Seattle (Amazon!)

Today was the day we wanted to spend the day in downtown Seattle, and my Nana Marilee was joining us! We are staying at my Dad’s Aunt Kristi’s house in Pouslbo, Washington, and it is across the Puget Sound from Seattle. We started out the day taking a ferry from near Poulsbo right into downtown. It was a super great view of the tall buildings, space needle, the Seahawk’s stadium and many other ships. The ferry was very smooth, and it could fit over 200 cars on it.

Our first stop was the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park near Pioneer Square. My mom said grunge bands like Nirvana got their start near here. I learned a lot about the Gold Rush, and how most people got their start to Alaska here in Seattle. I also became a Junior Ranger – of course!

Our next stop was Pikes Place Market with their flying fish, fresh fruit and tons of tulips. We saw the nasty gum alley, and I got a hot chocolate at the original Starbucks.

When we left Pikes Place Market we wanted to go to the Space Needle. I really wanted to go to the “Amazon Go” store and it was only a few blocks off the path. When we got there we saw the spheres and we wanted to see if we could go in. When we started walking towards the door a random employee (Hi Tiffany!) came out and said, “You can’t go in without an employee, but lucky for you my meeting just got cancelled so I can give you a private tour.” So we got to go in the Spheres and it was awesome. There were so many plants and greenery. There was a wall called the living wall and it was a wall covered with live plants. There was also an awesome “Birdsnest” and it was a place for people to concentrate, and a conference room that looked like an eagle exhibit at a zoo. On the top floor there was a sun bathing place to work too.

Then we went to Day One, a massive Amazon office building. We went up to the 19th floor and the way the elevators worked was you pressed what floor you we going to and how many people were with you before even entering the elevator. That way you can tell if the elevator fits everyone. The view from the 19th floor was phenomenal. You could see all of downtown, the water, and the space needle, parts of the Queen Anne neighborhood and Lake Washington.

Then the worker had a meeting so we parted ways and went to the Amazon Go store. The way the go store works is you scan your phone and cameras track you while you are in the store. You can take things from the shelves and walk out and it charges your amazon account. We each grabbed something to drink, and the receipt came up on my dad’s phone about 5 minutes later! Today we got a once in a lifetime experience to see the Amazon campus and it was awesome.

Other things we did to finish the day out was walk to the Space Needle, take the monorail, walk along the waterfront and eat fish and chips at the famous Ivar’s on the bay. (WT & MT)