The Otters of Extraordinary Circumstances and My Last Few Stops.

After spending Sunday morning at the Church of Seattle Center, I rode my bike over to Pike Place--or, as I should say in out-of-towner-speak, Pike's Place Market (Thanks, Jess). It has always bugged me to overhear Seattleites refer to Pike Place as being 'too touristy.' Sure there are a hell of a lot of tourists there, but this only slightly takes away from its fabulousness--and it's practicality. You really can do some fantastic grocery shopping there, at a reasonably cost. Plus, there are crumpets.


Ate at Emmett Watson's Oyster Bar, 'cause the sign said oysters. Pretty good! My plan was to walk through parts of the market that I had never been through after finishing lunch, but I found myself wandering away from the crowds and back to my bicycle.

I began to slip into post-shellfish food coma on a bench outside of the Aquarium when my dear friend, Kristin, arrived. After a few more moments of that oh-so valuable vitamin D-exposure, we headed inside.


The renovated Aquarium building is beautiful! I have to say it makes the top 5 list of good things about the Seattle Aquarium. Here are the other four, in no particular order.

1. There are tide pools inhabited by invertebrates that you can poke and prod, gently with one finger, of course.

As Kristin mentioned, this was her second exploitation of a living creature. Her first is pictured below:

In all fairness the panda was paid for its services and the anemone does not have a brain. And Kristin is a lovely person!

See? Lovely person! And speaking of otters, these were not your regular otters. No, the Seattle Aquarium otters are OTTERS OF EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES!




There is Annie, an Exxon-Valdese oil spill orphan. And Lootas was injured in a boating accident (not driving), the same boating accident that killed her mother. And some other Otter that I can't remember the name of was found on an airport runway! Seven weeks old, hypothermic.
You get the drift. For leading such harrowing, young lives the otters now appeared to be thriving. Smiling, in fact (which may just be the shape of their faces).



I was making a list, wasn't I? Oh, yeah, good things about the aquarium. Well maybe there are three, not five. They also have a female 'giant' octopus named Buster. She's okay I guess, not as giant as I would have liked. But she's not bad.


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Once we had left the aquarium I was down to only one more tourist stop: The Argosy harbor cruise. I honestly hadn't been looking forward to the harbor cruise, I felt as though I had seen a significant portion of the waterfront already and was afraid I'd be in for an hour-long helping of redundant. But this was the best. The best, by far! The sun sat low in the western sky, Mt. Rainier peaked out above some clouds for the first time in a week. And the information was great, I actually learned quite a bit about the history of the Seattle waterfront (Ask me specifics, I won't recall here). The coolest part was seeing the shipping and receiving yard, the cranes up close - just different views of a familiar landscape:

I love those cranes. After the cruise we checked out Ye Olde Curiousity Shoppe, at the recommendation of the cruise's 'narrator.' Y.O.C.S. = meh.

Sunset was approaching rapidly, luckily I'd become so familiar with the route to and up the space needle that I arrived at the top just in time to see the sun slip behind the Olympics. I grabbed a west-facing table, next to two keenly-coiffed elderly women discussing their most recent travel endeavors ("Three cruises since October is my max."). Ugh, I so agree!

Could not have asked for a better sunset.





While I had learned some valuable lessons over the two days (formulate savings plan for future SUV stroller; tigers fight over food; run to the Space Needle in the event of an earthquake), I was happy to ride back up to the Hill of Anti-Tourism Aspirations (Capitol Hill, that is).

Thank you, Lindsey, Matt, and Tyler for my new appreciation of some things touristy in the city. Thank you, you, for reading this. And please note:

Did not ride duck.

"The only thing I haven't been to in Seattle is that EMP"

This is not a true statement. I have been to the EMP, twice now, and there are a hell of a lot of 'things' I haven't been to in the city. Apparently this isn't the case though for a fellow midday-space-needle-visitor. He has been to EVERYTHING in Seattle! How did I miss the opportunity to stop and talk to him about all the things he's been to? I must have been distracted by the many other wonders of Seattle Center. Here's a list of highlights:

1. One of my favorite streets in Seattle, 5th Ave, looks just as cool from the Space Needle as it is fun to ride down.

2. They sell fudge at the Space Needle called, "Needle-icious Fudge." Our elevator operator tells us that, in case we were wondering, "it does live up to its name." So I dare someone to find out what Needleicious means by trying it.

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3. These little boys throwing rocks down the stairs.

4. These high-powered hand dryers in the EMP bathroom.

5. A steel bicycle 'fixed' by a 300-pound weight on a two-inch-wide circular track 15' above a pool of water at the Science center. = fun.

And Finally...Dinosaurs. Rarrrrrr

Success. Sort of.

The sun sets on my days as a hometown tourist. I've hit all my destinations. I did things I never dreamed of doing (two words: space needle), and yet I haven't documented five-sixths of it! Dave was right, I should've Twittered my way through the mission instead. I am way behind and clearly not cut out for the blogging business (It's really more of a movement right? No one gets paid?)



