The Seattle Piers

A couple of weeks ago Robb and I had a rare Saturday off together and, of course, we headed to Seattle for the day. This time the destination was the Seattle Aquarium and the tourist areas along the piers. It was another beautiful sunny Seattle summer day and the crowds were thick. We started out with lunch at Pike Place Market and tried the sandwiches at Sisters European Snacks. Not bad sandwiches, but we have other food destinations we like more at Pike Place.

After lunch we walked down to the Aquarium. Overall it was a nice aquarium. I'm not sure if it was worth $15/person (I think I would've liked it more if it was $10/person), but it was still nice. It's a really interesting aquarium because it's built on one of the piers on Puget Sound. The focus of the aquarium is water life in Puget Sound and also tropical fish from the Pacific Ocean. There was a fairly large "tide pool" section that allowed for people to touch sea creatures such as starfish, anemones, lobsters, etc.. Our favorite display were the harbor seals. We watched a little video about the Aquarium's conservation and research efforts. It was really interesting to learn that there is an underwater lab right next to the Aquarium, which means it's right under Seattle. Also we learned that there are sharks in Puget Sound; we saw some in this section of the Aquarium that actually is "wild." The aquarium has this basement area with a window-dome to see the Puget Sound fish, sharks, starfish, and wolf eels.

After the Seattle Aquarium, we decided to walk along the waterfront and visit some of the tourist shops. But our real purpose was to find Ye Olde Curiousity Shop; Robb has been itching to visit this museum/store for months. The Shop has interesting collections of weird stuff: American mummies, freaky stuffed animals, pictures shows, etc. Robb was in heaven. He loves that kind of stuff. I can take it or leave it. Even though I was doing a very good job of masking my boredom and frustrations with the crowds, Robb didn't make us stay too long. I imagine he'll go back by himself sometime to look at everything in greater detail. I would highly recommend checking out his blog to see his opinion of Ye Olde Curiousity Shop, plus his blog postings tend to be a lot funnier than mine if you're in the mood for a laugh! http://norwesterly.blogspot.com/

After that, we made our way back to the car and headed back to Federal Way for dinner. We ate at a Pan-Asian restaurant we've been wanting to try, Indochine. We were very impressed with our food and the cocktails! Now we have a new favorite local Asian restuarant. I love good local restaurants. And what a good way to end another awesome Seattle day!