The Seattle Aquarium was Andrew's favorite part of the entire trip! The aquarium itself is right on the water in one of the original piers with extensions that go right into the water to use the salt water as part of the exhibits. Melissa and I decided that aquariums must be our "thing" because we've been to them in all of the places we've vacationed together.
At the enterance, there was a giant tank that was the entire wall (maybe 30 feet tall?). Automatically Andrew began pointing. His little pointer finger did not go away the rest of the trip.
Ohhh, fish! Andrew actually said "fish" several times during the trip.
We headed over to the touch pools. Andrew thought it was great.
a little too great for mommy
(this was moments after he splashed everyone within ten feet of him)
daddy tried again with similar results
Onto less wet experiences--the giant Octopus!
I've never seen one so cute, or with two heads!
The real octopus was really huge... and moving... and sucking the glass.
I think this may be the first moving octopus I've ever seen.
And, of course, Andrew loved it.
The jellyfish were cool and the shark was huge.
Mommy's fish decided to eat the sign instead of looking at the camera, but the felt wall was a hit. Literally, he hit it to take the fish off.
After walking around inside, we took a bridge across the water to see the seal lions and sea otters. The concentrating face below on Andrew is just showing how much he loved the seal lions (promise!). He cried when we moved on.
He didn't realize that the sea otters were going to be better, much better!
"Do you see it?!
Do you see it Aunt Melissa?
Oh my gosh, Aunt Melissa, the baby sea otter is SOOOO cool, I want to touch it!!"
We watched the sea otters for almost 20 minutes with Andrew fully engaged in their swimming and shimp eating party (there were aquarium trainers in the enclosure talking about them and their habits while feeding the adorable things over 20 pounds of shrimp and crab).
Going back inside (and under the water), we saw the salmon swimming overhead. They had a mini salmon hatchery set up for people to walk through. Finger pointing alert!
After the salmon, we went into the dome fish room. The tank is literally a dome over the room you stand and sit in. Andrew, again, loved that it was close enough for him to touch the glass. There were some HUGE fish that swam in this area and enough light coming in from the outside that you could actually see them pretty clearly.
Andrew rode the orca and didn't want to leave!
He had so much fun that he pretty much fell asleep the moment we put him into the stroller as we left. It worked perfectly as we boarded our Harbor Cruise of the Seattle coastline.
This was seriously the best way to tour the city. On our one hour cruise we were given a tour of the entire coast line while the "tour guide" provided information about the buildings, history, and cool facts about certain things. Andrew slept the first 45 minutes of the tour so we were also able to look and listen while relaxing.
When he woke up, he enjoyed seeing the water outside!
Dinner at Red Robin!
Dave really wanted to see the gum wall (seriously, all that color is people's gum--gross!).
After a long day in Seattle, we walked back to our hotel and headed back to Vancouver. Andrew was not happy about the drive despite all my attempts to entertain him. He cried on and off for the first 2.5 hours of the drive. He finally fell asleep within 30 minutes of "home."
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