Downtown - Day 3

After a hearty breakfast at the hotel, we checked out and headed towards downtown Seattle.  We always like wandering around the Seattle Centre, piers, markets and big stores.  Having kids with us does put a damper on things and we tried to keep the 'boring shopping' to a minimum! 

 We always park near Seattle Center and take the monorail into downtown.  Liam's first ride on a sky train and he was very pleased about it.

 There is a new attraction down on Pier 57.  At $15 per person it was not in our budget to ride but it was fun to watch for a while.

The downtown stores are full of excellent bargains.  As good or better than the outlets in same cases.  Multi-story Target, Forever 21, Old Navy, American Eagle, Nordstrom Rack and H&M are among some of our favorite places to check out. 

After walking around for several hours and finding some great deals we headed to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch.  The boys have a very favorite sandwich here that they love to share.  The chicken parmesan.  They are wise enough to know to save room for dessert!  I had a delicious BBQ Ranch Chicken salad that I will definitely be ordering again.

 The boys were able to come to an agreement on the Oreo cheesecake.  Keith and I shared the Chocolate Raspberry Truffle.  Oh my...SO good, SO rich, SO filling. 

 At this point Liam was nearing melt down stage so we headed back to Seattle Center on the monorail.  We took them to the spray park area so they could enjoy playing here.

 And you can't go to Seattle without taking a picture of the Space Needle!  Again...I'd love to go up but at $19 a person it was just too much.  Next time we'll budget for it.

 There is a new glass sculpture garden beside the needle that is quite amazing.  You have to pay to get in but for now the shrubbery is  small enough to peek in from outside.

 Chad is currently on a purple kick and loves anything purple so he wanted to get a picture in front of the EMP building.  Liam is looking a tad worn out here!

 It was one melt down after another at this point.  Half embarrassing and half entertaining.  I'm sure people felt sorry for us as they passed by.  I sure hope they did anyhow!!!

 Now back in the old days we simply did not take our children along on holidays like this because it wasn't worth the pain of the fall out from distruptued routines.  Now, we have no choice but to drag this wee lad around in order to have the older two boys still enjoy trips and whatnot.  By day three the lack of naps, late nights and new surroundings had caught up with Liam and he was a mess.  It was a very trying day and I was so frustrated!    Here's a little clip of what it was like as we were heading back to the car to head home.

 And about two seconds after he announced he was NOT TIRED he fell asleep and stayed that way for a good hour.  He was very sweet and in good humor when he awoke...back to the boy we know!

And that was our Seattle get-away.