Scenes from Seattle (part 3)

Thursday morning's weather was what I expected from Seattle. It was cloudy and rainy - perfect for a morning at the aquarium.

I dread the day when Charlotte decides that she is too old to stick her head in these things. 

We tried to convince Charlotte to touch the creatures in the tide pool, but it took the encouragement of strangers for her to get her hands wet. This was, by and far, her favorite part of the trip. She loved how the sea anemones would close around and stick to her fingers. We spent well over an hour playing here. The worm that disappeared as soon as you touched it made Char laugh with delight over and over again.

I thought it might be hard to capture a cute picture of a sea otter, but these guys know they are the stars, and they really work the crowd.

We headed back to the Market for lunch.

Chowder and mussels.

People say that everything is better with bacon. I agree, and would like to give melted butter that same status.

The Seattle Underground Tour was a lot of fun. We learned a lot, laughed a lot, and now I can give the people who named the Space Needle a tip of my hat. Well done, gentlemen - wink, wink, nudge, nudge. (You'll have to take the tour to know what I mean.)

The sidewalk from above:

The sidewalk from below:

We visited the Seattle Pinball Museum next. It was one of my required stops.

I didn't grow up in a time when EM pinball machines were plentiful - I was an 80's video arcade kid - so the only EM games I know well are mine. It was a bit strange to play someone else's pinball games. They weren't set up the way I'd do it, but I got over that pretty quickly. It was great to pay a few bucks and then get to play an unknown game that I didn't have to buy, fix, clean, and paint first. 

Char looked pretty upbeat at dinner. She has really become quite a reader this summer.

But by the time we got back "home", she was just beat. 

She even put herself to bed while watching a couple episodes of My Little Pony on Netflix. 

That doesn't happen at "real home"; I can assure you of that.