Seattle Vacation Recap: Days 1 & 2

In an effort to make these posts and pictures more user-friendly, I'm going to break the vacation down by day. Seems to make the most sense and will avoid a massive amount of photos to sort through in any one given post.

The first day, we arrived a little late due to plane issues in Boise. We ended up in Seattle about two hours later than originally planned.  We checked into our hotel, which was just awesome!  We ended up with a corner room, which provided excellent views of the city for us!  We stayed at the Paramount - if you ever go to Seattle, stay there!  The staff was amazing and the room was wonderful. The location was totally prime - we walked to everything!  It's right in the middle of the shopping district, so we never lacked for things to do or places to eat.

Once we checked in, we ventured out to explore what was around us. We ended up walking through quite a bit of the shopping area, stopping at several places to browse.  We ended up eating at P.F. Changs. I know, we should have gone to a place that wasn't available in Boise as well, but I have never eaten at P.F. Changs, so this was a perfect opportunity to do so!  The dinner was fantastic, though the service wasn't the best (as was reflected in my tip). 

Across the block from us was the Paramount Theater. There was a showing one of the nights, so the sign was all lit up and there was a line clear down the street.  Pretty cool! 

Stopping to chat with the kids.

On our walk to the Space Needle, EMP, and Pacific Science Center.

The Space Needle:

We went to the observation deck, where we had pretty decent views of the city.  It was fairly cloudy that day, so we couldn't see too far, and Mt. Ranier was hidden.

You can see the stadiums over yonder.

We spotted the huge mansion from our walk, so we asked the guide if it was truly a mansion. It is not. It started out as a school and has since been converted to apartments. Such a waste - I sure wouldn't mind a mansion like that!

Once we were done at the Space Needle, we walked next door to the EMP.

Eric was in heaven with the guitar tower.

One of the main exhibits, which is going away next year, was all about Nirvana. Nirvana was HUGE for our generation, so we spent quite a bit of time exploring this exhibit.

Eric rocking out.

Kurt was never known for being particularly nice to his guitars.

In the "history of guitars" exhibit, they had some really old, awesome guitars. This was the first one ever patented.

This 1962 Gibson SG Standard is one of Eric's favorite guitars.

One thing I learned about Hendrix is that he taught himself to play the guitar backwards (upside-down) because he couldn't afford a lefty guitar.

One of the other exhibits we explored thoroughly was Avatar. This was absolutely incredible. There were several videos that explained the "making of", with lots of commentary from James Cameron and other technical geniuses.

Life-size Avatar boots

We also went into the sci-fi movie section and found this little critter. Brought back memories!

After the EMP, we walked over to the Pacific Science Center.  This actually fell quite flat compared to our expectations. I guess I'm not sure what we were expecting - a full blown museum? Something bigger and better than the Discovery Center here in Boise.

However, the butterfly house was pretty cool.

 After we finished at the Pacific Science Center, we wandered the streets, just exploring. We came upon a really cool skate park and watched skateboarders for a little while. We also found this really cool fountain. It was huge! My kids would have loved this.

 We eventually went back to the hotel to relax for a few hours before dinner. We ended up eating at a sports bar/grill while watching the game. Red Sox blasted 3 HRs and beat the Mariners.

 After dinner (which we had with Eric's aunt, who lives in Bremerton), we all went back to the Pacific Science Center for their laser show. It was set to music by Pink Floyd....I'm not a fan, and most of the circle laser stuff was making me sick, so I actually fell asleep. This was our view when we left the Pacific Science Center.

And this:

We actually went back to the top of the Space Needle since our City Pass allowed for two visits within 24 hours. I have a stellar shot from the top that I will spend quite a bit of time editing - it will be blown up and framed in my house. I will share that picture when I'm done recapping the trip.  :)

Stay tuned for day three!