the fun for me at any sporting event is the atmosphere of the arena and of course the fans.  One of the songs they played was Tom Sawyer by Rush.  I am familiar with this song because it was the intro song for the wrestler Kerry Von Erich.  Yes, I used to be a big fan of wrestling.  It is what it is folks and maybe explains some things for y'all.

So the reason I bring up the song is that despite having heard it since the early 80's I do not know all the lyrics.  Weird, right?  Well here's what I thought:

A modern-day warrior

A mean mean stride

Today's Tom Sawyer

Mean mean pride

Though his mind is operan....

...yeah.  Operan.  Okay so I know that it is not a word but honestly didn't know what else it would have said and didn't bother to try and look it up or anything.  So when I heard the song at the arena it got me to thinking about that line.  Now you are thinking and wondering as well aren't you?!  It's okay to admit it.  I did.  So what it really says is:

Though his mind is not for rent...

...ahhhh.  Kind of makes more sense.  Mystery solved.

The reason that we even went to the game is so that we could see Anna dance at half-time.  Here's a pic of the dancers and yes I tried to correct the red-eye thing going on but was unable to so just imagine them with non-laser eyes.

Here they are doing their line dance

Considering we really weren't Tri-Cities Fever fans before we arrived we were definitely fans as we were leaving.  A great start to our Washington weekend.

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