Pike Place Market

When you search Seattle, Pike Place Market is one of the first places that pops up.  It has taken us quite a few months to get there though.The boys weren’t interested in going with, which was just as well.  It is really crowded. 

It is very colourful, with tons of flower stalls and beautiful clothes and crafts.  It was very tempting.  (I have a weak spot for glass!)

  

There is a section for produce and fish, as well as quite a few delis with some very interesting foods from all over the world.

 

 

 

Discovered a tea shop that sold normal rooibos tea for about $23 a pound.  (I can find the vanilla rooibos in the local supermarkets, but it is not one of my favourites.) Also discovered a butcher with a variety of international sausages.  I think it will be quite a while before I buy boerewors again.  I guess we will have to make do with the minimum in South African staples.

We had lunch at one of the fish vendor stalls.  Even the cheap fish here is very tasty!

It isn’t nearly the same size as Victoria Market in Melbourne, but it is fun to go, at least once. All the products seem to be of good quality.  Great place to find a souvenir!

 

And don’t forget to check out the guys throwing the fish…

Moving Pictures

Just a quick post with some images from Melbourne Aquarium over the weekend.  Hope you can see the slideshow.  I need to rush to be in time for my daughter’s appointment with the surgeon.

Moms, kids and school holidays

School only starts again in February, so the kids are already showing signs of cabin fever.  Since we have a yearly pass for the Melbourne Aquarium, I decided we should take a train trip in to the city. 

After drowning my sorrows over the broken lens in a huge box of chocolate, I decided to just have fun with the photography and focus on getting the shot, not worrying about graininess and ISO.  (My slower lens required me to shoot at 1600 ISO).

We started with the penguins again.  They swim so enormously fast! 

 

My daughter loves the seahorses.  This one was really swimming upside down.

We rushed through the  next area, since the kids wanted to get to the interactive display.  We did stop to look at some of the fish and frogs though.  The last frog is quite venomous: the poison arrow frog.

  The kids then took some time to touch the creatures in the interactive display.

Then we got to the jellyfish.  The lighting in there was great!  The kids loved how their white clothes lit up under the lights.

The jellyfish are lit with different kinds of light to show their different properties.

  These babies are about the size of my fingernail.

This giant crab looked like it was posing!  Couldn’t resist getting a shot.

The day ended up being enormous fun, in both the photography and time with the kids.

Variety at the Tesselaar Tulip Festival

There sure was lots to see at the tulip festival.  These are some last photos of the event.

  

Taking granddad to the aquarium

My father in law is here for a short visit.  On Tuesday we took him to the aquarium to see the fishies!  I really do love the colours in the different tanks.

      
   

These fish are so beautiful, yet so poisonous.

     

My daughter really loves visiting, from the rock pools where you can touch the creatures

   

to the shark area where fish swim over you…