Seattle Aquarium

On Thursday, August 30th, after the EMP, we went to the Seattle Aquarium. (I can't believe how long ago that was already!) Waterfront Seattle was a bit of a culture shock for me - there were SO many people begging, and so many of them had signs saying it was because of medical bills. There were even several veterans begging, saying they'd been discharged from the military for disability reasons and were unable to survive. The Canadian military has its issues, but I don't think it's like that here - I've never seen that before, anyway. It really upset me and I had a hard time enjoying the rest of the day! The 'otter cuteness' at the aquarium helped a bit though. :)

There were two massive touch tanks of starfish, shellfish, anemones and other sturdy creatures. There was a really neat tube of jellyfish lit with coloured lights. There were many, many tanks of fish, and there were a few things I'd never seen before. My favourite part was the second building, with all of the animals. There was also this really neat underwater dome/seating area with the sun shining in through the water where I probably could have spent the day...

Puffins!

Seals! They were really hard to get shot of because of where they were sitting in relation to the mesh fencing, but they were super cute.

Sea otters - they were adorable - there were three of them, and they were just having SO MUCH fun.

River otter - he was a swimming machine - he was SO HARD to get a photo of. This is the best out of Trevor and I both trying for about twenty minutes!

Soft otter, warm otter, little ball of fur.

I'd definitely go back there again to bask in the oceany goodness - if you go to Seattle, and if you like critters, I highly recommend it!

We checked out a lovely junky antique store, where I scored an old Currier and Ives print of Canada - their Canadian ones are really hard to come by, and it was only $3, so I was pretty happy about that! We hiked up the ridiculous hill to check out the famous Pike's Place Market, but it was just about to close for the day, and it was such a zoo. I was having major sensory overload issues from the long day and all the people, so I wasn't super happy with it. :) We were trying to use the GPS to find a place to eat dinner, but I was worried I wouldn't have enough energy to hike back down the hill to the car after, so we went back down right away and found a place on the waterfront. I can't say enough good things about the Garmin we bought - it didn't always steer us in the most efficient direction, but it meant that I didn't have to stress about maps and navigating, which was so nice!

What a crazy long day! Those first few days in Seattle I slept like a baby, despite the noisy campground located between a highway, a train track, and an airport. :)