A DAY IN SEATTLE

It's usually fun to visit selected portions of downtown Seattle, and yesterday was no exception. After we left the train, Patty and I and the girls walked through the Pioneer Square area, crossed over to Alaskan Way near the Ferries, and eventually made our way up to the Seattle Aquarium. This is a must-see-at-least-once feature for everyone and a longtime favorite for me. The admission price is a bit steep, but for the occasional visit, "go for it". I would suggest you plan for three hours, and remember there are no food booths inside, so maybe you should have a snack in your pocket.

First we saw the mammals section with the huge hair seals and busy otters, but the special attraction this trip was being in the underwater dome with its dozens of windows giving close-up views of hundreds of fish and fishes. The highlight was feeding time when a couple of dry-suited divers fed the denizens, attracting scores of hungry fish of many local sorts to their hands and feed bags. The divers were able to speak to the crowd via mask-mikes, and gave interesting talks and features some remarkable individual fish, including a "wolf-eel" and an enormous sturgeon.

A while later, up the hill in Pike Place Market, we viewed the action at the famous fish stand where impressive displays of fish and seafoods always attracts enough crowd for the vendors to present some street-theater and good-natured jesting with customers. As you can guess from the display shots, I am in many ways more closely drawn to these kings and crabs than to the tropicals and displays down in the aquarium.

Salmon and halibut and crab and such are on my mind anyway as these will be the main offerings at Geoffrey and Dana's wedding rehersal dinner next month. I must remember to provide plenty of lemon slices and tarter sauce that night!