Waking up to the tranquility of the sun’s rays reflecting onto Lake Sammamish was a precursor for the many spectacular sights we would encounter today.
We got to the Seattle Center at 9am. This is an area of Seattle with museums, entertainment and the iconic Space Needle. We arrived early enough that there were plenty of spots in a parking lot right at the center. City parking with the truck is not always this easy because even unhitched the truck is very wide, long and tall and very rarely can clear an indoor parking garage.
Our first destination was Chihuly Garden and Glass. We all just saw the Bellagio lobby ceiling filled with his work and Adam and I have seen his pieces at the Borgata in New Jersey. The museum consisted of 8 galleries each with a specific theme. The huge glass displays were jaw dropping to say the least.
Slideshow of pictures from the museum
Wandering around outside in the gardens we found an incredible mixture of beautiful plants and flowers integrated with Chihuly's glass art and the space needle in the background.
Slideshow of pictures from the garden
From there we headed into the Space Needle. We spent the entire morning at the museum and were feeling ready for lunch. Even though we did not have a reservation we were able to get a table in Sky City, the Space Needle’s restaurant that is on the floor just below the observation deck.
While we were waiting for our turn we browsed in the gift shop.
We took the glass elevator and were able to see views of the Seattle Center on the way up leading to an amazing 360 degree view of the city as we stepped out of the elevator and into the restaurant.
The restaurant slowly spun around and we could see the city from every vantage point as we dined.
By far the favorite portion of this meal was the dessert that came with the girls’ meal. The menu simply stated that the kids would get ice cream. What they brought out was ice cream to the next level. The ice cream bowl was in a larger bowl filled with dry ice. As our waitress presented this it appeared to be some space craft landing on our table with smoke billowing out and cascading over the sides onto the kids laps. It was also awesome because the temperature of it helped the ice cream to stay frozen much longer than normal.
Once we finished we headed up to the observation deck. We took our time taking in the views on the outside deck. Inside we explored the exhibits and entered our information onto a map that plotted where all of the Space Needle visitors have traveled from.
We figured it would be best to keep our truck in the lot here and called for an Uber to take us to Pike Place Market. It was a lot of fun walking around the market and checking out all of the vendors.
At Sosio’s Produce we bought some of their delicious peaches and Lily got a few of their fruit gummy sticks rolled in coconut.
Of course we went over to Flying Fish Co. and watched the workers throw the fish as the customers ordered. The girls were fascinated by the monkfish they had on display. They were checking it out and touching it (as it was signed it was ok) but were a little disappointed to learn it was a rubber fish and not real at all.
As much as we wanted to get something at Flying Fish, without our truck and without an idea of when we would be home we did not think it would be feasible. Making a purchase of our own here would have to wait for a future Seattle vacation.
Just across the aisle we saw a sign saying a gum wall was down the steps. Curious to see what this was all about we took the steps down to check it out. As we were walking down a sign for a missing burrito unicorn caught our eye. Lily found this very funny.
The many colors of the chewed wads of gum was quite possibly one of the nastiest things I have seen. Nonetheless, we had to add our own mark. Only problem was we had no gum.
We temporarily left to find gum of our own. We came across the candy store Sweetie’s and bought bubble tape. The girls had never seen or heard of this even though it was a part of mine and Adam’s childhood. We each took a piece of the tape and chewed it on our walk back.
As we stood in front of the gum covered wall we found an open spot. Each of us took a turn putting our gum onto the wall. We each built on top of the last person’s. In the end we had made an image of a bird’s head complete with a plume and beak with the combination of our chewed gum pieces.
After such an accomplishment we felt ready to move on. As we walked over to check out the waterfront we found a sidewalk chalk drawing of the burrito unicorn.
At the waterfront we spent some time exploring the piers. There was a dance group putting on a show and we stopped to watch.
As it started getting late in the day we decided to catch an Uber back to the Seattle Center. We checked out Sonic Bloom, a collection of enormous metal flower sculptures.
Earlier this morning the girls had noticed a playground at the foot of the space needle. We had promised they could play there before the day ended. As we were starting to get tired it was time to deliver on this promise before calling it a day. While walking to the playground we passed the Armory which contained a large food court. We all had to use the restrooms so we made a pit stop inside. I noticed one of the food stands sold wood fired bagels. We were very curious what they tasted like and wanted to buy one but they were closed and cleaning up for the day. I asked the clerk if I could possibly buy one and she pointed to a few bags filled with their bagels and told me to take what I want…for free!!! She explained they were going to be throwing them out and she was happy for us to have some.
Our day ended with a long play session at the playground directly in front of the Space Needle before heading back to the campground.