So Tired. So look for anachronistic snippits of the weekend sometime tomorrow. So I can go ice my knee and watch 'Mad Men' season 2 now. So long.

Woodland Park Zoo: Parenting lessons and informative signs abound

I arrived at the Zoo around 11:30 and met up with Dave, distinguished colleague, friend, and fellow user of the word 'fierce.'

Dave doesn't normally look like that, "it's Snow Leopard Day!" we find out at the ticket counter. Yes, the zoo was unveiling two snow leopard cubs born a few weeks ago, and it was happening in twenty minutes! We get excited and decide to make this our first stop, but when we reach the snow leopards, there is a line that stretches out the exhibit and into a habitat called 'Australasia.' At first I think Australasia is Woodland Park's clever naming of two merged exhibit areas (think Illinois' Fifth-Third Bank), but I just looked it up and it's "a region of Oceania: Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean." A really real place.

Anyway we decided that the line might not be worth it. Instead we settled for petting an adult one...

(It's totally real if you were wondering), as well as a very informative sign that ran through each leopard's stats and bio. As the day went on we found more of these informative signs--some of which I will share. The tigers were nearby, where we found this gem:

There was only one tiger in the exhibit, not two fighting ones. The sign explains that tigers will fight over mates, food, and territory. We found this to be somewhat of an obvious statement. It seemed unlikely that the tigers in the photograph were fighting over a job, health care reform, baseball teams.

I actually like this next one:

The contrast in the Savannah seasons is elegantly demonstrated by two photographs positioned side by side. My zoo companion did not like the sign because it "dichotomized - as we all too often do in our society - one single environment."

Not all of the day's lessons came from signs about animals and their environments. Here are three important things I learned about parenting from the zoo:

1. These plastic figures cost $8 - $10. Play with them in the gift shop and leave them there.

2. Telling your screaming three-year-old, "This isn't working for me, Robyn," will not make her stop screaming.

3. Have you seen these SUV strollers? They are outrageous!

And they were everywhere! Side-by-side, double decker, I think I saw a four-seater. Our amazement with these strollers was shared by one father as he said to his two young daughters, "I have seen some accessories for our stroller today that we don't have!"

I had fun at the zoo. But the best part about it? It's two blocks from Paseo, kickass sandwich shop.

The line outside Paseo stretched halfway down the block around 2:30pm. I reminded Dave that we had just ditched the snow leopards because of a too-long line, to which he replied, "well, you can't eat snow leopards."

Touche, most distinguished colleague, touche.

I'm on staycation!

It's official. I woke up at 8:30 (definitely sleeping in) to this strange, bright light coming from outside my window. I wanted an authentic Seattle vacation, and seeing the sun first thing in the morning is certainly not it. We do get sun here, it just usually takes 'til noon in the summertime for the clouds to burn off a bit.
But believe me, I am not complaining. I looked out my window and was able to see the future so clearly...or what the city of Seattle wanted to present to the world back in 1962 as 'the future.' I suppose it's my future as well since I'll be riding up the thing later today and tomorrow.
Ughh, that's a tad dramatic. See big, white piece of future in photograph to your left.

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I'm having bacon and eggs for breakfast because - according to my mother - that is what you do on vacation.

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The rental car reservation fell through so I will be riding my bike to the first destination: Woodland Park Zoo.

Tentative Schedule

I've come up with a tentative schedule, it's below. If you have any desire to strap on those sandals over socks and hit the path so frequently traveled, let me know. Hell, maybe we can get a whole tour group going for some of these.

Saturday AM
Gonna start off easy and go with the Woodland Park Zoo.

Saturday PM
Pacific Science Center/IMAX movie (?, it's free with the pass)
Space Needle (late, like midnight)

Sunday AM
Back to the Seattle center for...
Experience Music Project (Muppets, people!)
Space Needle (again)

Sunday PM
Seattle Aquarium
Argosy Harbor cruise



Am I missing anything? Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe is something, right?

Hometown Tourist

Inspired by what seems to be a mass-movement out of the city this weekend, I will be 'vacationing' in Seattle on Saturday and Sunday. I have in my possession one 'Seattle City Pass,' courtesy of sponsors, Matthew Sonnenberg, Lindsey Olmon, and Tyler Zimmerman. Reading the City Pass website, I learned some things:

You can place the City Pass near a Christmas tree ornament.

And you can put the City Pass in your pocket.

It also gives you admission to the Seattle Aquarium, the EMP, the Pacific Science Center, the Space Needle (x2), the Zoo, and an Argosy Harbor Cruise (yes!)

I'm going to Julia-Julie my way through Seattle's "top destinations." Yes: two days, six tourist attractions, non-stop fun. I'm getting 'Arrested Development'-Buster-style anxious just thinking about it.

Just one thing:

I will not Ride the Ducks!