I want to be a tourist (The Crab Pot)

After grabbing our ticket for our cruise through some of the area (more on that later), we went to get some lunch. As we walked past one of the piers, we had seen a few seafood restaurants and since we were in Seattle right on the waterfront, we wanted to have some. One place close by was called "The Crab Pot" and it looked good. Now, for those of you who don't know her quite as well, Katy usually likes to have familiar things off of menus when we go out to eat; furthermore, in general, Katy is not a big fan of seafood. So, I was curious what she would order and how she would like it. We waited for only a few minutes, and then were seated at a table outside under an overhang. We ordered this:

The table is full of Dungeness Crab, Snow Crab, Shrimp in the Shell, Steamed Clams, Steamed Mussels, Andouille Sausage, Corn on the Cob, and Red Potatoes in their jackets. Additionally, it came up that Katy had NEVER had salmon before! She didn't ever think she would like it since she doesn't really like fish, but I convinced her that it is not a "fishy" tasting fish if that makes any sense. So, we spent an extra few dollars to get some grilled salmon on a skewer. She liked it! She actually liked everything, though the shrimp not as much as everything else. She said she likes her shrimp deep fried and couldn't get over having to break off the shrimp heads and peeling off the shell. We both loved the crab, but we already knew that. I am a big fan of seafood, so I loved this fresh medley. About an hour later, we were left with this:

All in all, it was a great place. It was definitely a lunch we'll remember!

I want to be a tourist (Seattle Aquarium)

The Seattle Aquarium was the second place that we went on our CityPass of Seattle.  It was super fun! We got to see all kinds of animals, including ones that we would see just outside in the Puget Sound.  While it wasn't the biggest aquarium that I have ever been to, it still was really nice.  My personal favorites were the otters, both sea otters and river otters.  Cory's favorite part was the giant octopus which come directly from the Puget Sound.  We learned that since octopi are so smart, they have to catch a new octopus from the Sound every once in a while so that they don't get bored living in the tank.  The Giant Pacific Octopus, the kind found in the Puget Sound and in the museum, is the biggest species of octopus in the world.  We learned later that the largest one ever caught was over 30 feet long and weighed more than 600 pounds!  One of the other cool things that happened while we were there was the feeding time.  We just happened to be at the sea lion exhibit when the trainer came out with a bucket of fish.  So, we got to watch it do tricks and other cool things for food.  It was so fun to watch.  Here are some of the many pictures that I took while we were there.

I'm touching a Sea Cumcumber

Cory tired but he didn't really measure up.

The Giant Octopus

Fun colored fish that we saw

A puffin that is about to jump into the water right in front of us.  After he did jump, he ran right into the wall just in front of us.  It was so funny.

Star Fish

Sea otter.  He is eating his lunch.

Sea otter mommy and baby.  While we were watching we saw the baby getting milk from its mother.

River otter.  Just posing for us. haha

Sea lion working for its food. haha

I want to be a tourist (Pike's Place Market)

One of the most famous farmers markets.  It was awesome to be there.  We walked around and saw all the great things in the market, including the famous fish market where they throw the fish.  There were many shops and other places that sold handmade crafts and also many flowers.  They were some of the prettiest flowers I've seen and I've seen lots of flowers working at a flower shop.  Cory bought me a beautiful bouquet of peonies and irises.  They are gorgeous! 

I want to be a tourist (preview/intro)

So, since I got my first paycheck and we finally have some money coming IN instead of just OUT, we decided to take a look at downtown Seattle and visit some of the places we had heard so much about from  both people around here and from Rob (Katy's brother), who served his mission here. Katy had really been looking forward to it and "put her foot down" to make sure we went ASAP. So, on Friday, we looked online to try to come up with a plan of things we wanted to see on our foray into Seattle. There were a number of different things we wanted to see and do, so as we were browsing the internet, we saw something called a CityPass that would allow us to see lots of stuff. It's a packet of tickets to the Space Needle (a must-do activity according to most people we talk to), the Seattle Aquarium, a tour boat cruise around Elliot Bay, the Seattle Science Center, the Experience Music Project Museum, and either the Boeing Museum of Flight or the Woodland Park Zoo. All of those things sounded really fun to do, so we decided to purchase the pass; however, we knew that we could not do all of those things in one day and really enjoy any of them. Fortunately, the passes are good for 9 days from the time the first one is used. So, we planned two visits on consecutive Saturdays to downtown Seattle to see what there is to see in this great new city of ours. So, what will follow in the coming two weeks will be accounts of our two visits and I think plenty of pictures to go with them. I think Katy told me today that there were over 100 pictures on the actual camera and many more on the phones (though only Katy's phone has the capability to upload pictures from her phone to her computer. I suppose it's for the best since the quality of my dumb phone's pictures don't hold a candle to Katy's iPhone). Anticipate and then enjoy!