Seattle - wrapping up the last week or so

I am sitting in Idaho after a longish drive from Seattle, and I realize that I have been a bit remiss in posting lately. Life got in the way.

So to sum up:

• Seattle Aquarium was well worth a visit - well laid out in a lovely building down by the waterside - not as spectacular as Monterey but also not nearly as crowded. Girls particularly loved the otters, the seals and the tropical fish.
• We had a great weekend catching up with friends, Matt and Vee, and their two small and enthusiastic boys. I hadn't seen Matt and Vee since 2007 in which time they had produced said small boys and moved from Singapore to Canada. We went on the Monorail (which induced incredible levels of excitement), walked around town, ate fish and chips, and on day 2 went to the Zoo. I am ambivalent about zoos but the Woodland Park Zoo is very well laid out, and there are few activities nicer than hanging out with excited kids looking at amazing animals. The bears were particularly wonderful as we could get right next to them, in their pool, looking through glass. 
• Then there was the Museum of Flight - which was fantastic, world class. It's huge covering everything from the science of flight, early planes, the history of Boeing, space exploration, and World Wars 1 and 2, not forgetting a Concorde and an old Air Force One (Millie liked that one, with the bed and all). I particularly loved the docents at the museum - elderly men with bags of experience, knowledge and best of all enthusiasm who would turn up and ask the girls "have you seen a Sputnik?" or "which is your favourite planet" and then lead them off to explore something. We spent over 4 hours there and I eventually had to give up as my brain was mush - so the history of Boeing was rather overlooked. 
• Swimming! The girls had 6 half hour lessons with Tiarra at the Meredith Mathews Y and while they aren't quite swimming yet, their confidence and happiness levels have increased enormously. I was amazed to see the girls swim off down to the deep end (with floats on) and then to see Lottie jump in. 

All in all Seattle was a great place to stay a while and I could easily imagine it's a lovely place to live. A bit cold and wet after San Francisco (not thinking about the climate in Wales, lalalalalala) but beautifully green and lush too. It's similarly liberal, perhaps less intense, less upmarket, certainly less expensive. 

Anyway, here's some pictures from the last week. 

International Fountain near the Space Needle

Woodland Park Zoo

Museum of Flight