Day Two of the Seattle Whirlwind Tour

I wanted to blog more from Seattle, I really did, especially since it’s national blog writing month and all. But we were out and about all the time, and everyone would make fun of me when I sat down at the computer! I guess I fail at blog writing month, but no matter — vacation was still most excellent.
I updated the previous post with some photos, and there are more on Flickr if you are interested.
We woke up to sunny skies on Saturday in Seattle, so at the last minute we changed our plans to include something “nature-y.” This was premature of course, because the sun disappeared within an hour, replaced by ominous clouds. Nonetheless, we stuck with Plan B and headed east towards Snoqualmie Falls. I had never been there during my previous two visits to Seattle, and it was more impressive than I imagined — a 200+ foot high crashing waterfall! We first saw it from above, and then hiked down the steep half mile trail to the boardwalk running along the river below. The woods were very green and pretty.


I could’ve stayed and stared at the waterfall all day, but we had an agenda to stick to! On our way back to Seattle we stopped in Issaquah to see the salmon hatchery and fish ladder. Salmon are born in freshwater streams, swim out to the ocean and stay there for a few years, and then return to the stream where they were born to spawn (and then immediately die — rather depressing). The hatchery had a gate up that prevented the salmon from actually going upstream, diverting them instead to a fish ladder leading to a large holding tank where the fish are kept until they are spawned by hand. That didn’t stop the fish from trying to get upstream though, and we watched them jumping in vain for quite a while. It was actually pretty fascinating. The fish are at the end of their lifespan anyway, so the hatchery spawns them by hand to ensure that there are plenty of baby salmon to keep the cycle going.

I could’ve stayed and watched the salmon all day as well, but again — we had an agenda! We headed back downtown to the Seattle Aquarium. It was a bit small, but still had a couple good exhibits including a Giant Pacific Octopus and some sea otters. We got to watch both of those guys get fed, which was entertaining. The sea otters were like little kids, swimming around excitedly and floating on their backs while they nibbled at their mussels. While we were there, Jen and her boyfriend arrived to spend the next few hours with us. After leaving the aquarium, our agenda had finally ended so they suggested driving over to Alki Point in west Seattle to look back at the skyline. The view was indeed great, and we ended up staying over there for a delicious dinner at a chowder house.