Seattle Trip...A Long Time Ago

T has been on my case since August to write this blog. As you can see by the many post she has written and the few I have written that life has been a little busy for me and I haven't had much time to dedicate to writing blogs. Hopefully that will change soon as I am coming to the end of my graduate program and my life should assume some normalcy and order to it.

We took a trip to Seattle, just the two of us, while my oldest sister and her family watched Camo. It was way back in August as birthday gifts to both of us. We spent three days and two nights living it up and seeing it all. We both purchased a CityPASS which was a little expensive but well worth it since you were able to see so much for half the price as it would normally cost. Many cities have a CityPASS so "google" it and check it out.

Here's what we did:

On Friday we drove up early in the afternoon and went straight to the Woodland Park Zoo. It was hot but we were impressed with the amount of shade the zoo had. I felt it was comparable to the Washington Park Zoo here in Portland, though T though there were more opportunities to see the animals at Woodland Park. The highlight for me was feeding the Giraffes. I am a huge animal lover (always have been) so any contact with animals is awesome for me. It was a little embarrassing since most the people in line were parents with their kids then there was T and I, all by our lonesome, with no kids.

After the zoo we checked in to our hotel then ventured out for some delicious Italian. Once it got dark we hit up the Space Needle to get our first of two chances to go to the top. Our CityPASS allowed us two trips up the Space Needle, once in the daylight and once in the evening. The view was pretty awesome, especially seeing all the light below us.

Saturday, we took the first opportunity of the day get our daylight version of what we saw the night before at the top of the Space Needle. We wanted to go early to beat the weekend crowd. Next we went to the Pacific Science Center and watched a really cute 3D iMAX movie called Born to be Wild about two women, one that took care of orphaned elephants and another which took care of orphaned orangutans. Once again, since I am such an animal lover, I thought it was super good. Later, we went to the EMP, Experience Music Project. I had been before during the grand opening but it was crazy then and a little disappointing. This time it was less busy but still disappointing; there doesn't seem to be any logical flow to the exhibit and I'm a little impatient to read the history behind every guitar ever made. We spent less than an hour there and called it good.

The main event and the reason we scheduled a trip to Settle in the first place was to attend a Seattle Mariner game, a tradition I've participated in almost every summer that I've lived in Oregon since my 12th birthday. We went Saturday night against the Chicago White Sox and it was Felix Hernandez bobble head night...it's my third bobble head in three years since T and moved here for school. The Mariners are terrible so of course they lost but it was still fun, nonetheless, and an absolutely beautiful night.

Sunday, we spent the morning at the Seattle Aquarium, which again, was similar to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. We had planned to go on a Argosy Cruise around the Seattle Harbor and Sound but there was a low lying fog that had engulfed the piers and part of the city. I was nervous it was going to stick around all day and we would have to head home before it cleared, missing our opportunity to cruise the harbor. We decided to get our tickets anyway since we had already purchased them with the CityPASS. We booked for the 1 o'clock departure and as we were walking to the pier to get in line the fog lifted in a matter of 5 minutes and the whole sound and city were complete clear and beautiful...what timing. The cruise gave a really nice perspective of the city that I had never seen before.

Here are some pictures or our trip: