Harbor Cruise and Aquarium Day--15 August 2015

The last two things on our City Pass were a Harbor Tour and the Aquarium.  On the walk down to the water we passed by a couple of docked cruise ships.  Good grief, they are huge!

Once we were on our comparably much smaller boat, we had better views of a few more.  I think would be neat to try one out and sail to Alaska someday, but it's not very high on the bucket list.  

Jess was the child with the most energy.  For some reason the other two were dragging and were happy to sit, relax and just enjoy the sea air.  A lovely cloudy day in Seattle.  The tour guide emphasized again that contrary to popular belief, Seattle does NOT get all that much rain, far less that New York City or Houston, but what it does have is a lot of clouds.  We got big doses of both during our 5 day stay.

The 4-story apartment building on the water for scale.  

Cozy.  It was lovely to want to wear sweatshirts and still feel a little chilly. That speck right in the middle is a plane.  I learned a few interesting air facts during our 1 hour tour.  The tallest building on the skyline was planned to be quite a bit taller (over 1000'), until the Federal Aviation people got wind of it.  Because of Sea/Tac (big international airport), Union Lake (home to loads of seaplanes), and a few private airports for Boing to develop and test, there was too much air traffic to have any super tall buildings.  It was supposed to be 76 floors tall, and it still is, though it's less than 950'.  The architect cut a some height from each floor and kept the record of "most floors west of the Mississippi".  Ha ha.

These ships can carry 10,000 containers!  

Super fast Coast Guard boat.  Made me think of Nina.  

We saw a few tanks (look in the middle) being shipped off...somewhere.

This one was actively being unloaded.  Those cranes are pretty fast.  We learned that those crane operators work 30 hours a week for 6 figure salaries, but before you get ready to quit your day job, you ought to know that 20 years of dock experience is required.  

This cute little skyscraper has a fun history.  It was built in 1914 by typewriter tycoon Lyman Smith.  He wanted to go for 14 stories, but his son talked him into going for 40 instead!  At the time it was the tallest building on the West Coast and kept that title till the Space Needle was built for the World's Fair in 1962.  The pyramid on top originally housed a massive water tank to make sure the building wouldn't burn down (Seattle has a bad fire history), but now it's a 3 story penthouse with ladders.  

On to the Aquarium.  I think the kids are getting a bit old for this one.  It was on the crowded side which is less fun, but it just didn't grab them like in years past.  Even the adorable otters didn't hold their interest long.  

Isaac still felt compelled to read everything. 

The city loves their teams.  

The kids all wanted to show this to grandma and congratulate her on her conservation efforts!  One piece in the big puzzle.

We left and killed a bit of time before dinner by finding a few geocaches.  They were all micro-caches.  We are getting better at playing in the city.

Makenna talking on the phone to Grandma Chris and Grandpa Don.  All the kids had a turn.  

Jess getting her feet cold and wet in the fish fountain. 

Isaac composing again on garage band.  

That screw unscrews from itself to reveal a tiny roll of paper....

This giant fish is decorated with opened baseballs and catching mitt fins.  It was proudly displayed at our last seafood feast.

Specialty peach specials.  The homemade peach ice cream was amazing.  And the cobbler was very nice too. 

Nice sunset, but not quite the Rockies.

Cool building front with a mix of old and new.  I bet there is a story, but I don't know it.  

Two creepy statues we saw in a locked courtyard we walked past.

Another geocache spot.  It was screwed into a lone bike lock hanging nearby.