Seattle Day 2

Ellie woke up early...4:30...which is her normal 7:30 Raleigh time. Luckily she was tired enough to have some Cheerios and go back to bed for a couple more hours. We went down to breakfast around 7:30 and had waffles, sausage and really yummy Washington yogurt. It is so creamy. Ellie loves it too so luckily we have something to feed her for breakfast in the hotel!

After breakfast we walked out to Seattle center where the Space Needle and many ot

her attractions are. It was a little rainy but we came prepared with rain jackets and the stroller rain cover. We stopped by Starbucks for a drink and called Jack to figure out t

he plan. We took the Monorail to Westlake Mall...kinda funny they only have two stops but convenient for us! The Monorail zipped through downtown and dropped us off on the

third story of the mall and we looked around for a little while and then walked down to Pike Place Market. It is quite the place. Pretty different

from any thing I have ever been to. I don't know how many stores there are there but I'm pretty sure you could spend days looking at things. We hit the highlights...Daily Dozen Donuts (we got the mixed bag of mini donuts: hot plain, cinnamon, powdered and chocolate frosted, sprinkles!) So yummy! We got to see the fishing fly at the fish market and even made it to the wind-up toy shop. Then we met up with

Jack and Paula and had apple cider at a little shop where you could sit at the window and see the boats out on the sound. We walked around a little more and then found the elevator down to the street level.

We spent a few hours at the Seattle Aquarium which was lots of fun. They have a huge tank when you first walk in that has all local species so we got to see the different salmon that are common their in the Puget Sound.

There was a diver in the tank who played peek-a-boo with Ellie!

Ellie really like seeing all the fish. After the aquarium we headed over to Ivar's which is a local seafood place right on the waterfront.

Grandpa Lorin recommended we try the clam chowder so we ordered up our same fish/shrimp and chips and a cup of chowder. It was really good. Afterwards Jason and Jack fed the seagulls...I wasn't brave enough!!!

On the way back up to the Monorail we stopped by Beecher's Cheese Shop (where you can watch them making cheese in the window) and the original Starbucks...it was way to packed to buy anything but maybe we'll go back. We picked up a smoothie at the mall and fed Ellie her lunch and then hopped back on the monorail to the Seattle Center.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Pacific Science Center. It was pretty cool. Among our favorite exhibits were the Naked Mole Rats, the 1/2 of the toilet working mode

l, the dinosaurs (we bought "Ellie" a $3 wax mold dino in one of those cool machines), and the giant guitars. We also went to the Beatles laser show. It was fun and Ellie loved it. She laid back in my lap and tapped her hands to the beat. She was very content for the entire 30 min show...looking at the crazy lights and listening to good music.

After the science center we walked over to the Space Needle (which is also in Seattle Center) so we took the trip up 520 feet to the top. Luckily they have an elevator! The view was pretty awesome from the top. It was after dark so we got to see the lights of the city. At night the top is dim and quite the romantic attraction...

they have little bar tables and sell wine and beer. We were tired so we quickly stepped outside and took a few pictures and went back to the hotel. Our ticket allows for two visits up the Space Needle so we are going to go again tomorrow during the daylight.

We had leftover pizza for dinner which was great even the second time! Vacation is nice because we can actually go to bed at a decent hour without all the house stuff to worry about!