We had grand plans this morning and it ended up being a bit of a disaster morning... One of our biggest plans on this trip was to get Chick-fil-a since there are definitely none of those in Alaska. I knew they would be closed tomorrow (Sunday!), so we had to go today. We found the nearest one (15 miles away) and headed out in time to grab breakfast before our first planned activity.
Imagine my disappointment when it was closed for the fourth of July holiday. Thomas didn't care, but he kept asking "Why is momma sad??" Because I really, really wanted Chick-fil-a! I decided to head to Pike Place market instead. It was pretty early and one of our friends who had been there recently said not much was open before 9, but I figured we could find something to eat.
Except it was filled with people! And google directions guided us right to the main strip where everyone was just meandering in the road. I didn't think we would ever get through the street, much less find somewhere to eat in time. So we left there just as disappointed. I gave up on an exciting breakfast and decided to settle for any breakfast!
We parked at the same parking garage as yesterday and I looked up what was nearby. A generic coffee shop? Perfect! As we were getting out of the car I realized that the bag of swimsuits and towels I had packed up this morning didn't make it in the car. Are you kidding me?!?
Sigh...
At least I got my coffee. And Thomas ate like 3 bites of bagel, which was no less than anywhere we have eaten (except the donut!). At least we had enough time to get to the first activity:
The Duck Boat! This was the only thing I booked in advance. Good thing too - I heard them telling people that most of the tours today were sold out. Go me! Thomas has been talking about the duck tours since I mentioned them a few weeks ago. He had no idea what it even was, but he kept telling everyone who would listen about his duck boat trip!
For those of you that don't know, Ducks were originally DUKW and were used in WWII for transport. They are amphibious vehicles that drive on land and then seamlessly cruise right into the water. So fun!
I decided to be a good mom and add on the duck quacker to Thomas' ticket. I figured I might regret that later, but he loved it so much. He was quacking in line and he was so exuberant, his whole little body was shaking with the effort. The people in line behind us were just as amused about his quacking as I was - it was pretty adorable!
The duck tours are pretty popular, it's almost like riding a parade float through town. The driver would point out large groups of people and instruct us to "Quack Attack!" them. Thomas was great at quacking and waving at everyone. He was a champ!
Until he wasn't. At some point I looked over and realized he had taken his quacker off and was no longer smiling... What happened?!? Then I remembered the tiny amount of food he had for breakfast and offered him a snack hoping that would help remedy the sudden funk.
Whew - it worked! That and the fact that we headed into Lake Union. He was super excited to suddenly be in the water. I pulled him into my lap so he had an even better view of all of the boats!
Look at all of the floating houses on the lake! The tour guide (who was super informative!) told us that some of the houses have portholes on the bottom floor to watch the fish swim by. How awesome is that? Supposedly the house on the far right with the flag on it is Drew Carey's house. That's our only brush with fame on this trip...
I thought these were more floating houses, but no - these are house boats! They look like houses, but they are boats! You can motor around with your whole house anywhere you want! I was convinced that this is our future retirement house until I remembered the whole seasickness thing... "/
Oh and that large boat on the right came down for repairs from the Bering Sea. Lake Union is a freshwater lake that is connected out to the sea by a series of locks. That makes it super popular for repairs because there is no worry about corrosion in the fresh water. There were repair docks everywhere. And according to the tour guide, the boats from Deadliest Catch come down here for repairs as well. Yay for an Alaskan connection!
Not a bad view of downtown from the water! Since it was the fourth of July, Seattle had grand plans for an awesome fireworks show from Lake Union. You can see the barge on the left side of the photo - that's where the fireworks are coming from! After all the duck tours, obviously...
After the duck boat, we headed over to go up the Space Needle. He was super excited about going up the tower - and a bit impatient at the fact we still had to stand in line to wait for the elevators. The excitement went away as soon as we walked out of the observation deck - "I want to go back down!" Maybe it was because the observation deck wasn't designed for short people? I picked him up to show him the sights and he still wasn't interested.
To be fair, I was getting hungry, so I assumed he was as well - hungry is usually a mood dampener for both of us. Debating on nearby options, I decided we might as well just eat at the restaurant at the top of the needle so I could enjoy the sights for longer than 2 minutes. Plus getting one fancy meal in during this trip was an added plus!
