First off, I need to mention the fun bookstore that JT, Dom, and I discovered yesterday whilst walking through Pikes Place Market. Somehow in my tired state I simultaneously forgot to write about and include the awesome photo taken by JT whilst in the store. I feel like my hipster points went up significantly just by spending time in the little store.
Chilling in the window nook
Today Dom and I were left to our own devices. JT had a lot of work to do, so after a semi-late start in the morning, we loaded up our stuff in the car and made our way to Seattle. I was mildly nervous about driving into the city. The streets here are incredibly narrow and the lanes are all quite close together. I quickly realized that while it feels like everyone is careening in your direction, you are actually quite alright. Confession: I may have cried out a few different times at the start...
Today we decided to put our Seattle City Passes to use. The Pass is really cool in that you pay one price to have access to a handful of different sites. Today we used two of our passes, one to visit the Seattle Aquarium and the other to go on a boat tour around the the bay. After surviving the traffic (which honestly was not that bad, I just have a tendency to overreact and over exaggerate I suppose), we first went into the aquarium. I admit that initially I was not too excited about the aquarium, but I quickly changed my mind as I saw how many exciting things it had to offer. Right upon walking in we saw a huge tank full of fish and a man in a scuba suit that swam through it, waving to the different patrons that entered the building. Promptly after this was an interactive zone where we were allowed to touch different sea creatures. We reached out to sea cucumbers, starfishes, anemones, and a variety of other fishes. The workers were great and taught us a lot about the fish, and told us fun little facts, like if you reach underneath an anemone and raise your finger up slowly, it will wrap it's tentacles around it and hold on tight. It was so fascinating!
Other portions of the aquarium included various salt water fishes. We also saw a tank full of jellyfish and a large octopus! We were told a story that in the early days of the aquarium, they noticed that fish were slowly going missing. They installed cameras to try and detect the thief, but when they looked at the footage they found that the octopus was crawling out of its tank and eating whatever fish it could find before returning to its habitat. They now have to secure the octopus a little more...securely.
Our favorite portion of the aquarium was definitely the sea otters. They were all incredibly cute and were willing to put on quite a show for all the spectators. Though Dom and I did our best to take one of the little guys home with us, we decided it was best that he stay with his sea otter friends.
Pass time!
Hanging out int he underwater dome
Best friends!
Touching an anemone
Unfortunately we did not think that the aquarium would be as awesome as it was, and we had to speed through a little faster than we anticipated to make it to our boat's departure. We rode on the Spirit of Seattle, a boat owned by the Argosy tour company. Our tour went for an hour around the bay where we were able to see a fantastic view of the city and the surrounding area. It was incredibly beautiful, though a little hot. Once again I anticipated cloudy skies only to find myself baking under the sun. The weather reports always said as much, but for some reason I always ignore those in hopes of cloudier skies.
A glimpse of our boat
View from the sea
Space needle!
After exploring the sea (both what lies below and above) we made our way back to the market. This time around I finally got to see the tossing of fishes and we indulged ourselves in many more samples. We also discovered a gelato shop where we got some pre-lunch dessert. I ordered a delicious chocolate and pistachio gelato, which was just what I needed. Today we both ordered a Hom Bow from Mee Sum Pastry. It's essentially a very delicious roll that is filled with meat on the inside. I got a BBQ meet pastry, though the barbecue flavor is not at all like typical barbecue flavors. More Chinese flavored I guess. It was crazy delicious and I snarfed that thing down very quickly. We also stopped by Beecher's again just so we could sample more cheeses.
A glimpse at my delicious Hom Bow. It didn't last much longer after this photo
Though we still had a little more energy left at this point in the day, the other museums and exhibits were beginning to close, so we decided to grab some dinner and head for our hotel. We stopped by the Seattle City Center where we looked at museum times, and stopped by a place called Mod Pizza. It's a fun little pizza shop where you essentially approach a counter and select all the toppings that you want placed on top of your pizza. It's like going through a line at Subway....but with pizza. There are a few combinations that are already laid out that you can choose from, or you can make any that you want. The coolest part is that the toppings are all included with the cost, so you can get as many as you want! Dom and I both crafted delicious pizzas which we boxed up and took with us as me made our way to our hotel.
Dominic ordered the Dominic pizza...he had to! So much deliciousness
We booked a hotel room in a city called Lynwood, which is actually just about 23 minutes outside of Seattle. Unfortunately we found ourselves leaving the city around the same time as everyone else in the world, so the drive actually ended up being around an hour long. By the time we actually got to our room, we were quite ready to settle down for a little while. We sat around for a bit to recharge and then went out on the town to buy some groceries. I also could not resist getting an ice cream cone, because you have to treat yourself every now and then. We also discovered that there is a Chipotle restaurant that is only about two minutes away from our hotel! We were already too full tonight, but will most definitely be returning when another day. (Dom and I both consider it one of our favorites).
So inviting after a busy busy day
The day full of aquatic discovers also ended with water as we went down to the hotel's hot tub and swimming pool. We visited for quite a while and enjoyed having the whole pool to ourselves. One of the great things about finding a hotel a little further out is that it is not quite as busy as the rest of Seattle, and we found ourselves enjoying a nice calm after a pretty frantic day. Soon we shall rest and continue the adventure again! Can't believe two days have already passed!
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