Day 2 - Sciene World, Space Needle in the Daytime and Swimming!

 The next morning we grabbed the shuttle bus and headed out to the Science Centre.  On the walk over Trevor took this picture of the girls under the Space Needle.  Lots of people were doing the same thing in this spot, so everyone has the same picture I think!  The science centre was the only place where a 3 year old would have to pay admission.  This is why they only sell the CityPass to kids over 4, since it wouldn't be worth your $$$ since they get in free everywhere excpet here.  When we went to get our tickets the lady told us that Kendra definately looked two years old and let her in for free.  That was VERY nice of her...especially since Kendra is bigger than a lot of four year olds! 

Our first stop was at the IMAX film they were showing or we wouldn't have been able to watch the one we wanted.  It was a movie about a giant wave and the surfers who try to ride it.  From what the movie said that anyone who tries to surf this wave had better be very good since the coral reef below is close to the surface so if you fall you will not only be seriously hurt but could be killed.  The girls like the 3-D aspect especially when the wave starts splashing right at you.  Made me think how much fun it would be to take them to a 4-D movie where they would actually get wet! 

Next stop was the Dino world.  I didn't realize quite how much Abby knew about dinosaurs, remembering their names and if they are meat or plant eaters.  She was quite facinated with this display since they had many moving lifesize dino's to check out!

 Kendra trying out the flight simulator.  There was a constant line up for this activity!  We also tried out camaflouge which is one of the things I really enjoyed about this place...how they mix education with fun and the kids don't even realize that they are learning anything!

 

Abby tried her had at making a giant puzzle of this ant.  They had other puzzles too as you can see behind her in this picutre.  She quite enjoyed figuring these out!

 They had a staff member allowing the kids to hold a cockroach.  Both Abby and Kendra enjoyed this experience and I'm amazed that Kendra didn't freak out.  You can see that the staff member wasn't too sure about letting Kendra do this all by herself and kept a very close eye on her.  I'm sure they don't want a kid to accidentally squish it, or shake the animal off if they get scared.  Quite a neat experience!

 They had this really neat globe hanging in one of the galleries.  I thought it would be fun to see if it would work to take a picture where I look like I'm holding up the world.  (Figuratively of course!)  This globe is actually a big white ball, and they project the images onto it from projection machines.  It would change to show different feature like weather, global warming etc.

 In this gallary they also had a whole section of fun mirrors.  Here is a shot of Abby and her distorted face.  Lots of fun and giggles here.  I have many more pictures, but of course most of them are NOT very flattering!

 This gallary had all kinds of hands on exhibits where you can test your physical abilities.  It was quite fun to test your flexibility, vision, dexterity, memory etc. 

 The Science Centre also had a beautiful butterfly atrum, where you could walk with butterflies all around you!  It was so nice and warm in that area and peaceful to watch the fluttering of butterflies all around you!

 

In there attempt to make it educational they have these laminated sheets that described many of the butterflies they have there.  It showed what they looked like with their wings open or closed since sometimes the colours are only on the inside of their wings.  Abby and Kendra had a lot of fun trying to determine which butterfly they were looking at according to the guide. 

 As we were about to leave the museum we found this display.  Abby just HAD to have her picture taken here...can you see why?

More on day 2 to come!

Day 1 - Pike Place Market and Seattle Space Needle at night!

 After the gum wall we only had a short walk to reach the Pike Place Market.  We had been here two years ago but it's always a fun place to visit and you never know WHAT you may see.  During the harbour cruise earlier that morning we had heard that all of the venders have to come first thing in the morning to pick a spot since each spot is sold on a per day basis.  This means that everytime you visit the market the people could be different or in a different spot.  That sure makes things interesting!

 They do all they can there to make you notice their booth.            Kendra enjoing all the sights, sounds and smells....actually she didn't like the smells at all.  She has a VERY sensitive sense of smell and anything "fishy" makes her gag!  Poor girl!

 We also came across this very cute store in the basement of the market.  They sell all things "animal".  This picture is the display window, and it's so cute!  We did buy a sign here that has "Lily" on it!  They had an amazing array of products featuring every breed of dog you could think of!  Very neat place!

 After a quick trip back to the hotel for a bit of a break and a swimming pool time we headed back out to check out the Space Needle at night.  Our CityPass allows you two visits in 24 hours.  That meant we could go one in the evening, and once during the day.  We figured the kids would LOVE this....well they loved the elevator ride...

 When we got to the top they didn't seem to interested.  Trevor and I thought it was quite fun, but it was VERY cold outside (remember they kept forcasting snow...which thankfully never materialized!) and really the little lights are nice to them, but not very interesting.

