![\"\"](\"http:\/\/willz.org\/hosted\/blog\/exploringseattle01\/IMG_4047.JPG\" "\\"Tut\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nThis was unusual.\u00a0 I tried it, but we didn’t get a picture because I had the camera with me while I was out there.\u00a0 It was a little scary, but there’s little chance that you’ll fall.\u00a0 Couldn’t get Will up there though.<\/p>\n However, with only a little prodding I managed to get him into a space shuttle.<\/p>\n The periscope was really neat.\u00a0 It apparently sticks out over the top of the building so on a clear day you can see birds and Lake Union, and boats, and mountains.<\/p>\n Then they had this kind of bug safari along with snakes, scorpions, and tarantulas .\u00a0 They had a naked mole rat colony, too.\u00a0 It’s a bit like a big ant farm but instead of ants, there are these hideous, pale, naked things with giant teeth and tiny eyes.<\/p>\n Will rode a bug.<\/p>\n And I held a bug.<\/p>\n Enjoy this angle.<\/p>\n I thought the roaches were neat.\u00a0 The person tending the roaches informed us that they’re quite clean.\u00a0 I think it would be nice to have one as a pet.\u00a0 They’re pretty cute; certainly much cuter than the hideous butterflies.<\/p>\n Look at that hideous face.\u00a0 Those giant bug eyes.\u00a0 And don’t even get me started on that proboscis.<\/p>\n This one is a bit of a butterface, and by that I mean everything is nice but her face.<\/p>\n Heh, the butterfly is a butterface.\u00a0 Is that something Will would say (write)?\u00a0 No, Will’s not that mean.\u00a0 But really, a butterfly’s head is pretty ugly close up.\u00a0 The wings are nice though.<\/p>\n Then of course they had a bunch of things to play with like a little pool where you could touch starfish and sea anemones.\u00a0 You could mess with physics experiments like holding a spinning wheel on a spinning platform or pulling on levers.\u00a0 They had this gigantic zipper where you could see in detail how the teeth actually get pulled and locked together.\u00a0 There was a toilet cut in half so you could see the siphon action in the bottom when it was flushed and how the water seals out “sewer odors.”\u00a0 Also funhouse mirrors.<\/p>\n After our adventure in the Pacific Science Center, we decided we had time for a harbor tour cruise, so we should get that out of the way.\u00a0 Along the way we decided maybe it wasn’t such a great idea because it was a lot farther to walk than we thought it was and we were kind of starving.\u00a0 But we managed it, telling ourselves we would eat at Red Robin afterward.\u00a0 The cruise was way cool.\u00a0 The weather was nice so there was a lot to see, including more Mt. Rainier, which remember is 54 miles away.<\/p>\n The cruise was in Elliot Bay.\u00a0 There are some beaches around but our tour guide informed us that the water temperature doesn’t get above 52 degrees, so there’s not much swimming going on I guess.<\/p>\n The Space Needle.<\/p>\n The Space Needle is the<\/em> landmark of Seattle.\u00a0 It was built for the World’s Fair in 1962 and it is 605 feet tall.\u00a0 There is a rotating restaurant at the top.\u00a0 It has a heavy, deep foundation, so its center of gravity is only five feet above the ground, and it can withstand hurricane-like winds and earth quakes of up to 9 on the Richter Scale.\u00a0 In 2001, a 6.8 earth quake caused water to slosh out of the toilets up there.\u00a0 So yay earth quakes and volcanoes!?\u00a0 The weather is nice?<\/p>\n Read more about the Space Needle.<\/a><\/p>\n We had boats and mountains on one side.<\/p>\n City on the other.<\/p>\n Also a Ferris Wheel that Will has no interest in.\u00a0 It just opened a few weeks ago.\u00a0 There is something similar in London called the London Eye, but the London Eye is much bigger; more than twice the height.<\/p>\n Another iconic Seattle thing is the ferries that bring cars and people to different places in Puget Sound.\u00a0 Way on the left you can kind of see the big opening into which they drive the cars.\u00a0 There’s one just like it on the other side.\u00a0 In fact, it has two of everything.\u00a0 If you cut the ferry in half down the middle, you’ll have two identical halves.\u00a0 After it pulls into a port and is ready to leave again, instead of having to turn the behemoth around, the captain just walks to the other end and the back of the boat becomes the front.<\/p>\n Here’s Will.\u00a0 I like him.\u00a0 I was sort of trying to get that boat in the frame with him.\u00a0 It didn’t work out so well.<\/p>\n Then he had to take a picture of me.\u00a0 He’s much better at this whole picture making thing.<\/p>\n This next thing is pretty neat.\u00a0 They’re boats full of shipping containers from all over the world.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n