Father’s Day arrived and we felt that justified a return to Portage Bay Cafe for their Father’s Day breakfast. Yesterday’s fantastic breakfast was no fluke; this restaurant is absolutely terrific! After way too much food we headed over to the Seattle Aquarium.
The Seattle Aquarium clearly must have inspired the Ucluelet Aquarium, in BC. The Seattle Aquarium was wonderful. Tidal pools with actual waves; touching pools with sea stars, urchins, hermit crab, fish and more; a truly kid-friendly hands-on learning experience. Our boys found the jellyfish ring, which you could walk through, unbelievably fascinating. They actually got down on the floor to look through the small window to watch the jellyfish float under their feet.
Our eldest is in love with sturgeon fish; who knows why, he’s four! You can imagine his joy at discovering sturgeon swimming around the underwater dome. The 400,000 gallon tank is home to numerous marine life from Puget Sound; the dome is submerged into the middle of that tank. Super cool! However, our favourite experience was the scuba diver in the ocean oddities exhibit. She was doing some maintenance on the coral display. At the end of her work, she brought out food for the fish…they descended upon her. It was amazing to see the different personalities of the fish (a big yellow one was a real bully; the puffer fish seemed very sweet). We watched for easily 20 minutes, which is no small feat with a 2 & 4 year old!
After the Aquarium we took the boys on the carousel on the Seattle boardwalk and then rode the Great Wheel. The Great Wheel is a massive 42 gondola ferris wheel that hangs out, roughly 40 feet, over the edge of Seattle Pier 57. The view was spectacular! I felt badly for the couple who were placed in our gondola; our little guys didn’t stop talking the entire time.
We finished our Seattle trip with lunch at Take 5 Urban Market. Oh my heavens, the ruben sandwich was out of this world. It was so good we ordered a 2nd one to eat later in the car! The boys split a grilled cheese sandwich with a side mushroom/chicken-heavenly soup. Positively delightful and is definitely on our “most go again” list.
We had a terrific time on our Father’s Day weekend trip to Seattle. Days 1, 2 & 3 were jammed packed and heaps of fun! We are already looking forward to returning again soon. Curse? What Curse!