We ended up on the second row facing the windows - which was perfect when your little guy just wants to play his word game and you want to enjoy the view. The restaurant has a 360 degree view and does a full revolution every hour. We ended up seeing Mount Rainier twice, so you can tell that their brunch service wasn't the quickest (and why the word game got deployed!).
Mount Rainier! I know Denali is bigger, but the fact that Mount Rainier is all alone in the horizon makes it look pretty darn awesome. Plus it's volcanic, so that always adds a little more magic, right? (At least to a geologist!)
On a related note, it was super hazy - the new Lightroom version has a new de-hazing tool that looks like it is amazing on the demo video. As much haze as I have to try and edit out (with lackluster results), I might be upgrading when it comes out. Sorry Matt! ;)
Aerial view of Lake Union - you can see the barge ready for the fireworks show! You can also see the orange buoys making sure none of the boats anchor close by. There were so many boats hanging out waiting for the fireworks. I don't blame them - I've seen one fireworks show that way and it was pretty awesome! If you squint really hard you can see the duck boats in the far background. I'm kidding - there is no way you can tell which ones are the duck boats - but they are there, I promise!
The had a few special things for small children at the brunch - including these sticky notes that they could write on and then stick to the windows for other people to see. This festive one was my favorite! We weren't close enough to the windows to contribute anything, but that's ok since all Thomas did was scratch a line on one and throw it on the floor. At least some kids found it fun!
Thomas blowing his duck quacker for a photo - you can see he's still pretty into it. I made him quack it super softly while we were waiting for the elevator at the space needle, but I promised hi mhe could go crazy when we got back outside. He didn't forget!
After lunch, we headed back to the car with the hopes of getting a real nap in today. (I avoided walking by the awesome fountain since I forgot the swimsuits...) He was definitely getting tired and being a bit of a handful. You can see here how happy he is - because I was trying to get a photo of him and he kept running away from the camera - ha! Also see his cool space needle lunchbox - complimentary with the $20 kids meal. ;)
After nap time (I slept even if he didn't), we headed out to find another water park that was close by. He was pretty excited when we got there, but suddenly got unsure about the whole situation when I told him to go play. In his defense, there were a ton of kids there - some of which were pretty rowdy...
He finally wandered in close enough to touch some of the water squirting out. I think he got his hand and foot wet before veering off to the other side of the splash pad. After watching the other kids for a while, he ran back over to me. When asked if he liked the water, he deemed it "too cold!" I walked over to try to convince him it was fine, but it was pretty chilly. He requested to change back in to his normal clothes and go play at the playground next to the water park. Ok!
This was much more his style. Plus so many cool new bouncy toys!
He needed help getting on this one, but loved hanging on while I bounced it around. It was like a kid friendly bull ride if you got it going strong enough. ;)
He then proceeded to slide down the slide for about 20 minutes before deciding he was done. He was upset about the wood chips in his shoes and I didn't think to bring his normal sneakers. I thought I was being so smart bringing the crocs he uses for water play at school. You win some, you lose some... Oh well!
We headed back to the house and decided to play with Henry's water table out back before dinner. This photo is pretty descriptive of Thomas - he is more interested in trying to clean the table than playing with the toys. And he is still wearing those crocs. I love the utility, but I think crocs look so silly. Especially with those shorts. Good thing he's not a fashionista! ;)
Somehow I forgot the downstairs playroom Justin showed me on the tour of the house the first day! I finally remembered it before dinner and Thomas got sooooooo excited when he saw all of the toys! He hung out down there with Bailey while I made dinner and then we all hung out down there after his bath. Bailey is not a fan of fireworks, so she was hiding down there as soon as the neighbor's shot one off. But I think having us down there with her helped, she would occassionally come out and get loved on before retreating back to the laundry room again.
Finally, I made Thomas put all the toys back and head off to bed. He swore up and down he wasn't tired, but fell asleep as soon as we got in bed. It was a fun filled day and I think I wore him out. He's had tons of fun, but he is certainly ready to head back home. I think he misses his dada - and he even mentioned seeing Henry tomorrow, so apparently he misses his little brother too!
As for me, I think it was a fun weekend! I think I may have overestimated how many activities he can handle in one day, so there were a few moments where I started to lose him... Not good! But overall, I had a blast hanging out with him and exploring the city. The traveling part was actually pretty easy, minus when he would get tired of walking and demand to be carried (not always possible!). I might regret these words, but I think the Texas trip with the two of them might be doable! ;)