Seattle Trip VI: Day at the Harbor

We spent this day around the harbor downtown. We took a harbor cruise (thank you City Pass) first thing in the morning. It was fairly overcast to begin with and it was pretty cold out on the water. Patrick was perfectly comfortable without his jacket which Rachael needed. The sun came out toward the end of the ride. It felt pretty good. 

This was the girls' first boat ride ever. We had to get after both of them for climbing up to far and leaning out over the railing. I enjoyed listening to the tour guide and learned some interesting bits about various landmarks and the harbor itself. It was neat to see the huge cranes of the shipyards and all the boats out on the water. 

After our boat ride, we stopped for lunch on the pier where the gigantic ferris wheel (our next stop) was located. The inside was pretty cute, but the bathroom was horribly dirty even though we needed to walk back and forth a few times just to get a code to get in. They clearly were not thinking of moms with small-bladdered toddlers in tow.

We then rode the Seattle Great Wheel (what a grand title). I purposefully chose my seat so I would have a view of the land and not the water. It was fine, except when Rachael kept trying to move all around and switch seats. Not so fine. It was just a little too wiggly for me knowing that I was hanging above cold open water. Rachael loved it. I don't think Anna cared either way.

We then walked over to the next pier and went to the Seattle Aquarium. Rachael was large and in charge with the aquarium map. She especially loved touching the sea anemones and starfish. She got to feed an anemone, but she lost interest because it moved so slowly while eating. I liked watching the tidal pool at work.

It was a pretty neat aquarium for its size. We really liked the outside area where we could see harbor seals and lots of other native fish. Rachael liked being in the dome under the water with the fish swimming over us. Anna liked the seals and sea otters.

Even with all this fun, if you ask the girls they would tell you that the hotel pool was the best thing from the trip. Here they are pretending to be starfish on the floor of our room after a day of touching them at the aquarium.