The train trip to Seattle was AMAZING! As we pulled in to the train station in the city early in the morning we instantly spotted the city's most famous landmark - the Space Needle.
The Needle is in the center of a park with a small-town-county-fair type of atmosphere. There's a carousel and food vendors and plenty of street musicians and performers. I think this photo best represents the weather during our stay in Seattle - blue skies and warm sun with not a drop of rain!
Walking is the best way to see Seattle. We marveled at how CLEAN everything was, with recycling bins and trash cans everywhere and people USED THEM! We walked everywhere - only took the city metro when it was absolutely necessary but their public transport system is awesome too. I can't stress enough how great this city is!
The building in the background is the EMP (Experience Music Project). It houses the largest collection of Jimmy Hendrix memorabilia, since he was from Seattle, and the building was designed to look like one of his smashed guitars.

We spent hours in the Seattle Aquarium! Right on the water - literally, it is built on Pier 59 - the exhibits are so interactive and colorful. Live demonstrations with harbor seals and a fish hatchery made it a truly Seattle experience!

One of our favorite stops was Pike Place Market. Just a few flights of stairs from the piers it borders the water and is full of incredible food, flowers, seafood and little shops - bliss! Hubby & I took a food tour and this held a few of our stops including a Swedish bakery, Ethiopian restaurant and an English tea house that sold fresh baked crumpets. We found a way to stop by the Market every day we were in Seattle - THAT'S how great it is!
Another MUST was to take the Duck tour of the city. Poppie bought everyone 'quacker' whistles...just imagine the most obnoxious duck call you've ever heard and THAT is what these sounded like!
I would recommend the Duck tour to anyone visiting the city! The vehicle alone is cool to ride in by the behind-the-scenes things that you learn about the city and get to see are amazing. The tour was over an hour long and YES, we got to drive right into the water!
Seattle is like the San Francisco of the northwest! The steep roads and sidewalks and all the stairs going to and from the piers...it's a workout! The picture above shows us leaving the Market to head to one of the piers and the kids counted the steps one day - over 65 stairs!
Take a close look at the photo above.
Look closer - see anything interesting?
The wall is covered in gum! It's the Gum Wall!
It's in a small alley at the entrance to a small live theatre. Story goes that while people would wait in line for tickets they would stick their gum to the wall - it became a theatre tradition and people started pressing pennies into their gum and sticking it to the wall for "good luck".

Our guide encouraged us to add to the wall if we wanted to (here is Doug contributing to the wall). The city passed an ordinance a few years ago actually allowing and protecting this off-the-beaten-path landmark.
Kinda gross - kinda cool. The kids couldn't believe it and we're glad we took the time to find it!
At the EMP they had a Muppets display going on! We got to see (in glass cases of course) the original puppets of Bert & Ernie, Fraggle Rock, the original Kermit. Did you know his eyes were really made from a ping pong ball cut in half? True.
In the exhibit there was a hands-on part where you could work a puppet for a live camera and experience puppeteering just like they do on the Muppets and Sesame Street. Trevor and Mamie tried it a couple of times and said it was much harder than it looked! If you want to find out if this traveling exhibit is coming to a venue near you click here!
Ever seen a fish hatchery or a salmon ladder? We did!
Who would have guessed that you have to go to Seattle to order the biggest meatball ever?!
Such great restaurants - so much variety and obviously the freshest seafood ever!
This pig was a sculpture in our hotel lobby. Seattle has pigs everywhere.
It's all because of one pig named Rachel - she's the world's largest piggy bank and she sits at the Pike Place Market. Each year she collects more than $11,000 in change and it all goes to fund a local health care clinic for the homeless in the city.
Who knew that men in orange slickers throwing smelly dead fish around could be so interesting!
The flowers in the Market were breathtaking! Everywhere you turned there was another flower vendor with MORE amazing flowers and even LOWER prices! If I lived in Seattle I'd come here every day for fresh flowers!
On our Duck tour we splashed into Lake Union (a nice sized lake in the center of the city) right near our hotel. While we were floating around our driver pointed this house out to us...do you recognize it?
It's THE house used in the movie 'Sleepless In Seattle'!
And guess what? I'd been running by it every morning and didn't even know it!
My morning run every day took me over this neat little drawbridge. Two different days I actually had to stop and wait for the bridge to go back down - it's a busy boat area.
My run always lead me to this statue.
On the same block as the headquarters of Getty Images (for all you digital art geeks out here - like my husband) this statue stands and is outfitted daily by the residents of Seattle. You never know what they people will be wearing from one day to the next. And the dog in the middle....well, he has the face of a local politician that the sculptor didn't like.
Don't get me started on the sculpture and art found in this great city.....