NW wildlife

I've been meaning to post about our trip to the Pacific Northwest for sometime now.

From the moment we got to the airport and were diverted to a secret security checkpoint

before we even got on the plane (sadly we did not travel by train)

Andrea and I ended up doing so much and having such a good time that we have TOO much to blog about.

With many great times come many, MANY great pictures. I thought I really cut the crop down but I ended up with over 600 (that's pretty good considering I started with about a thousand, right?) which is WAY too many for a single post, so I'm going to try and break one super duper long post into a bunch of moderately long posts.  I'll get the show started with some wildlife wee saw along the way.

enjoi!

Birds are all over the waterfront in Seattle.

Woodland Park Zoo (who by the way have the BEST internet address ever: www.zoo.org!) just north of Seattle is awesome if it's not raining (which it never does in the Pacific Northwest...).

(walkin' to the zoo)

Cats

 (2 feet from a mauling)

 (sleeping)

 (awake)

Australian

Hipster

Reptiles

(Jungle Book's Kaa even stopped by)

(She was warned!)

(this is the weirdest thing I've ever heard)

Right next to the zoo is a wonderful little rose garden.  For some reason Andrea thinks she needs to visit rose gardens.

While on a little harbor cruise we happened upon some sea lions hanging out on a buoy.

We needed a little break from all the sun and nice weather the area is known for, so we made our way over to the Seattle Aquarium where we could spend some time indoors and, at times, under water.

 (one-eyed fish)

 (salmon)

The water in a lot of the tanks are pumped in directly form the Puget Sound and therefore VERY cold. I would not like to be one of the scuba divers that feeds the fish.

By this time the one thing we were missing were bugs :( Thankfully, the Pacific Science Center has a Tropical Butterfly House.

 (just having a snack)

 (Andrea's smiles smell good!)

I was so relived when I found this little gem in Portland, because frankly I was worried P-Town was going to be a little boring after all we saw in Seattle.

Also in Portland we were greeted by an Andy Warhol painting when we stayed at a fancy pantsy hotel.

When we went to the Goonies house in Astoria the neighbor's kamikaze cat was attacking our legs in hopes of some petting.

 (Andrea didn't want her allergies acting up for some reason)

When we were at the Goonies house we could hear sea lions barking.  We followed our ears and found a little sea lion community (while there we learned that sea lions are dangerous - who knew?).

At the famous Portland Rose Test Garden we found out that the City of Roses is quite the party town.

When we came back to California we were greeted by a skunk in the grocery store parking lot, so I guess we can't escape the wildlife.

sorry the pictures are so bad :(