The Nielson 5: Seattle Day 2

Day 2: Friday, August 14th

This was the busiest day of our vacation! We had so much we wanted to accomplish that we were non-stop moving all day. Busy but oh so fun! Since I am writing this post almost 4 months after the fact, I might not have as much detail for the story but I will try my best.

This day started with a very early rise from Momma! I woke up at I believe 5am so I could get my shower out of the way and get my hair done before I needed to start getting the girls ready. Since our hotel didn't offer a continental breakfast, the kids ate Capn' Crunch berries in the room....from our stash of previously purchased food. It worked out perfectly because there was no need to leave the room and we could all get ready without the disruption. Oh yeah and the in-room (or bathroom) coffee pot was a blessing too :)

We finished getting the kids ready for the day and were getting all the final items packed in the backpack for the day when I realized that I had forgotten to empty my camera's memory card before our trip! I couldn't believe it! On a 4Gb card, I had only a few pictures remaining....and the card holds over 900 pictures!!! We rushed to the nearest Wal*Mart so I could transfer the pictures to CD and here is where the day takes an ugly turn...

Since we were on a very strict schedule, we left the hotel a little early to account for this added trip. In this particular Wal*Mart, the photo center was located in the back. As I raced through the store, I remembered we also forgot to pack umbrellas. Hello dorkus!! We're in Seattle and I forgot to pack umbrellas...yep, I'm a smart one. Oh well, we're at Wal*Mart, we'll pick them up on our way out. Anyway, I go to the Photo center and notice they have 3 different computers for the processing of memory cards. Since we were early, no one else was in line. Great, I thought....wrong!! The first computer stalled and so I went to the next computer...same thing again. When I asked the "associate" for her help, she completely ignored me and told me that it would load in a short while. Five minutes later, nothing! I again tried the original computer I was on since the third was of course out of order. At this point, the wonderfully helpful and every-so courteous "associate" stated she needed to reboot the system. I figured no big deal, we'll just buy the umbrellas and wait the two minutes or so for the system to load...yeah, not so much. She said it could be 20 minutes or so!! I kept wanting to look at her and say, "LISTEN HERE LADY!!! I AM ON A STRICT SCHEDULE! COULD YOU PLEASE QUIT STARING AT YOUR PHONE AND HELP ME!!!!" but, I managed to keep "some" composure. I was very displeased. Long story short, we left without processing the pictures...oh, but we did manage to get two umbrellas...so I guess the trip was not for not.

During the trip to the Space Needle, Brad tried to calm me down as I stared at my camera screen, risking car-sickness, to delete pictures I think I could live without. We arrived at the Space Needle, found a great parking spot and were on our way! We breezed ahead of the ticket line thanks again to our City Pass Booklets and made our way to the top of the Space Needle. I had forgotten how fast and crazy the elevator ride was....it was such a rush!!! The kids really enjoyed it as well. We walked around and looked at the sites and of course, had a minor melt down from Jeylin because we weren't purchasing a full-course breakfast at the top however, we did give in and splurged for a Starbucks coffee, two waters, a yogurt and a cinnamon roll. They were all deliciously expensive but oh well, we're on vacation right?? Which reminds me, we also got souvenirs from the gift shop too. Here are a couple pictures from Trip #1 to the top of the Needle...

The Space Needle

(Sorry for the weirdness of this picture...I was taking it from inside while they were outside)

I love it when nice people offer to take your family picture...oh and you don't have to worry about them running off with your $1000 camera because really, where could they possibly go??

Next on the agenda was a stop at the Pacific Science Center where we would once again be meeting up with Sam & Amy. First on the PSC agenda was a 3-D Imax experience called Underwater or something to that effect. It was all about fish and such stuff. Highly educational and also incredibly neat to see. It was the first 3-D experience for the kids and it was hilarious to watch them try to grab the images coming at them. Kierra kept the glasses on for a short while but then eventually just sat there and watched the blurry screen without them.

After the show, we actually only met up with Sam since Amy and her family went to see the same Imax showing after us. The six of us toured the remainder of the PSC. It was so much fun to watch the looks on the kids' faces as they saw the dinosaur replicas and all the fun hands-on exhibits. They really enjoyed their time here. Here are the three of them sitting in a dinosaur footprint and a stone Triceratops at the entrance of the PSC...

Leg #3 of the busy journey took us to the Piers... but first to the Tram. We took it from the base of the Space Needle to a shopping mall a couple blogs above Pike Place Market. The kids enjoyed it so much! At the mall, we decided to stop for some lunch and once again, much to Jordyn's dismay, we had budgeted for fast food. I guess all mall food is generally fast food but in our case, we hit the McDonald's. It seemed to be processing the customer's the fastest so that was our choice. We ate and then headed to the ground level to walk the remaining distance to the Piers. We were spending the remainder of our day down there visiting the Seattle Aquarium, taking an Argosy Harbor Tour and eating at the infamous Crab Pot restaurant (to be featured in the following post). The Aquarium proved to be very interesting and fun for the kids. It was so fun to see their reactions to everything.

Can anyone say "Chocolate milkshake???" (Deuce Bigelow)

Hey look, it's Dori...a little fuzzy but still her :)

Don't "wook" at me :)

Jordyn & Jeylin posing in front of the otter pen

The scuba diving fish feeder was posing for the camera as well

A giant starfish

After the Aquarium, we headed for our Argosy Harbor tour. This was something that we had planned on leaving out of the itinerary if we had started to run behind. I am so glad however that we didn't do that because it was a very relaxing and beautiful trip. While waiting to board, we checked out a nearby t-shirt shop, purchased a couple more souvenirs and then noticed that Kierra had fallen asleep in her stroller. She managed to sleep through 1/2 of the tour too. It was very interesting to learn facts about the city of Seattle and to see things around the Harbor that we would not normally see.

Jordyn & Jeylin posing with the giant penguin at the T-shirt shop