This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Vacation Recap 2018, Part 4
Aug
29
2018
Continued from last week
Day 6
This was a day of more bus rides. We started out with a good breakfast at the hotel, albeit very crowded. Then off to the street behind the hotel to catch the bus out to Ballard. We hopped on, rode for a bit, made a transfer, rode for a little while more, and ended up at the entrance to the Ballard Locks and Botanical Garden.
The locks are typical locks, but I suppose they’re different from the locks we have in Michigan because there is some salt water involved.
What makes these locks a particular draw is the salmon ladder off to the side. Probably about 20 rungs to the ladder.
I did see one fish jump, but that was it. It was a little disappointing. It seems we hit the lull between the early species and the later species. July and August are better viewing. But there is a nice viewing area down below, so you can see a side view of the salmon.
We spent more time in here than I was expecting. It was interesting because you could tell that the salmon were tired from fighting against the current. There is still a strong current even in the salmon ladder, so they are exerting themselves the whole time. It looked to me like they were panting, or whatever the piscine equivalent of panting is.
We walked back across the locks, stopping to watch a boat go through. Then a short jaunt through the gardens. It was not quite what I pictured when it said botanical gardens – it was mostly a walking path with a nice lawn. Then we were off to lunch. There are two smallish cafes across the street from the gardens, back by where the bus stops. We chose one at random and had a decent lunch. I’m sure the other one was just as fine.
Then we got back on the bus and went to the Pike Place Market. This was the part of the Seattle visit I was looking forward to the most, but it ended up being the part I liked the least. It was way too crowded, not well organized, and I just wanted to get out of there.
On the plus side, we got to see the iconic gum wall. (apologies for the bad photo, but it was dark, crowded, hot, and I didn’t feel like taking time to setup a good shot)
And the pig. We saw the pig statue thing. I think part of the problem is that the whole thing is set into a hill, so we all had to hike up about 4 flights of stairs from where we were to get to the gum wall. And I didn’t like the layout, and there was not a place to sit and regroup. It might be a fun place without kids, or not on a busy summer weekend.
We had to fight the crowds on the way back to the hotel too. Everyone was in a mood to just get back to the hotel, so we skipped any restaurants. There happened to be a Walgreens a block or two from the hotel, on our way back, so we popped in there to get some supplies for a snacky dinner in the hotel. After the snacky dinner, we availed ourselves of the pool.
Afterward, I did a load or two of laundry, and then everyone went to bed.
Then it was evening, and morning the next day.
Day 7
This was a no-bus day. Walking only. It started as the day before did, with a good breakfast, albeit not as crowded as the day before.
Then we walked to the Seattle science museum – officially titled the Pacific Science Center. Nothing about it was particularly related to the Pacific though.
Inside it was bright and airy. Almost made it look too empty, but I suppose better that than dark and cramped.
The museum’s grounds are about as big as the buildings themselves. I typed grounds but it should be waters. It was a stark contrast from our previous stops in Arizona and California, where there were constant reminders that there was not enough water. Here in Seattle they used water as a ground cover.
And the architecture was interesting, both of the buildings’ exteriors and random items in the courtyard. Plus it’s in the shadow of the Space Needle.
Having gone to the top of the Empire State Building in a previous vacation, I figured we did not need to go up the Space Needle. So that’s my only photo of that attraction.
The museum also houses a butterfly house. It wasn’t huge, but it was a nice distraction from the usual science center exhibits.
Then we found the maker section of the museum. There were blocks to build with, other things to build with, and the boys spent the most time at the paper rocket section. They had paper and tape galore, and a compressed air launcher. You made a fuselage to specifications, then you added fins, nose, and whatever other decorations to make your rocket. Then you slid the rocket over a tube, pumped up the air, and pressed a button to launch the rocket. They even had a target setup, which greatly increased the focus of the young rocketeers.
After a mostly full day there, we walked around the corner to get back to the hotel and we ran into a rather large playground.
The top of that thing was about 3 stories tall. The kids played there for a while, and then we walked the few blocks back. We took a slight detour for them to get Slurpees though. We relaxed for a while until they were hungry for dinner, then we walked back toward the Space Needle for our restaurant of the day: Zeek’s Pizza.
Good pizza, and a view of the monorail that helped keep the kids attention while the pizza was being made.
We had a standard evening: some time in the pool. some TV, some more laundry.
Then it was evening, and morning the next day.
To Be Continued…
Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon.
Matthew 1:4
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:55 am and has been carefully placed in the Travel category.
