Seattle
has been on our list for YEARS! Ryan had to go for work so the kids and I
joined him at the end of the trip. Ryan worked all over the Seattle area and
the kids and I got a really late start on the day we drove in, so we basically
spent one day there.
We got in
around 8:30pm and put the monkeys straight to bed. The next morning Ryan went
to work and I excitedly spent a little alone time doing some Blessed by Birth marketing until
everybody woke up, then we all ate breakfast. Since we don’t have cable at
home, A always begs to “watch a couple kid shows” in the morning on days we
stay at hotels… and unfortunately, on this day I obliged. I had really wanted
to go “hike” around West Hylebos
Wetlands Park together, both to explore all the greenery and to check out
the historic cabins, but I wrongly assumed we’d have time later that day so I
let them watch Curious George AND Daniel Tiger before getting them dressed and
getting us all out the door.
We ran an errand, accidentally got on a scary freeway (big cities, man), got stuck at a light for almost 20 minutes because I was turning left and everybody going straight kept gridlocking the intersection so that nobody could go when their light was green (big cities, man), had to detour a couple of times because of road construction, and then finally (over an hour after I had expected to be there!!) grabbed lunch at Marlene’s Natural Food Market & Deli in Federal Way, which is where the hotel was. There was also a branch in Tacoma, FYI. Health food stores are of course expensive as a rule, but this one really wasn’t too bad. I needed baby wipes and was pretty surprised to see that the price was fine, plus their smoothies were cheap which is NEVER the case as you probably know.
After
lunch I ran another errand, got a little lost even with the GPS because of road
construction, and then somehow it was already almost 3! Big cities, man.
We pulled
into the parking lot of the West Hybloes Wetlands Park, but then I got a call
from Ryan saying he was off early because of a change in plans and that he’d be
working elsewhere in the morning so we should actually head into Seattle NOW if
we wanted to see it at all. So we hurried back to the hotel to change everybody’s
gross smoothie-covered clothes, do the potty-diaper boogie, and fill up lil
bellies with snacks… and then we were off, to the Seattle Aquarium!
There was
lots more traffic and scary freeway driving (luckily with Ryan driving this
time), and lots more road construction… and parking was a bit crazy. But we did
eventually get there! And I was only accosted by one person asking for money!
The kids
loved the aquarium! Favorites were the harbor seals, the sea otters, and the
octopus. A touched a star fish, which he thought was awesome, and C was
generally enamored with all the fish. (We went to a pet store the next day and
she excitedly shouted fiiii! Fiiii!
when we got to the fish area!) One word of advice… we were there in time for
both the octopus feeding and the seal feeding, but both of our big kids were
really disinterested in the feedings and honestly kind of just annoyed by all
the grown-ups hovering around them so they couldn’t see the animals very good
any ways. I’d say skip the feedings if your kids aren’t ultra-interested.
We got to
Pike Place Market around 5:30, which is apparently not a great time to get
there since they close at 6, but still.
There was supposed to be a cool gluten
free restaurant inside but we couldn’t find it so we ended up just walking
around a little and then heading to dinner at an Italian place called Razzi’s.
Razzi’s,
you guys! Oh man. This is the first time we have ever encountered gluten free
calzones OR gluten free mozzarella sticks, both of which were excellent. Even
re-heated. =]
We opted
NOT to walk in the Space Needle with the kids but did want to see it in the
evening skyline… but of course the Canon’s battery died before we could take a
picture =0
I debated
even sharing but I guess I just will because it’s my blog and I can say what I
want here!
Seattle
felt REEEEEEALLY overrated to us. We both agreed that it would probably have
been very different had we not gone with kids. Pike Place Market had a lot of
quirky and interesting things to see, but we just perceived it as crowded and
stressful because we were trying to all stay together. The aquarium was neat, but
definitely nowhere near as cool as others we’ve been to, and yet it was the
most expensive we’ve ever been to. It cost us $70 to all get in but it felt a lot
more like a $40 aquarium. We had to pay to park by the aquarium, then got a $43
parking ticket for getting back to the car four minutes late. Then we had to
pay to park for our dinner too. Big cities, man.
Seattle
was expensive, crowded, trafficky as heck, and felt generally unsafe. I don’t
mean that in a naïve, small-town way. I’ve lived in Phoenix and I’ve visted big
cities many times. Phoenix, Denver, Minneapolis, Portland, Austin, Salt Lake
City. I walked alone with my baby in downtown Minneapolis at 1am once, and let
me tell you, I felt 20 times safer there than I did in downtown Seattle with
Ryan by my side and in broad daylight.
This isn’t
something I say often but I’m going to say it now: I personally do not consider Seattle a great place for family
travel.
Have you been? If so, did you have
a (hopefully!) completely different experience?
Aww, I mostly loved my experience in Seattle! Which was without kids and I don't think I'd enjoy it with kids - way to busy for my liking. But the paying to park was totally crap, and it was super expensive! We stayed in a hostel and by the time we paid to park (like $30/night) it would have just been cheaper to go to a hotel that included parking. But we were able to ride our bikes everywhere, got fish from Pike's that we cooked at the hostel, walked to the bars at night with hostel-mates, rode our bikes on the ferry to an island (can't remember the name...Banebridge?) that we biked around, etc. I liked that there was enough cheap stuff for adults, though none would have been fun with kids. I never felt unsafe, though!
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