Seattle 2014: Pike Place Markets

This time last year we were on vacation in Seattle and Portland. A whole year has passed and I still haven't really written about our trip. I think that's got to be some sort of record on my behalf there!

Ok, so I did actually share a highlight post after our trip and one about the Gum Wall while we were in Seattle, but I have so many more photos I want to share with you guys so I think it's time to get back to it.   A year is long enough, I think!

One place that we visited regularly in Seattle was Pike Place Markets. Our hotel was located close by so the markets were a convenient place to stop by for breakfast, lunch and coffee. Ok, maybe the coffee part wasn't always so convenient given the long queues at the original Starbucks! We couldn't visit Seattle and not go to the original Starbucks even if it did mean standing in a queue for half an hour for our morning latte. Of course, the original Starbucks isn't the only place to get coffee at the markets if you need that caffeine hit without a wait.

Monterey Bay Aquarium Visit

Time to get back to posting about my parents' recent visit. They've already been gone over a month. This Summer is just flying by.

You may recall that in previous posts I mentioned that we'd be going to Monterey Bay Aquarium. This was definitely one of the highlights of my parents' visit. We had visited Monterey Aquarium back in 2012 and the girls loved it so we've been keen to head back there again. You can see our previous visit here. It's such a wonderful place to spend a day so I knew that my parents would enjoy it too.

A Fintastic Voyage

One of our all time favourite places here in California is the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

We visited the aquarium back in April last year and we all absolutely loved it. You can see our visit here. It's such a wonderful place to visit and we hope to go back again one day soon.

So when I discovered that Monterey Bay Aquarium has a mobile display here in the Bay Area over Summer we were all pretty excited.

Today I took the girls to explore the ocean in the Fintastic Voyager, an airstream trailer converted into a "submarine on wheels".

Captain Ava and First Mate Lola

Monterey Bay Aquarium

My list of places to take the kids in the Bay Area has some pretty cool destinations on it: farms, museums, playgrounds, galleries... There is one place on the list however that we anticipated visiting more than anywhere else; Monterey Bay Aquarium.

From a young age Ava has been enthralled by anything to do with life under the sea. When she was two years old we visited Underwater World in Queensland and instantly she was hooked on anything and everything fishy.

During Ava's recent Spring Break we took a trip down south to beautiful seaside Monterey. The big drawcard there being the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Monterey Bay Aquarium from one of the viewing decks