June 28th: Seattle

It's kind of crazy how fast a week goes by. In some ways I wish this cruise had been as long as the Hawaii cruise, but the other part of me was grateful that it was time to head home. We were lucky that Chloe adjusted to sleeping in the same room as us much better than on the trip to San Francisco that we took just in March. However much she adjusted though we were glad to be done with that arrangement. After we left the ship we boarded the tour bus with most of the Riches family and the rest of the people from the Brian Judd Tours (the group that Grandma Riches had used to arrange this cruise). Instead of heading straight to the airport we were to take a short tour of Seattle.

The first stop was the Space Needle. Brian and I had decided not to go up into the Space Needle because we had already paid for the other excursions and did not want to pay more money, and so were content to just walk around the grounds. Much as luck would have it, two in our group decided not to go up and so we were given their tickets and were able to go up. We are grateful to them for their generosity and that we were able to experience the Space Needle to it's full extent. It was pretty neat to see all of Seattle from so high up. I do wish the lines to go up weren't so long because then we could have taken Chloe on the awesome looking playground equipment that we saw on our way back to the tour bus.

Silly green screen photo they gave us.

We could see the Chihuly Glass Garden in line for the Space Needle!

Space Needle

We didn't go inside the EMP Museum, but the building is pretty awesome.

The second stop was the Chittenden Locks Fish Ladder. I wasn't too interested in the locks because when we went out to New York two years ago we went Erie Canal and experienced those locks from a boat. Chloe mirrored my feelings as well. So we spent the first little bit exploring the greenery and enjoying being outdoors. We decided to then make the walk across the locks to the salmon ladders. They were not what I was expecting at all. In my mind I think I was expecting to see a bunch of fish jumping up all at once. Instead it was a rare glimpse of a salmon making the struggle to get up every five minutes or so. Despite this there was an excitement one felt as we anticipated where the next fish would come from and hoped for its success in the struggle upstream. It was fun to watch for the salmon. Chloe much preferred the area inside with the glass windows so she could see the salmon that were swimming.

Mommy I see fishies!

Fun sculptures to play on.

Once we were done at the locks we took a scenic driving tour through Seattle and some of it's highlights without any stops and then headed to the airport. Instead of heading straight home from Seattle we flew to Salt Lake City for a few days so we could visit more with family. It was great fun in Utah, and I loved the chance to go look at wedding dresses with my sister in law. I look forward to our next trip in August to see her get married.