Spring(?) Break

Last week was spring break for the Seattle school district. It might as well have been winter break; we had snow and rain and it was wet and cold the whole week. Like everyone else we worked our way through Seattle's indoor attractions. On Monday we went to the aquarium. This was probably the last visit for a while since our pass expired and I decided not to renew it. It s always hard to get to the waterfront, then you have to find and pay for parking, just to be squeezed inside the aquarium with hundreds of people. Marlene likes the coral reef exhibit best, I am fascinated by the basket sea star, and Amelia likes the "rainbow fish" (I think she means the parrot fish.

Tuesday, after waiting the whole morning for the electrical inspection, we went to the zoo in the afternoon. We focused on birds and waterfowl, which is slightly different from our usual round. There are so many different kinds of ducks and geese. Marlene can actually name many of them, school seems to be paying off in that department.

Wednesday can only be described as insane. We drove through rain and snow to the Science Center, where we met up with Marlene's friend Grayson and family. I have never seen so many people in one place, well, maybe the stadium, but there everyone sits and watches the game. First we learnt about the science of bubbles, then we made butterfly masks and mainly played in the water area. You could not get even close to many of the exhibits, because there were so many people clustered around them. In the afternoon we saw the "Beaver" movie at the IMAX theater, which was very calming, before we headed home.

Thursday was "First Thursday", which means that many Seattle museums offer free admission. We took advantage of that, by visiting the Burke Museum in the morning and the EMP in the evening. Both, off course where overrun with people again. At the EMP we learnt a lot about Science Fiction and the girls loved the Tornado of guitars.

Friday started without rain and we decided to go hiking. Great idea, but we had not taken the snowfall of the last few days into consideration and we were simply not prepared for a snow day. We just walked for a little bit and took the girls to see "Monsters vs. Aliens" in the afternoon. As fun as 3D movies are, I don't think it is worth the extra $2 per person.

Friday afternoon it started to be nice and everything warmed up considerably. We had a beautiful weekend with lots of sunshine and outdoor time.