Seattle, Day 1

Today, Justin had to go into work at the Seattle GoDaddy office.  We got up early so we could drive him in to Kirkland, which is about 20 minutes away from downtown Seattle.  Once we dropped him off, the kids and I headed downtown to see what we could see.

My brother, Rustyn, used to live in Seattle, so he gave us the low down on parking and navigating the city.  I was a little nervous, but we made it to downtown.  We walked around a bit before deciding to spend our money on the Experience Music Project Museum downtown.  Rustyn insisted the kids would love it.

Rustyn was right.  When we walked in the doors of the museum, this was what we were greeted with--a huge whirlwind of musical instruments.  The kids had fun picking out their instruments, and Rylee was thrilled to find several cellos in the mix.

The first exhibit we happened upon was an Indie Game exhibit.  There were consoles with all kinds of independent video games running.  The kids had a blast playing some of the weirdest, craziest games they had ever seen.  We spent a good 45 minutes in this exhibit, and the kids didn't want to leave.

There was also a Nirvana exhibit, which we were sad that Justin had to miss.  The kids, however, were more excited about the Star Wars exhibit.  There was an enormous Star Wars costume collection on loan from The Smithsonian.  We got to see all the original costumes from our favorite Star Wars films.

I was a little disappointed to realize that Tatum didn't know as much about Star Wars as she should.  We'll have to work on that.  But they all got excited to see Darth Vader--and we immediately wished our cousin, Owen,who loves Star Wars, could have seen all these amazing costumes.

We also meandered through the Fantasy exhibit, where we learned about how music and costumes affect fantasy films.  We were very excited to find the costume David Bowie wore as the goblin king, Jareth, on Labyrinth.  If you're a Simmons, you'll know what I mean.

We also got to see exhibits on science fiction and horror before we headed to the cafe for lunch.  We thought about leaving and eating somewhere unique, but the kids loved the museum so much, they didn't want to leave.

We finished out our day at the museum with only a few minutes to spare on our parking pass.  Because parking was expensive, we decided to head back to Kirkland and pick up Justin.  We headed back to the RV park, and while Justin worked from the lodge and Connor played video games, the girls hit the pool.

After a long day, they gladly went to bed early.  Tomorrow, we are shooting for Pikes Place Market and the Seattle Underground Tour.  We're hoping to find some WIFI downtown where Justin can work for the day.  We'll let you know how it goes.