Checking out Seattle

I arrived in Seattle about 24 hours later than I had intended, but in exchange I got to spend some time with a good friend right before he moved to Pennsylvania.

My first tourist stop was the Seattle Aquarium. The aquarium is getting a face lift, and there is a new big tank in the works, but what I saw was pretty impressive. Their signature tank is a "dome" tank where you are practically surrounded by fish. The only problem is the windows between the framing are kind of small. They have a nice bird area including a collection of tufted puffins. I had seen a pair of puffins in the wild once when I took a boat tour to the Farallon Islands.

Later that day I took an amazing tour. It started with a bus ride from the waterfront to Lake Union. We transferred to a boat and went from Lake Union through a lock out into Puget Sound and back to the waterfront. Not only did I get multiple glorious views of the Seattle skyline, but the chance to use a lock to transfer from the higher water of Lake Union to the lower water of the Sound. The one thing I could have done without on most of these tours was the perpetual mention of property values. It seemed we couldn't go more than five minutes without a house being pointed out along with a mention of how much it sold for recently.