THE START...

Well, this was a first ride in an airplane for the 3 little ones. They were all so good and Owen loved the "BLAST OF". It was an early rise for little Lala (Lauren) so she took a nap for about an hour. The trip to Seattle was about 2 hours long. Each seat had a little tv screen in front of it so our special Ryan was thrilled to watch cartoons! I was just so excited to see the excitement on the little ones faces and I was 2 rows back so I had to hand the camera to my son to take a few shots! The plane trip was very bumpy so we had to stay buckled into our seats the whole way!
I can't believe I didn't take pics of all the luggage! It was hilarious to say the least. Camille was prepared and had special straps to keep track of the children. Ryan has a tendancy to just run off so this worked well.

Seattle was a fun place to visit. Huhoney and I went there for our 20th anniversary. We left the airport and went to our downtown hotel which was walking distance (downhill) to the waterfront and all the shops.
They were crazy and a lot of fun to visit. Wall to wall people on a Friday afternoon. I could not get over the price of the bouquet of flowers in the flower shops that lined one side of the outside mall....
$15 for a HUGE fresh cut bouquet and $10 for a HUGE bouquet. If I were living there I would be makeing a stop once a week maybe twice a week for a beautiful arrangement! Of couse school is out and everyone is on vacation! There is such an abundance of colorful shops and people to boot! The fish shops were amazing and our mouths started to water just thinking of what we could eat for lunch or ship home!

There is a certain energy that this city has that you feel in your bones. Excitement and hustle-bustle. You really have to like it to enjoy it. Not everyone is cut out for it!

Believe me the 3 $10 strollers Mike ran to Wal-mart for the night before the trip got used to death. The rubber on the tires on this trip actually got worn down! LOL. We had 2 days in Seattle to see sights and enjoy it's old town flare so we ran, ran, ran, and dropped in the evening.

The Seattle Aquarium was a great place to visit. The children had a great time and loved all the fish. It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon for a couple of hours.


My feet and legs were longing for a hot bath after a day of walking and walking and there was NO way I was going to walk UP HILL 6 plus blocks to our hotel......get me on the local transit PLEEZE. Oh...Ryan was obsessed with the escalator. If that is where we spent the next 10 days, he would have been a happy camper. Everyone took turns going up and down the hotel escalator with him. Probably.....100 times.....(not kidding folks!)

The next day to underground city of Seattle was NOT a fun place for the little ones. It was boreing. Very interesting for the big people but not for the little ones. Off to the Aerospace Museum.

It was amazing and we didn't even get through the whole thing even after almost 3 hours! After the adventure there we took the transit downtown and transfered to another transit (underground) the kids loved it.. downtown, to the city and the Space Needle. Twenty years ago, the Space Needle http://www.viamagazine.com/weekenders/space_needle06.asp was surrounded by a beautiful park where you could just walk and relax. Now it is an amusement park where you can't walk and relax. Just spend a lot of money! Mike took the trip to the top of the Needle and loved it. Camille isn't much on heights so she opted to stay below and just watch what was going on around us. She is more into shopping. hehehehe here are a few extra pics of Seattle's visit.

Lauren had just about enough fun for one day!


Above city tram ride to and from the Sky Needle to the center of town

Well this pretty much made my day! Apples dipped in carmel covered with chocolate and drizzled with white chocolate! 10 lbs right there on the ole hips!

Well that pretty much took up our weekend in Seattle. The next day was boarding the Norweigen Pearl to Alaska........(tomorrow)