Jennifer's West Coast Trip: Seattle, Part 2

We drove back from Vancouver to Seattle the next morning. We got some shots of the border crossing, since we had to wait for a while.

When we got back to Seattle, we did some more sightseeing to get as much value out of our CityPasses as possible. But first, we had to visit a couple of unique landmarks that weren't in downtown Seattle. We found the Fremont Troll, an 18-foot tall concrete sculpture of a troll crushing a VW beetle. It was created in 1990 and situated under a bridge.

The Fremont Troll

Then we walked not too far from there to the Fremont Rocket, a Fairchild C-119 tail boom modified to resemble a rocket.

The Fremont Rocket

We then headed over to the Seattle Aquarium. We touched some sea stars, sea anemones, and sea urchins; saw the feeding of two giant Pacific octopuses (we got photos, but they came out really dark); and saw lots of fish, coral, and other sea creatures, as well as some birds.

Sea urchin

Giant clam

Lionfish

I think this is a Caulastrea species, a large polyp stony coral (whatever it is, it's photogenic!)

Sea otter--so cute!

Harbor seals sunning themselves

We actually walked through Pike Place Market both times we went into town. We saw lots of flowers, seafood, produce, and other items. We bought a couple of huge, very juicy peaches.

My mom would love the huge scallops!

Just across from the market is the original Starbucks store. We happened to be there when the line wasn't super long, so we got a couple of drinks there. Alexis was excited about it!

The original Starbucks store

Alexis happily holding her drink from the original Starbucks

Up next: San Francisco.

Jennifer's West Coast Trip: Vancouver, BC

So, I know I said there would be more from Seattle in this post, but it made more sense to continue in the order the actual events took place, so this post is going to be about our trip to Vancouver, British Columbia instead. We drove up from Seattle, WA for a day (and a night). I tried to get a photo of the Welcome to Canada/British Columbia/Vancouver/You Are Here sign, but there weren't many, and I had put my camera away by the time we saw one. Sigh. Anyway, the mountain views coming into Vancouver were nice.

We decided to check out the Capilano Suspension Bridge, since it seemed to be the most recommended tourist attraction. We got there around lunch time, so we ate at the Bridge House restaurant, just across the street from the bridge park.

Bridge House restaurant near Capilano Suspension Bridge in Vancouver, BC

Alexis had a salmon sandwich with sweet potato fries (they called them "yam fries"), and I had buffalo shepherd's pie with a side salad. She got some good food photos on this trip. We were sitting next to the big front window, so the natural light helped.

Next, we went across the street to the bridge park.

When you first enter the 27-acre park, there is an area called Totem Park, which has several totem poles placed by local First Nations people in the 1930s.

Alexis looking pleased to be at the bottom of the totem pole

The 450-foot-long bridge was originally built 230 feet above the Capilano River in 1889 with hemp rope and cedar planks attached to Douglas-fir trees, but it is now constructed of pre-stressed wire cable attached to 118-ton anchors. Thankfully!

About to get on the bridge!

View from the bridge

Capilano River below the suspension bridge

Once we got to the other side, we went on the Treetops Adventure, which is a series of smaller suspension bridges through part of the rainforest, then we walked around the forest floor for a while.

Jennifer and Alexis somewhere amongst the treetops

View of Capilano Suspension Bridge from the forest floor

We also went on the Cliffwalk, which is a series of bridges and platforms on the face of a granite cliff along the river. It's only been open since June of 2011, so it's fairly new and allows you to see areas of the park you might not be able to see otherwise. And since it apparently didn't look scary enough, they added a glass floor platform.

Cliffwalk

View of the Capilano River from the Cliffwalk

Alexis standing bravely on the glass floor platform (Jennifer did it, too)

Mountain view from the Cliffwalk

We saw mostly trees and ferns, but we did see a few flowers that I had to take photos of as we approached the gift shop.

I almost never say this because I'm not much of a souvenir purchaser, but their gift shop was really nice and had a good variety. I bought Ed a Canadian tea sampler set and some salmon jerky. Oh, and they had lots of really thick fudge in several flavors. We got five pieces (all different flavors), and they were all good--and rich. Five pieces may have been a bit too much for two people, though.




After surviving the suspension bridge experience, we just drove through and walked around downtown Vancouver to check it out.

We liked how you can see the mountains from downtown

Back to Seattle next--for real this time!

Jennifer's West Coast Trip: Seattle, Part 1

I got back from a trip with Alexis last month. We crammed a lot of stuff into about a week, so I thought I'd break it up into several posts like I did for last year's California trip. We spent a few days in Seattle, Washington; took a day trip to Vancouver, British Columbia; and then spent a couple of days in San Francisco, California.

But first: Seattle, Washington. I flew into Seattle direct from Chicago on a Saturday. The weather was great!

We each got a CityPass, since we wanted to see the main attractions. We started at Seattle Center. We saw the International Fountain, which is 10 feet tall by 27 feet wide and shoots water up to 120 feet high.

International Fountain

There were some lovely flower beds in the park as well.

We walked by Chihuly Garden and Glass, which looked interesting, but we didn't actually go in (tickets weren't part of the CityPass). Maybe next time. We thought the huge outdoor glass sculptures were pretty neat.

Outdoor glass sculpture at Chihuly Garden and Glass

Of course, we could see the Space Needle from the park.

Space Needle from below

The first attraction we visited was the Experience Music Project Museum. Some highlights included a guitar gallery, the world's largest indoor video screen, a sculpture made of more than 700 instruments, and a sound lab, where you can play different instruments and sing. We were surprised to find a bunch of horror and sci-fi movie/show artifacts on display as well.

"IF VI WAS IX: Roots and Branches" instrument sculpture

Star Trek's Captain Kirk's chair surrounded by tribbles!

Next, we went on a one-hour Argosy cruise of Seattle Harbor. Our tour guide told us some interesting historical tidbits and had a good sense of humor. Some of the highlights included views of the waterfront, city skyline, and Olympic and Cascade mountains.

Seattle waterfront

Seattle city skyline with Cascade Mountains in the background

View of Olympic mountain range

After the cruise, we went on the Seattle Great Wheel, the ferris wheel shown in the waterfront photo above, which was a pretty new attraction. It wasn't part of the CityPass, but we thought it would be fun. There were some nice views from the wheel. We could even see Mt. Rainier!



Jennifer and Alexis on the Seattle Great Wheel ferris wheel



 

See Mt. Rainier peeking out from the clouds?

View facing west from the ferris wheel

We ended the day by going up to the 360-degree observation deck of the 605-foot tall Space Needle as the sun was setting. This year is the Space Needle's 50th anniversary!

More from Seattle in the next post!