Aquarium / Zoo, Seattle

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NOTE: Pets and baloons are not allowed into the Seattle aquarium. Tickets are not valid for re-admission after you have left the building.

Half of the Seattle Aquarium is located inside an extremely heavily remodeled old waterfront building, while a semi-outdoor section of the aquarium is located next door on the north side of the main building in a much more modern concrete buidling.

A small taste of what you will find inside the Seattle Aquarium may be found on the sidewalk side of this modern concrete edifice. From the main entrance to the aquarium, walk north along the waterfront. Here you will find a small triangular courtyard, and along the west wall of the courtyard there is a tank that is very easy to miss filled with a few of the creatures that you will find inside the aquarium, but on display in a place that anyone can view them.

The price of $17 seems a little on the steep side, but the aquarium is an extremely popular destination and with the huge number of people that visit here you may be glad of that high entrance fee: imagine how many people would come here if the entrance price were lower! In fact, when I showed up in the morning, it was well before the opening time of 9:30, and already there was a fairly significant line in front of the building. I simply decided to explore other areas of the waterfront (including the nearby Ye Olde Curiosity Shop) before actually going in.

You will pay your admission at the front entrance, and be handed a map. Pay close attention to the map as there are a number of visitors that seem to have missed entire sections of the aquarium, and for the entrance price you will want to have visited the entire facility.

The first thing that you come to after paying your entrance fee will be a huge wall of fish, perhaps two floors high, swimming in a tank that provides an interesting color display. The kids really like this display, and it will be difficult to find a place to sit and watch in the area near this wall. I'm not sure exactly what the fascination is with this wall of fish, but possibly it is the light and sound shows that happen in this huge tank.

There is a tidal pool along the wall next to the tank that is also a popular place for the children to watch. Bursts of water from time to time simulate wave action. However, the tank is a bit high for most children. It is more at an adult viewing height.

After the gift shop, there is a fairly good sized room with two open tidal pools where people can touch certain types of sea life, including star fish. One of the tidal pools has some tidal action.

This room also features a number of smaller displays including a circulating jellyfish display that puts various color lights behind the jellyfish to illustrate how the light passes right through the jellyfish.

The passageway on the right goes further back into the building, and through there you will find another hands-on display that allows kids and adults to try on scuba diving equipment.

At the back of this building, you will find an entire section of the aquarium that is devoded to the University of Washington's work under the waters just off Hawaii. There are a number of unique fish here, plus some collections of very colorful live coral.

Several areas on the north side of the building have doors that allow you to enter the walkway between the two buildings, and enter the more modern concrete building that houses the Pacific Northwest collection. This includes under water life of Puget Sound and a fish ladder that connects part of the aquarium directly to Puget Sound so that if there is any fish life that decides to enter the aquarium of its own will, it is able to do so. There are also several species of sea bird that live in this building, plus several mammels, including sea otters, river otters, seals and sea lions.

There is a cafe on the second floor near the front entrance, but it is not separate from the rest of the aquarium and therefore requires paid admission to visit.

The aquarium gift shop has a number of Seattle and sea life items for sale, and has a separate entrance on the north side of the main building for those who want to see what the store has, but don't want to pay the $17 admission price.

Mid-morning (about 10:45), the otters are fed, and that is where I took the sea otters being fed video. The otters are most fun to watch during and after being fed.

I think the admission price is well worth the price for at least one visit, as there are things here that describe what you will find in Puget Sound. There is a good colletion of local items here, and the unique fish from Hawaii display is good information for those who haven't visited Hawaii, and a taste of what may come for those who are considered a trip there.

However, it does seem like a bit of money for what is here, in terms of considering weather I would want to go back there.

You should check the schedule of events to see if there is a special event happening during the time of your visit. Maybe it is something you want to go to, or maybe it is something you want to avoid due to the crowds.

Along with the photos, I also recorded the following videos at the Aquarium:

+ Sea Otters Being Fed

+ River Otters Grooming Eachother

+ Jelly Fish Light Show

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On the north side of Seattle there is a complex of fairly large parks made up of adjoining Green Lake Park and Woodland Park. Inside the boundaries of Woodland Park is Seattle's Woodland Park zoo.

The Woodland Park Zoo is a good zoo, but it is also not the extensive facility that you would find at, for example, the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park, where extensive habitat is available for some of the animals.

