Water, Animals, and Glass with a View

We went on vacation to Washington this year to play and see some sites. I haven't really been to Washington before unless you count the KISS concert I went to when I was 20, which I don't. So after talking about it for the past year with M, we finally decided to take a trip up there.
I asked some friends on FB about things to do and we made travel plans. Our first stop was Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound. If we knew it was going to be so fun, we would have made it our last stop on the trip instead of the first. I definitely recommend taking a trip here, the resort is nice and only guests of the lodge can go to the water park, which means short or no lines for the rides. Plus, it's an indoor park so it is warm all day and you don't need sunscreen.
The girls were both tall enough to go on all the rides except one, which was one I didn't want to go on anyway. There is a kiddie area, some water slides, some water tubes, a swimming pool, and a HUGE wave pool.

The Lodge has lots of other things to do,
but we only left the water park to sleep and eat.

Here is the outside part of the park. The water is really hot so you
don't get cold playing. The girls liked the
water coming out of the ground and played in it for an hour.

Here we are coming down the water slides. They were fast and the water was less than 6 inches deep so little kids could go down without any problem.

L going down the slide in the kiddie pool area. She loved this area and spent most of her time here with one of us. She really liked the "water bikes" and spent hours playing on them.

We all enjoyed the big water slides. You were required to take a raft down the tubes and they could hold 2-6 people depending on the slide. They went super fast and the girls screamed with excitement every time we went down, me included:)

In the middle of the park is a tower with a huge bucket on top. When it fills up, it pours out and soaks anyone standing near by. It empties about every 10 minutes.

We were able to up grade our room to a Kiddie Cabin for cheap.
It was really cute and the girls thought the bunk beds were cool.

Olympia, Washtington
On our way to Tacoma, we stopped in Olympia when I saw the capital building peeking through some trees. I love architecture and am always willing to stop and get a closer look. I have never been interested in Oregon's capital because I don't find it appealing. I guess I should get over my snobbishness but when you come from a state that has gorgeous capital buildings, it's hard to do.

Here is a miniature model of the Washington Monument.

I really liked this piece. It was erected in memory of all those
soldiers captured or lost during war times.

This is a great picture of the state capital. This building is
very similar to the capital building in Missouri.

I believe this was the court house.

Here we are on the top step of the capital.

The amazing view from the side of the capital building.

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
On Friday we took the girls to the zoo in Tacoma. The day started out cloudy and chilly but the clouds burned off by lunchtime and the day was beautiful.

There were some new Clouded Leopard cubs
at the zoo on display. They were very cute.

One of K's favorite things, feeding the little birds.
There were times when she had 4-5 birds climbing on her.

L didn't like all those birds on her stick, it
freaked her out a bit. I didn't care for it much either.

We payed to let the girls ride a camel. They thought it
was great. Their camel's name was Harry.

The tiger was L's favorite animal this time.

My favorite animals were the Polar Bears. At one point two of
the boys were wrestling in the water together.
They are such massive and amazing creatures, I love watching them.

This bird was K's favorite animal at the zoo.

After looking at all the animals in the zoo, we stopped by the carousel on the way out. It was fun for the girls to ride on. We went around two times and they were begging to go a third.



Chihuly Bridge of Glass
After the zoo, we stopped by the bridge of glass. I had heard from a reliable source that it was a beautiful piece of art. We didn't stay for long, I didn't like being on a bridge that crossed a busy highway with rushing traffic below.
The glass was very pretty and I think if we had come in the morning instead of the evening the view would have been even more breath-taking. We also looked at the glass on water near the bridge. Water suspended in air, lovely and shiny. It reminded me of a frozen water fountain I saw in my early twenties.








Thrill of the Grill
After our busy day of sight-seeing, we stopped at a place I had Googled called Thrill of the Grill. It had good reviews and it was cheap. We were very impressed with the food. It was tasty and very filling. I got a HUGE strawberry shake for 3.50; we could barely finish it. The girls wolfed down their burgers and fries, as did we. We were stuffed when we left and the bill was less than 30 dollars (would have been cheaper than 25 without the sales tax). I totally recommend this place if you are in town.

My huge strawberry shake. The glass was filled to the brim
and the metal cup was better than half way filled.

Great food with a great view of Mt. Rainier out the front door.

We were so in love with Great Wolf Lodge that we headed back there for an extra night instead of heading to Seattle like we originally planned. Here are a couple of vidoes of the girls from our stay.