12 Days of Family Road Trip: Part 5
July 29
Trip: Tsawwassen to Seatle
Activities: Seatle Space Needle, Artistic at Play Playground
If we wanted to visit the US, this would be the day because the rest of the trip was already planned. This justified my effort to turn back home for the passports on day 1.
Driving to the US border was about 35 min, but the estimated wait time was 90 minutes. By the time we reached the end of the lineup, it was already 10 o’clock. Doing my math, it would be 1 p.m. when we arrive at the Space Needle. I contemplated abandoning the US trip. Seeing how slow the line moves, I convinced Charlotte, the only one adamant about going to the US, that we should turn around and spend our time on other fun activities.
Instead of turning left and doing a U-turn, I turned right onto Beach Road because it looked more scenic on Google Maps. Unexpectedly, that road was blocked, and the only way was to drive to the Peace Arch Duty Shop parking lot, so I did. After using its washroom and wanting to exit the lot, I noticed there were reverse spikes at the entrance preventing me from driving back to Canada. Well, I had no choice but to drive to the US. This would be the first time my kids go to the US.
After an agonizing wait, we finally see the border gate. I told the kids to chuck down all the blueberries so they wouldn't be confiscated, just in case. Fortunately, nothing eventful happened at the border, so we were finally driving on the US road.
By the time we arrived at the Space Needle, it was already 1 PM. Worst, things were super expensive here. One CND was roughly 0.73 USD. My first hit to the wallet was parking at 5th Ave Garage: 25 USD…💸.
The atmosphere in Seattle was very different. There were a lot of people, and the place was lively.
The kids were excited because of all the interesting things around. We walked up to the Space Needle digital ticket booth, but it didn't work. Shouldn’t Seattle be a high-tech hub! So I walked up to the maned ticket booth. Holy moly, 160 USD plus an hour of waiting. There were tons of tourists, wasn't there going to be a recession!
Once we were up on the observation deck, I was relieved. The kids were having fun exploring around. Considering the costs, I wanted to stay here as long as possible to make every 🪙dime counted.
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| Giant Spiders on Rooftop |
Bam… the kids were hungry; we didn’t have lunch yet. Couldn't leave my kids hungry because they would become grouchy. Reluctantly, I spent 30 USD on two hot dogs and a bag of fries. ðŸ˜
The view was specular. I was up there eight years ago with my buddy. They added angled plexiglass for people to lean on and take photos with the city view behind them. I would guess many tourists dropped their cell phones from taking pictures.
Talking about photographs, there was a photographer taking digital photos for every visitor. He did two shots, one with a green flesh-light and another with a blue. These colour fleshlights allowed the computer to key a background behind the subjects. Well, that redundancy of using two different coloured lights failed because Hilda and I happened to be wearing blue and green t-shirts, respectively. The rendered photos either had my or her t-shirt as a part of the digital background.
After we came back down to earth, we walked around. I wished I had more time to visit a few more places, like the Pop Culture Museum or the Bill and Melinda Foundation, but they were all closed at 5 p.m. We ended up stopping at the Artist Playground, where the kids had fun while I sat and waited.
The kids had more fun at the Artist's Playground than anything else:
Couldn't believe eating at McD cost me 40 USD! 💸
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