Strom Travel Diaries

Day 6 – Wednesday, December 22, 2021

We had requested a wake-up knock around 6:30 since breakfast was only set to be served until 7. We could always just throw on some clothes and finish getting ready later. But we hadn’t accounted for the extra hour gained during the night, so both Mom and I woke up before then. Our car attendant, Cody, could be heard creeping up and down the hall, greeting people and quietly telling them that because we were still running about three hours behind, it had been decided to keep the dining car open for breakfast later than originally intended. Mom and I got ready and ended up going for breakfast around 7:15.

We were supposed to get into Seattle around 10:30 a.m., but the delay meant that we got to see more of the scenery going by: the Columbia River, the Cascade Mountains, snow-covered evergreens, a lone fisherman in a small boat, and wide vistas when we were between mountains. As we got closer to the coast and came down in elevation, the snow cleared up and we started seeing more of that wet, Pacific Northwest green that so characterizes the area. That’s when we started seeing more wildlife as well, particularly birds. At one point we saw some ducks and such before Mom exclaimed, “Is that a bald eagle?!” Sure enough, there were about five or six that had congregated in that one area, including two that appeared to have a nest in one of the trees. Of course, I was so excited that I didn’t get a picture.

Because we were on the left side of the train, we were facing inland as we started traveling along Puget Sound. But we saw lots of houses with huge windows facing in that direction. Our across-the-hall neighbor, Gary, kept up a running commentary for a while on the things we were seeing and his plans to go fly fishing with his buddies.

As we came into Seattle, we passed right by the Olympic Sculpture Garden and saw the Space Needle—both of which were on our list for further touristic investigation. We coasted into the station at just about 1:45. Once we got our checked bag, it was off to the Warwick Seattle hotel! We were checked in by a young woman with purple hair and a Deathly Hallows tattoo.

We were able to proceed straight up to our room so we could drop off our stuff and decide what to do with the rest of the day. After allowing our stuff to explode all over the room, we looked at what kind of thing we already had for Seattle—for Chicago and LA our package included the hop-on/hop-off tours. For Seattle, we had the CityPass. No transport included, but we could get into about five different attractions with just the one ticket. We eliminated the zoo as being too far away and not unique enough to Seattle to try and fit it in during our time there. A look at the map showed that the Chihuly Gardens and Glass was right next to the Space Needle—probably a bit much to try and fit both in at that point—and a quick check online showed that the boat tours were already done for the day. That left the Seattle Aquarium, which was an easy walk from the hotel and just across the street from the Pike Place Market. Armed with umbrellas (of course it was raining, do you even have to ask?) and our coats, we set off towards the waterfront. We did keep getting distracted by sights and interesting architecture, as well as trying to scout a place for breakfast.

Seattle is hillier than one might expect. Windier, too. So we were very glad to get inside the aquarium. This was no Newport or Atlanta aqua wonderland. Instead, the Seattle Aquarium focused mostly on the sea life that could be found just outside in Elliott Bay and Puget Sound, including the giant Pacific octopus (which was right on the glass at head height and it was so cool), orca, harbor seals, a bajillion types of fish (I’m pretty sure that’s an accurate number), and corals. They even had an area where they had some shorebirds that had been rescued, like a black oystercatcher. Of course, a lot of the focus was on salmon, both as a fish itself as well as the only food source for the resident orca.

By the time we had left the aquarium around 5:30, most of the shops in Pike Place Market had closed up—including the restaurants where we had had a vague idea of having dinner. We were able to go into a small shop to get some postcards, a magnet, and a SPOON. Since it didn’t occur to me to go the other way down the waterfront, we ended up just walking back to the hotel and having dinner there. On the upside, we were back in the room in time for “Jeopardy!”

Another early night for us since we knew that we’d be busy, busy, busy the next day.