Ballard Locks

At the advice of friends, we went to Ballard Locks this afternoon after Bobs had a nap at the hotel. We made a quick stop into Target too. Thank goodness for our GPS, otherwise we wouldn't be able to drive around Seattle very easily. Even with the GPS is has been difficult.

The Locks are located at the entrance to Puget Sound, and they allow vessels to enter Lake Union (where our hotel is located) and Lake Washington. It is the busiest Lock area in North America. We saw around 10 ships and boats get in and out for the hour we were there.

There is an under ground viewing area where you can watch fish go through the locks. There were only steelhead trout during this month. Later in the summer you can see different types of salmon.

The sun came out for a bit so we hung out and spent some extra time there. It is located on a small botanical garden.

After our huge fish and chips lunch, we didn't need much for supper so we found a cafe in Ballard and had yet another coffee and hot chocolate. It's a never ending treat in Seattle to stop in at a coffee house. There must be a million in this city. (50,000 Starbucks). There was a nice little play area in this coffee place.

I am finding that Seattle is an extremely kid friendly city. Maybe it is because I haven't travelled much with kids. Other cities have great kid amenities as well but we have been really surprised with how many kids things we have run into. The people here are also very friendly, and we have ventured off the tourist path a few times to experience this.