Around Seattle: Seattle Aquarium

Several weeks ago now my friend and I went to the Seattle aquarium after church one day. It was perfect because on Sundays it is free to park on the streets downtown, so we were able to drive right up to the aquarium and practically park outside for freee!! I had not intended on going to the aquarium, let's just say that on my Seattle-to-do list of over 70 items, the aquarium did not feature at all. However, I had a coupon, and my friend suggested we go, so I did, and I am so glad I did!

The aquarium was so much more amazing than I thought it would be! It was not huge, but there was so much to see - so many interesting things!  There was a whole room of touch pools where you could really look at the different creatures and feel their skin, the tug of their little tentacles - awesome!

and so many colours!

amazing jellyfish tank

I'd like to be, under the sea, in an Octopus' garden in the shade

One thing that I did learn was about shark's teeth - I knew they had extra teeth that grew, and I knew they had rows of teeth in their mouth, but I did not know that they had so many rows of pre-grown teeth, tucked away in their jaws just waiting to pop up in the place of a broken tooth! They have so many hidden teeth, all ready to burst forth, just like those 'traffic spikes' that pop up and slash your tires if you drive on them the wrong direction. Nature is fascinating!

can you see the rows and rows tucked away in what would be the jaw?

I was also blown away by the range of different species of fish they had at the aquarium, the most beautiful fish I've ever seen, and such unusual colours and patterns!

all the colours of the rainbow

feather pen plants

haha classic NZ whale rider

I was so unexpectedly thrilled by the Seattle aquarium, I had a really great day and even better, I learned something too! After the aquarium we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant in Ballard and I had an eggplant pasta dish - my favourite!! Anything with eggplant in it and I am the happiest girl in the world!

Around Seattle: Bainbridge Island Lunch

One spontaneous day after church, my au pair friend Melissa and I took the ferry to Bainbridge Island for lunch. The weather was actually really good that day, which always helps! It is a 35 min ride to Bainbridge Island, something I have been wanting to do for a long time!

The downtown area of Bainbridge Island was quaint and oozing with charm. Little boutique shops, colours, cafes etc. We did not have time to explore all of the downtown area (despite how compact and small it was) but we had a lovely time strolling the street. Later, we used a coupon I had for 50% off a pizza and we sat at  a lovely little eating area and chatted while we enjoyed our pizza!

It was a very short outing because I had to work that afternoon/evening but we were able to have a really wonderful time anyway!

Around Seattle: Space Needle $1 Day!

I have always wanted to go up the Space Needle - the famous silhouette on Seattle's skyline, but it was always going to be too expensive for me, so I relegated it to the back of my mind. Then, I found out online that there was going to be a special day to celebrate 50 years since the World Fair was held in Seattle, and since the Space Needle was built for the World Fair, they were going to roll back the price to the original entry price back in 1962, which was $1!!!!! So, all day one Sunday it was only $1 to go up the Space Needle! 

I was determined to go, although I figured that the crowds would be huge! We rounded up a group of people from church who wanted to go and we all set off to get our $1 tickets. When we got there I was shocked because the line was actually very short and reasonable! I could not believe it!! I thought every man and his dog would be lined up, but it seemed that people just did not know about it! (Mind you, I had only found out about it because I am a super sleuth bargain hunter searching the web haha). So, I got my ticket, and believe it or not, the weather was beautiful and sunny and we were able to see for miles!

$1!!!!!!! Yes Please!

Sunny day in Seattle! 

Church friends

with the gals 

When we came down the clouds began rolling in and the weather changed, we were so lucky to get there when we had!

Later, I went downtown to the waterfront to run and errand. The sea and the sky were looking amazing!

Stormy dramatic clouds!

beautiful interesting skies

Halloweeeeeeen

Halloween in the States has been something I was so curious to experience. It is quite different to what we are told in New Zealand - over here it is not all about dressing up in scary costumes, it's more just a costume day - you can dress up as anything!!! Of course there are 'scary' things like haunted houses you can pay to enter ($18? to scare me? no thank you!). In fact, even many of the decorations are more the 'fall/harvest' theme rather than being spooky - for instance, there would be straw and pumpkins and leaves etc. This was so interesting to me because I thought it would all be scary - which I don't like anyway.

So it was great, I decided to dress up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, I bought a cheap second hand dress and a piece of fabric which I cut into an apron. I got a cute pair of 'ruby slippers' and ribbons for my hair. All in all I think I spent $10 to buy everything - I love how cheap you can find things over here!!

The twins were the most adorable pirates, Kianna was a 50's poodle girl, Luca was a weird wizard, Maxime was a 'cereal' killer - covered in cereal boxes, and Vanessa my host mum was 'Pinkalicious' dressed all in pink. On halloween night we took our buckets and went to houses down our street to trick-or-treat. They have huge bowls of candy and you just take one and stash it into your bucket, the 'trick or treat' is mere formality. Really, what they should say is "Gimme the candy, Lady!". hahah!

One house we went to was incredible, the woman just loved halloween and would buy things for it all year long, so when we went there she had a huge bowl of candy which we took from, then she came out with another huge bowl of different candy! We took from that bowl, then she brings out ANOTHER bowl!!! It went on and on until, NO JOKE, she had brought out 12 bowls of things, some were chips, some popcorn, cookies, hot chocolate sachets, oatmeal sachets - it was crazy! I only trick or treated at 4 houses and this was my candy stash at the end of it:

The week before halloween, the older boys and the host dad had set up a haunted house in our basement for the neighbourhood kids to come to, so I was assigned a role and one Friday night we had all the neighbourhood kids and their parents over and they came through the haunted house in small groups for us to scare! Haha. It was a neat set up, they worked so hard to prepare it, there were spooky sounds, bones and skulls around the place, and the boys would leap out and scare people. My role was as a crazy doctor - I had a whole operating room complete with body parts and fake blood (read: fake blood, EVERYWHERE!!) and on my operating table was the boys' friend and neighbour who was my victim, I had a huge electric saw set up (with blade removed) and he had his leg in in so that when people would come into my operating room I would fire up the saw and cut off his leg! He would scream and cry and I would laugh a scary laugh! It was great fun! I loved it! Although by the end of it me and my poor victim were so sticky from the fake blood and so tired of screaming and crying that we just could not wait to have a shower!

Around Seattle: Park Visits Lately

Discovery Park

Discovery Park

Discovery Park Lighthouse

Discovery Park

Discovery Park Lighthouse

Discovery Park Lighthouse

Discovery Park

Richmond Beach Park

Greenlake

Greenlake

Greenlake

Greenlake

Mercer Slough Nature Park

Mercer Slough Nature Park

Mercer Slough Nature Park

Mercer Slough Nature Park