The vacation Gods smiled down upon us.  With a blessing, a little luck, and some blackout hotel curtains, all of us slept in until like 9:00 on our second day of vacation.  A Festivus miracle!

— rise and shine! —

We wanted to get out of the hotel at a reasonable hour, mostly to fit as many meals  as we could into one day.  We did not want to miss our breakfast window – that would just throw off the whole schedule!  And when I say “we” wanted to eat, I mostly mean me.  Totally me.  Excited for food.  So we got ready and headed straight to Portage Bay Cafe, where they are sort of known for a great brunch (thanks to my Instafriend @lizzie_lizr for the recommendation!)  The breakfast bar was on point.  And Stevie matched the scenery.

With full bellies, we started our sightseeing for the day.  Full on tourist mode.  We bought a CityPass while we were at the Space Needle, so we had plenty of options to choose from.  We peeked into the Seattle Aquarium to kill some time before the Harbor Cruise started.

Stevie made it clear that he didn’t care as much about the seals or the octopus feeding as we did.  Every few minutes, he said “Boat?  Stevie boat.  Stevie on boat. Stevie in boat.  Boat. Boat. Boat. Boat.”  At one point, he may have even laid face down in the middle of the aquarium because he couldn’t handle seeing one more fish.  He needed the boat.  So when it was finally time, we bolted to that god dang boat.  We boarded the boat.  We got some drinks and snacks on the boat.  We settled into our seats on the boat.  We were overjoyed as the boat left the dock.  And about 3 minutes later, Stevie turned to me and said “All done boat.”

Hahaha!  Seriously.  This kid.

— anytime i need a smile, i just ask him to jump or run —

He hung in there for the next 57 minutes, just barely.  Lots of “oooh-ing” and “aaaah-ing” from mom to dad, to make it seem more interesting.  But he never falls for it.  Paul and I are apparently much more easy to impress than he is.  We loved it!  It was another beautiful, clear day with a great view of the city skyline and our tour guide was fantastic.  A highly recommended tourist activity!

After a brief walk around the harbor, and a little bit of leaf collecting, it was time to head to napsville.  That place is the bomb.  It involves naps, as you may have guessed.  And afternoon coffee.  Although, I’m going to tell you, we did not care for the coffee – anywhere in the PNW.  Seattle is like known for coffee, but it’s so bitter!  I didn’t have a taste for it at all.  I’ll stick to good ol’ Foldgers for now.

That evening, we headed to Pike Place Market for bakery snacks and a seafood dinner.  I wasn’t quite ready to call it a night, so we walked back down to the harbor to ride the Great Wheel.  That was fun.  We got another great view of the city, all lit up. And I think it was just short enough that Stevie actually enjoyed the ride the whole time.  After walking about 40,000 stairs back up to the market, we accidentally came across Post Alley.  Cool.  Gross.  I don’t know.

Back at the room, we enjoyed a drinky drink and watched… something.  Cops?  Or some news report?  I can’t remember.  Sleepy time.