Alaska Day 7: Seattle

We survived a week on the cruise ship!

We got off the ship just after early breakfast today. There were a lot of goodbyes as the Ferlans caught an early flight, and Grandpa and Grandma started their long drive back to Idaho. The rest of us grabbed rental cars and headed over to the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Site in Seattle. All the kids from Mark down to Ben earned Junior Ranger badges, and we learned so much. We had no idea that Seattle was created by the Alaskan gold rush. It was a really nice tie-in to our Alaska trip. We spent around an hour at the museum learning about the history of the city.

We loved being back in Seattle.

This adventure was really fun!

Seth is worth his weight in gold!

Look at all of those Junior Rangers.

After the history lesson, we headed down to Pike Place Market. We were really just trying fill in the few hours before our flight, and since they have the world's best clam chowder, this seemed like just the place! We walked around the market for a few minutes and then broke up for lunch. Mom and Dax stopped to get clam chowder (Dax has been talking about that chowder since last time we were in Seattle) for them and Dad. Seth wanted pasta. Mark and Dad stopped for fish and chips, which Dad shared with Mom in exchange for clam chowder. After that, we took a minute to smell the flowers and then drove over to the airport, which held the final adventure. That adventure was the flight home, which was the roughest we've been on. There was a lot of rocking and rolling and shaking as we came down through a storm in Utah. Then we hit down with terrible thud. We were left wondering if they'd put the landing gear down! But we were finally safely home.

Mark's favorite sign in Seattle.

Best clam chowder ever!

Pike's Place is a favorite spot for us.

The kids say that Seattle is one of their favorite places.

I haven't gotten on the plane outside for a long time!

Little did we know this flight would be quite rough!

Seth gets super comfy on planes.