And the sea is just a wetter version of the sky...

Activities were at a lull around the Sampson household lately. It's been two-plus weeks of a smoky haze filling the air, as Washington battles extremely dry weather resulting some large forest fires burning around us - nowhere near us thankfully, but close enough for the smoke to settle in, making the town smell like a campfire for days on end, causing soccer and recess cancellations.  Which is why we jumped at the chance to take a weekend trip when Joe had a WSU pre-game event to attend in downtown Seattle.

We drove out of town Friday afternoon, straight west across the state. I now understand why people refer to where they are from in Washington as "east side" or "west side" - because there's not much in the middle of the state.

 Maggie & I had just spent the day on a field trip at Kamiak Butte, learning all about state geography & geology, so it was interesting to see some of the landforms we had talked about. My favorite was the classes' re-enactment of the Pangaea splitup, using kids as the various landforms, the ice floes, etc.

"Look kids, there's the Space needle!"

We arrived into Seattle just in time to hit some evening traffic, and find our hotel in the dark. We knew our hotel was right near the Space Needle, but kept driving in circles around it for a long time before we figured out which 5th avenue it was. Very frustrating at the time, but I couldn't help but laugh thinking it was very European Vacation-like, "Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament...Look kids, Big Ben..."  Aagggh!

We ended up in a great location to explore the city in one full day. We walked around the Seattle Center first thing in the morning (Space needle, EMP, Chihuly's Garden) and then took the monorail into downtown.

Feeling it was my duty, I visited no fewer than 3 coffee shops throughout the day, including a tiny  gluten free bakery I sought out among the stalls of Pike Place market, and basically bought one of everything. (The madelines were divine!) I also popped into the giant Starbucks across the street from the main market entrance, thinking it might be their original location (wrong) but because of the ridiculous line, I headed across the street to Seattle Coffee Works, and it was a far better choice.

Some of the sites/places we visited throughout the day:

• Space Needle & Seattle Center
• Pike Place Market
• The Waterfront
• Pioneer Square area
• Waterfall garden
• Klondike Gold Rush National Park
• Olympic Sculpture Park
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Waterfall garden, Pioneer square

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation visitor center

Olympic Sculpture Garden

Whew! The kids were great travelers, walking and walking. Andrew loved the monorail, but it's a short trip, so we rode it back-and-forth a few times.

The weather was perfect, sunny and not a drop of rain (I was kind of hoping for some.)







Next blog post: Apple-picking, and bears, oh my!