I love this shot of the space needle at night Trevor took.  Could be an advertising postcard I think!  The fun part about the Space Needle at night is the variety of people who visit.  They have a revolving restaurant just below the observation deck and you see a lot of people dressed to the nines going out for a romantic dinner out, with valet parking at some astronomical price which I'm sure to match the price of the dinner in the restaurant there!  We did go out to dinner after this since the kids were ready to fall asleep walking after such an action packed day...as a matter of fact Kendra did fall asleep during dinner which is a heavy weight to carry around afterwards....

Kids, Dogs, Food and... Priests??

A lot of kennel reservations come via email but I wasn't quite sure how to deal with this one. Thought I would share it with you. Don't know how this is a scam as I can't see how it could harm me. I hope they like the accomodations :)

Day 1 in Seattle Continued...

After visiting the aquarium we were scheduled to go on a Seattle harbour boat tour. We knew from the last time we were here that next door to the aquarium was a really cool old building that housed an old fashioned carousel. As we arrived at the entrance to the carousel the lady working there opened the door to let us in. We explained that we hadn't bought any tickets yet so we needed to do that first. Oh no, she told us, that gentleman that just passed by you bought your girls a ride! So, that was neat, a FREE ride on the carousel! We couldn't find that man back after to thank him, so from here "Thanks for the free ride!"

After this we bought some muffins and rolls for our lunch. The sun was shining and although it was quite nippy out, if you sat directly in the sunshine it felt quite warm. We had our lunch on a park bench waiting for our boat trip to start!

The boat trip was 1 hour long. It went all around the harbour explaining a lot of history of the pier system there, and even why certain building were built. It's really neat to hear the background to some of these places rather than just see the building.

We sat up on the outside deck for as long as we could handle the wind and cold weather. Then we moved inside as the tour was almost done, to warm up again!

After the boat tour we planned to head up the hill towards Pike Place Market. We had heard about a gum wall that has been literally growing over the past number of years. We decided to try find it, but Trevor made sure both girls had something to add to this artwork by buying some packages of Chicklets that one store was selling to promote this "attraction".

It was actually pretty gross in my opinion, thinking about all the germs now pasted to that wall. The kids thought it was pretty cool, and it was nice break from the uphill climb on our way to Pike Place Market...

Seattle trip away!

Since we purchased the kennel we have discovered how much harder it is to get away with the kids for a few days. Since we are always so busy during any school holidays it will be next to impossible to get away during spring break, summer holidays or christmas break. This means we are going to have to be a bit more creative. A few weeks ago we decided it would be fun to take the girls to Seattle and spend a few nights in a hotel. We have a REALLY great helper named Jen who works in the kennel for us when we do these little getaways. Without her we would have to actually close down the kennel which of course isn't so good for business!

We left on a Wednesday afternoon and drove to Seattle. We had done some research and decided we would purchase the CityPass they offer. This pass allows you access to several different attractions which we figured the kids would enjoy. We even had some passes leftover that we didn't end up using!The highlight for Abby and Kendra was probably the hotel. Trevor had booked it on hotwire, so you don't really know what you are getting other than that you can determine the star level ahead of time. The name of the hotel was called Silver Cloud and it turned out to be a beautiful place to stay. The kids LOVED the pool which happend to be on the roof! Since it was supposed to snow while we were there you can imagine how cold it was outside! I stayed in the hottub but Trevor and the girls enjoyed a cooler swim in the regular pool! The hotel offered a free shuttle to four spots in downtown Seattle, so we didn't have to drive our car the entire time we were there!

Day 1: Seattle Aquarium, Harbour Boat Tour, Pike Place Market

and Seattle Space Needle

Since we only had three days in Seattle we filled them with as much stuff as we could. First stop on Thursday morning was the Seattle Aquarium. This gem of an aquarium is right on the waterfront so we were able do walk to most of our activities from here!

The aquarium allows kids to get a hands on feel for the anenomes, starfish etc. Abby was totally for that, Kendra not so much!

We watched a dive show where someone in scuba gear goes into the tank and talks with a staff member in the gallery. Really cool to see how the fish react or actually don't react to a human in their tank. Abby was able to dress up in scuba gear to try it out. Of course no trip to the aquarium would be complete without visiting our little friend Nemo. Pretty cool watching them dart in and out of the poisonous sea anenome and are totally safe.

To be continued....

We are joining the blogger world today!

After following so many other peoples blogs I decided it would be a fun way to share our lives with family and friends! You may wonder at the title of this blog. I've been encouraging Trevor to start a blog since he has so many fun things going on as a kennel owner/operator, stay at home dad while I'm at work AND chef, since on the days I'm gone he is in charge of making us some yummy meals! So, both of us will be posting here and filling you in on all the fun that makes up our lives. I'm sure Trevor will share a few photo's of his dinner creations, and even a few recipes too! Since we haven't had a blog before...so please be patient with us as we try to figure out how it all works!