Train to Seattle! (Part 1) - Nov. 10, 2012

Today we took the Train to Seattle!!!
Brian & I had talked about how we wanted to take our kids on a train and how it would be a good idea to do next time we had a visitor in town.  Enter a Visitor - My dad!  Yeah, we are going to Seattle by Train!!!

We woke up early Saturday morning and got on the 8:30am train headed to Seattle.  We rode on a double decker train (which Tes called the "Gordon" train since it was big)!  We sat on the top!  The day was clear and sunny!  Great for us since we were able to drive along the sound the entire way there.  We had great views!  and it was fun to see some of the parks and beaches that we like to go play at.  We were pretty much glued to the windows the entire trip south.

Once we arrived in Seattle we were on foot for the day since our return train ride didn't leave until 6pm that evening.  With the help of "yelp" on my smart phone we navigated to some places of interest in Pioneer Square.  This is a part of Seattle that we have never explored before.  It was fun!  First stop was the "Klondike Gold Rush Museum."  It was free! and warm inside!  and right around the corner from the train station!  It was also located in a very old building called the "Hotel Cadillac!"  I enjoy museums and history.  However, with kids it is quite difficult to read any of the signs.  But it was fun walking around and seeing all the gold mining stuff and talking about the old Seattle and Alaska!  Since that is where these Klondike gold miners were headed was from Seattle to Alaska to find gold! 

We left the museum and headed to a Waterfall Garden!  It was a quiet little place with tables and chairs, lots of plants, and of course a waterfall, right there in the city.  After that we walked across the street to "Occidental Square" where we found this cool statue of firemen!  It was a beautiful square.  However, there were a lot of homeless people and a lot of birds everywhere. (Bri, don't go there).  We then went to a diner called "Planet Java" for lunch.  It was a fun atmosphere, not the best food, just normal diner food.  The bathrooms were weird in that they had a box of chalk that you could use to draw all over the walls.  However, everyone else had already written all over EVERYTHING with the chalk, so basically it was pretty gross, but Dalia thought it was cool.


We continted walking the streets of Seattle exploring weird statues and climbing stairs we hadn't climbed before.  We made it "Gum Wall" where we all added a piece of gum to the wall.  We walked through the market and on to the "Seattle Aquarium!" (Check out the next post for Aquarium Highlights!!)  After the aquarium we walked down the waterfront, admired the Great Wheel (Seattle's new Ferris Wheel that i will ride some day!  Maybe the next time we have a visitor?!?)  What trip to the waterfront would be complete without a ride on the Carousel!?  So of course the kids & Brian rode the carousel.  However, their prices went up a pit and there was A LOT more people there then i have ever seen before.  It is all because of the Great Wheel, since it is right outside of the carousel building.
After the carousel we began our walk back to the train station.  On our way we stopped at "Jimmy Johns Subs" for dinner.  Then we realized that it was about time for our train to depart.  So we had to run the rest of the way to the train.  We made it and the train departed about 5 mins. after we got there.  This time it was a smaller train with one one deck, Tes called this the "Thomas" train since it was smaller.  And it was dark outside, so even though we rode along the sound again we couldn't see anything. 

Overall, I think it was a perfect day in Seattle!  I couldn't have asked for better (well except maybe for it to be a little warmer.  But it was a beautiful Sunny day so i really don't want to complain.)  I am glad that we took the train!  Thanks dad for coming!