Train & Ferry to Seattle

We’ve got friends up in the Puget Sound area that invited us to see their new house after they helped us move into our new house. I realized that invitation was two years ago and we had yet to go. Pedro was on board for a visit, and suggested the train so we could avoid winter driving and I-5 in general. I have to admit that anticipating a train journey was part of the fun!

The weather was pouring rain when we embarked. It impacted the scenes outside the windows, but for the first hour we were settling in and enjoying the smooth ride, the large comfortable seats, the onboard bathroom, and the food car. It was only three hours to Tacoma, and our friends Kin and Noel picked us up.

Our first stop was to get some lunch, and they were eager to go to a 21+ restaurant called Tides Tavern in a town called Gig Harbor. The kids were still in school and so Kin & Noel were free for a couple more hours. The food and atmosphere were great, and we had a view of the water. After our meal, we walked down to the dock to look at the postcard-lovely views. The white trimmed coastal homes reminded me a bit of New England.

Next we got a tour of their home and a run down of the major remodeling they did inside to make it their own. The boys came home from school and their activity was infectious. We were shown all their toys and games, then met their new kitten, Pickles. We ate together, then cleaned up and learned to play a dice game I had never heard of, called Farkle. It’s similar to Yahtzee, and we all had fun with it.

The next day we all took the Bremerton ferry to Seattle. Kin explained that the boys loved the ferry, so they would take the sea journey now and then, and afterward, make the big geographical loop around the sound, taking bridges across the water and peninsulas to get back home. The plan was to part on arrival in the city, and Pedro and I would stay the night there before heading home on the train the next day.

We were pleasantly surprised at the great weather on the ferry. We could not stop ourselves from taking photos during the one-hour journey into the city.

Soon we rounded an island and spotted the Seattle city skyline rising from the Puget Sound. It’s so beautiful. We took many more photos.

On the way, Pedro and I were trying to decide what we would do in the city, and decided upon the Seattle Aquarium. Our friends had not visited it for a long time, and spontaneously decided to join us. So all six of us spent another couple hours together on the docks at Piers 59 and 60 in the wonderfully large and diverse sea aquarium. I’ll leave you with photos of our walk from parking to the aquarium, and show the rest of the photos in my next post.