The Rest of the Day

After leaving the hotel pool, the kids and I ate lunch and then spent the rest of the day walking all over Seattle. We first walked to the Seattle Center and tried to find a geocache located under the Space Needle, but there were way too many people around to be able to look for it without attracting attention.


So after watching the elevator go up and down the Space Needle a few times, we started walking toward Pike Place Market, stopping to find a different geocache along the way.


We had to make a bathroom stop as well, so we went into Subway. Ryan made the observation that if we took a picture in the mirror we could get a picture of all three of us, so we gave it a try.



Then since the bathroom was for customers only, we bought each of us a cookie and we shared a bottle of milk for a snack. The cashier said the market was only 10 blocks away, so off we went. He was wrong. It was actually 14 LONG blocks.


Once at the market, we browsed through the gorgeous flower booths, produce stands, and other miscellaneous merchandise. This is truly one of my favorite places to visit when in Seattle.


We stopped and watched them throw fish at the famous Pike Place Fish Market. In fact, the kids got a huge kick out of watching them fool me into ducking like mad when they "accidentally" missed a tossed fish and it hit me instead. Of course, it was only a stuffed salmon, but when it's coming at you fast, it's an easy mistake to make! (That's my story, and I'm sticking with it.)


Lastly, we made our way to one of our favorite treats, the Daily Dozen Doughnut Company. They make fantastic miniature donuts and you eat them hot out of the oil plain or tossed in either powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar (our favorite), or sprinkles. Yum!


We sat on our stools, ate our donuts, and watched the people milling about while we waited for Daddy to arrive after his long day of learning about new technology. There were lots of people at the market, and Seattle is full of interesting people to watch.


After he met up with us, we walked back to the fish market and let the kids look at the "famous" monk fish. Daddy wanted to be there to see the kids' reaction to it. They rig up this huge ugly fish where someone from behind the counter can make it move and startle unsuspecting people.


Poor Ryan! He screamed bloody murder while Abby placidly looked on completely unperturbed by the whole thing. I wasn't quick enough to get it on video unfortunately.

This fishmonger is holding a real fish called a
Parrot Fish...gorgeous, huh?
We decided the walk to Ivar's was just too long after all our walking already, so we instead made the long walk back to our van and drove to dinner. Then we hit the road home. Abby fell asleep just minutes into our drive, but Ryan stayed awake for about two hours before succumbing to sleep. It was a long day, and we were all happy when we finally pulled into our driveway at 10:30 last night.