Seattle!

Yesterday, we decided to take a "last minute" trip to Seattle.  It was the first time for all of us.  We've been living here over 2 years and we still hadn't been there.  It took a mere 3 hours to get there and we spent almost 10 hours exploring the city.  We got home after 11pm, but that's ok--we slept in until 9:30 today!  :)

We started the day at Pike's Public Market.  Just walked around getting samples of fresh produce.  We were going to try to walk over to Seattle's "Pioneer Square", but the time on our parking space was out and when we tried to circle for another one, it became too much of a hassle.  So, on we went to the Seattle Center--a place with museums, parks, fountains, and the piece de resistance the Space Needle.  We didn't want to pay $70 for the 4 of us to do to the top, but we got some sweet photos from down below.  Plus, we went to the EMP (music) Museum.  That place was great for music lovers like us.  The exhibits I liked best were the Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix, and Women in Rock. The kids loved the interactive sounds room (sampling music, playing keyboards, guitars, and drums, even singing).  After the museum, we walked over to the fountain for a few photos.  The fountain was cool because the water sprang up in sequence to some music.  We spent a good 30 minutes there, enjoying the show.  After that, we took a trip to North Seattle to see the Troll under the Fremont Bridge.  And then, we ate dinner at a fantastic local brewery called Naked City.  If you ever find yourself in North Seattle, and like beer (I am not a huge beer fan, but I loved the Blonde and Amber ales--Peter and I shared a sampler), we highly recommend it!  After dinner, we went to the marina and watched the boats and sprinkled some of Ezra's ashes.  We left the city around 8pm, just as the sun was starting to descend.  It was a wonderful, wonderful trip!  I hope to return someday and see all the other places we couldn't squeeze into an impromptu day trip.

(It was really hard to decide of the almost 200 photos I took which ones to post here.  I kept it to 20, plus 2 videos.  Many others are on FB.)

We're heeeeeere.

And there's this....apparently, it's fairly well-known

Ezra shot

Hyperdrive at the Science Fiction exhibit at EMP

Silliness at the Science Fiction exhibit

Sullen guitar look

The International Fountain that spout out water in sequence to music

The kids LOVED it!

Obligatory Space Needle shot

A passerby generously agreed to take the family photo

Us

Last one (I took about 30!)

Troll Under the Fremont Bridge

Puget Sound

Mt. Rainier in the distance

Sun setting on a glorious day