What would a staycation in Seattle be without a visit to the Space Needle? It’s gotta be done. And since this was Son’s first trip to Seattle, it really really had to be done.
So here is the obligatory cheesy family photo pasted on their stock background. It was free, so why not?
Yep that’s us. Aren’t we cute all bundled up in our jackets in the middle of everyone else’s unbearably oppressive heat wave? We’re wearing shorts. Promise. And here is my little man at the top with the overcast day behind him.
I ordered a sunny day. The weatherman promised a sunny day. It did not happen. Despite the fact that it is summer and summer here is supposed to be sunny. We had a week of clouds. No rain, just clouds. I was a bit miffed. We should have been able to see the mountains ringing the area. Sigh.
Next up: the Seattle Aquarium. I highly recommend a visit to this family adventure destination for anyone with kids. This trumped the zoo, Mount St. Helens, and the Space Needle in the first 15 minutes. To score extra large parental bonus points, try to learn when they might be feeding some of the animals and time your visit to coincide. That alone triples the kiddie joy factor. And it was fun for the adults too. We were there in the late afternoon, so we found out they would be feeding the octopus and the sea otters while we were there. Happy accident!
They have two large touch tanks where visitors can see what sea stars, sea urchins, and anemones feel like. The staff there are extremely helpful, knowledgeable, and patient…and there are lots of them. One volunteer answered a whole list of questions from Son about how and what the sea urchins and anemones eat, and then provided us with a live demonstration. Yes folks, my son got to gently place a small portion of food where the animals could get it and watch as the spikes and sticky arms moved it around to their mouths. It was the coolest thing ever.
Then they fed the octopus and Son got a nearly front row seat for that. They fed it a couple of squid as we craned our necks to watch over the crowd. Of course, Son says the best part was when the octopus released a cloud of…um, waste product. He’s 10, what do you expect?
I have to say their exhibits are well done. It’s not all set up like fish tanks where you just look at the animals. A bunch of the exhibits are interactive. In the case of the octopus, she has two 360 glass tanks that are connected by a tube, so everyone can see and she’s not hiding behind a rock. They had jellyfish swimming around in a glass ring that you can walk through. And the sea otter tank was three sided as well.
We also had a front row spot for the sea otter feeding. They were so darn cute that everyone had a big grin plastered on their face. I snapped about three dozen action shots, but I’ll spare you from that boringly long slide show and just post the highlights.
They would float on their backs while snarfing up the fish. And if they happened to get more than one fish at a time, they would stuff the extra in their armpit for safekeeping…generally only for about 30 seconds, because they eat amazingly fast. We also witnessed some acts of sharing, where one would pause halfway through a piece of fish and hand feed the rest to another. So glad we didn’t miss that experience.
The aquarium also had a large section on different types of salmon and their habitats. The facility has a salmon hatching program and a fish ladder so they can return to spawn when the time comes.
Salmon young on their way to growing big enough to be released into the sea.
After all that walking and fun we parked ourselves at one of the many seafood restaurants lining the street along Puget Sound in downtown Seattle and we ate huge heaping platefuls of goodness. The day was definitely a win for the staycation.