Seattle Trip V: Space Needle and Museum

We bought City Passes for the 3 of us (Anna was free for almost everything). We really enjoyed all the places we were able to visit with them. Monday after the market, we drove over to the Space Needle. The pop culture/music museum next to it looked interesting, but we figured it would be too old for the girls. 

Luckily we only had to stand in one line for the elevator up the Space Needle instead of two. There was definitely a little bit of vertigo on the way up and down for me (only when the elevators went behind cross pieces and you could see how fast you were really going). I could also feel the slight sway of the tower up at the top.

Rachael had no fear on the observation deck. She was climbing and running around like a little monkey. It was neat to see the different parts of Seattle and the harbor from that vantage point. Patrick also really liked seeing the technology used for displaying pictures of the Space Needle.

After the Space Needle, we ate a picnic lunch on the grass in between there and the Pacific Science Center. Rachael quickly made friends with a little boy her age and they climbed around on a modern art sculpture. Everything was great until a sliver worked its way into her toe through a hole in her shoe. I'm pretty sure everyone around us thought I was murdering her the way she screamed when I tried to touch her foot. Unfortunately, her feet were so dirty that I couldn't see any sliver or blister. She finally hobbled into the Science Center (our next stop). We washed her foot in the bathroom sink and I used my credit card to quickly remove the now visible sliver. Sheesh.

The girls had a lot of fun in this museum. We explored several hands-on exhibits, watched a 3D IMAX movie about lemurs in Madagascar, and visited the butterfly house. The butterflies were my favorite part. There were feeding stations set up everywhere with ripe bananas and other fruit. You could get really close up views of the butterflies, some as large as the span of my hand.

Rachael especially had fun in the outdoor water works. There were several machines that showed how the force of water could be turned into mechanical and electrical energy. I think she mostly liked getting to push hard on things.