However, operating within the confines of a city zoo environment, the Woodland Park Zoo is quite good at what it has.

One of the features that I do like about it is the extensive plant life along the trails. This gives the zoo a much more wild feel, and by reducing the site distances allows the zoo to have a much larger feel for the visitors to the zoo (and we can hope it also holds true for the animals that call this place their permanent home).

While there are a fairly wide selection of animals from Asia, Africa and South America, the North America and Pacific Northwest section has a fairly nice selection of animals that many visitors may never see in the wild. This selection includes bald eagles (both wild and zoo exhibit: the local Puget Sound population decided to build a nest in one of the trees in the elk exhibit), mountain goats, and a few other animals from the region right around Seattle.

The zoo is, for the most part, organized by continent region, though there are some exhibits that group animals together by category (for example, a wide variety of birds are clumped together in the southwest corner).

The indoor exhibits close earlier than the rest of the zoo, so if you are only visiting for an afternoon, visit those first.

Prices: Visiting can get a little expensive: parking is currently $5 per vehicle, and adult entrance is currently $11 October through April, and $16.50 from May through September. Bus service very close, and goes right past the entrance on the west side of the zoo.

Nearby attractions include the Woodland Park Rose Garden (on the west side of the parking lot at the south entrance to the zoo), a small war memorial and the rest of Woodland Park itself, which is actually a pretty nice park and thanks to several pedestrian bridges does not require crossing any busy roads between the zoo area and the city park area.

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The Seattle Aquarium is very interesting because they show different kinds of aquatic animals at a certain particular day. They have "Special for the Day" kind of. This week, they are showing different kinds of Octopuses- from the smallest to the biggest. There are also different colors of octuposes.

One thing to decribe the Seattle Aquarium, lots of Sea Otters! The Seattle Aquarium features exotic fishes, sea mammals and other ocean life like the sea lions, harbor seals and even come face to face with a shark.

Hours: 9:30am to 5pm daily, Last entry at 5pm, exhibits close at 6pm

Aquarium Only
Adult (ages 13 & over) $15.00
Youth (ages 4-12) $10.00
Child 3 and under Free

Aquarium & Argosy Harbor Cruise
Adult (ages13 & over) $28.00
Youth (ages 6-12) $17.00
Child (ages 4-5) $10.00
Child 3 and under Free

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We didn't have the pleasure of visiting this attraction, but it looked like a nice aquarium and the line was really long, showing how popular it is. In this area, there are lots of great shops and restaurants, such as Red Robin on the pier, the great Pirate Shop where you can also get souvenirs and Christmas ornaments as well as all the pirate goodies you could ever want, Elliott's, and next to the pirate shop, you'll find another arcade and the greatest cookies ever made at the bakery next door.

A beautiful addition to Seattle's downtown area, Puget Sound wharf location, just down the hill literally from Pikes Place Market. A great place for kids and adults alike to learn about sea life - from fish to seals and see the beauty that is underneath and above the ocean's surface. Rating 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

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The Woodland Park Zoo is a few miles north of downtown and very accessible by bus. This zoo has some very innovative and award winning exhibits.

Northwewst Trek-Highlight is the brown bear exhibit in which the bears actually have a pond in which there is fish. The public can actually see below the surface of the pond and see the bears swimming. Other highlights-otters, bald eagles, wolves.

Noctural Exhibit-Bats, Loris, hedgehogs.

Tropical Forest Exhibit-Panther, frogs, tropical birds, pirhana.

Trail of Vines-Huge exihibit for orangatans and gibbons.

African Savanna-Elelphants, Lions, Hippos, Monkeys.

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The Woodland Park Zoo is a few miles north of downtown and very accessible by bus. This zoo has some very innovative and award winning exhibits.

Northwewst Trek-Highlight is the brown bear exhibit in which the bears actually have a pond in which there is fish. The public can actually see below the surface of the pond and see the bears swimming. Other highlights-otters, bald eagles, wolves.

Noctural Exhibit-Bats, Loris, hedgehogs.

Tropical Forest Exhibit-Panther, frogs, tropical birds, pirhana.

Trail of Vines-Huge exihibit for orangatans and gibbons.

African Savanna-Elelphants, Lions, Hippos, Monkeys.