Waterfront Adventures

After much talk on Mom's part about the aquarium and the waterfront, the day finally came that Mom and the older two Muffins set off to see the places for themselves. Since we lived within a mile of a light rail station, we decided to ride into downtown, rather than worrying about parking and such.

And, we made it! We even got a little turn in the coveted chairs on Piers 62 & 63.

Here are the Muffins with the sound, the aquarium, and the new Great Wheel in the background. 

We visited Ye Olde Curiosity Shop. Way back when, there was a guy there who could write things on grains of rice. We didn't find him there this time, but we did find some watermelon fudge to sample.

After wandering up and down the waterfront for awhile, we decided to head for the aquarium. We found this fun aquatic sculpture outside:

We also saw a lady pretending to be a statue near the aquarium. Perhaps she inspired the Muffins to get into art. Or maybe Amanda just really likes photo ops like these:

We saw tropical fish:

We saw some of the salmon who live begin and end their lives at the aquarium. They're swimming on the ceiling from our perspective:

Normally, otters are hard to photograph. However, this sea otter had taken the afternoon off from frolicking and was rather easy to catch on digital film:

Here's one of the harbor seals:

Turns out the river otters had the afternoon off, too:

By far, the kids' favorite exhibit was the touching tide pools. We got there late enough in the afternoon to be there in the hour between when they stop letting people in and start kicking people out. As a result, we got lots of one on one time with the staff and the critters. They showed the kids how to play with tube worms and also fished out sample critters like shrimp and sea cucumbers to make them easier to reach.

The last place we visited in the aquarium was the gift shop. Amanda had a bit of money burning a hole in her pocket (thanks to the tooth fairy), but Mom had a plan in mind. Earlier in our wanderings, we'd visited  Pirates' Plunder, which among other things included a big chest of bargain rate pirate treasure. Mom was able to convince Amanda that her funds would go farther there, and so here are the Muffins with their treasures outside the shop:

Arrrr!!!