Seattle, Washington
Trip Start
Mar 26, 2008
1
20
60
Trip End
Dec 07, 2008
Seattle,
Washington,
United States
Sunday, June 1, 2008
This is the first time on our trip we are staying in the home of someone who has already stayed with us. We enjoyed time with Kristi and Mike and their two kids Dylan and Elliot when they stopped of with us on their mammoth year long world trip. The kids were disappointed that we weren't going to catch up with them as they are still travelling, but were thrilled when they walked in to a warm (it is unseasonably cool here) and kid-centered home. There were tons of games and toys, a pool and all the fun they could have wanted. We relaxed this afternoon with plans to go out the next day.
That plan was short lived. Zack didn't even get out of his pyjamas until 3pm, when Chris and he made a trip to some local shops and the girls still refused to leave the house
Road to Seattle
. It is a beautiful spot, overlooking the water and surrounded by astoundingly friendly neighbours. I met Lou, their next door neighbour and he was really helpful. We were even able to book their daughter Claire in to do babysitting for us one night. (thought we had best keep it legal) We headed for a drive South the next day and drove by Olympia, the capital of Washington, a really charming city with a lot of charm. We did some shopping at some outlet stores and picked up some necessary clothing etc before heading back and checking out the water park on the way back for another day. Most of the evenings we enjoyed eating at home, having the facilities and time to cook for ourselves.
We also went one day to the Museum of Flight and saw some great displays on the history of flight with exact replicas of many of the original flying machines. Also some fascinating displays about the space missions and we were able to walk through an Airforce One plane from many years ago as well as a Concorde. Chris and the kids had a run in the flight simulators and judging from the screams inside their flying skills hadn't improved any from San Diego, but they had a blast.
That evening Claire babysat and Chris and I enjoyed some treasured time out, dining at a local very casual but nice restaurant and then seeing the movie Sex in the City
Seattle
. Not being followers of the program some of the humour was missed by us, but we enjoyed it as some light comedy alone and what a treat for Chris to be pretty much the only male in the theatre!The next day was rainy when we woke up, but determined to get to the waterpark, the kids took Chris off in the morning after some school work. Much to the disgust of the kids we had managed to do a couple of hours each morning since we had been here. They arrived to see loads of buses unloading hundreds and hundreds of kids, apparently this was opening day and there were huge specials, but it was also icy(12-14 degrees celsius) Chris made an executive decision to get tickets, but to go off and warm up for a while and hope the numbers died down and that is exactly what they did. Off to a starbucks for hot chocolates and then back to enjoy some amazing water slides at a bargain price as it was opening day specials. Everyone arrived home frozen and tired but exhilarated to say the least!
The next day it was pretty wet, the girls enjoyed a dip in the pool at home in the morning and we looked at our list of things we still hadn't seen, looked at the weather and voted movie. We went to see Don't mess with the Zohan. Cassandra put it well, it was funny but very rude
View from Kristi and Mike's house
. Not really an ideal level of humour for an 8 year old. A little bit like an American Borat kind of. We didn't do many recommended activities in Seattle, but we enjoyed a lot of aimless wondering through the backstreets. Such a beautiful city, and we were privileged to be staying in an amazing spot above the water with an enchanting view day and night. We had another homecooked meal for dinner and had enjoyed spending most of our meals at home, before getting packed up to head for Vancouver the next morning. 
