In Phoebe's language, it was Christmas Eve Eve, and Aditya suddenly said that we should go somewhere, see something on the morrow. Of course, he had an extra long weekend due to Christmas, and I was more than eager to finally get out of the house and visit some places around Seattle. Aditya looked around on the internet, and we decided to visit the Seattle Aquarium. It seemed a small challenge to go so far without a car (it is atleast 2 hours away from our home here). But we were sure we could manage it. So we looked through the bus routes that we would have to take, and decided to leave the house at around 9 in the morning.
Come Saturday, Dec 24, and we woke up only at 8 in the morning. So the plan to leave the house at 9 went for a toss. We still had to make breakfast and have our baths and do whatever. However, we did manage to leave at 9.45. We waited for the bus till 10.10. Of all the days, today the bus was 5 minutes late. We could only hope that we woudn't miss our connecting bus. Coz according to our trip itinerary (yes, they have this here), we had to take the route 230 to Bellevue Transit Centre, and take Route 550 from BTC to Union Street, Seattle. From there, we were supposed to walk down the Madison Street to reach the Seattle Aquarium.
To get back to the point, Bus 230 was late today, and we could only hope that we wouldn't miss our Bus 550 at the BTC. In that case, we would have had to wait at BTC for an hour before the next 550 came along. However, we just made it.
The road from BTC to Seattle was amazing. I could see really cute houses that you get to see only in films. After that, there were small valleys and mountains in the background, to say nothing of the vast expanse of oceanic beauty that followed the mountains. Our bus travelled through the Seattle Expressway. Unlike back in India, the driver did not have to pay toll or anything :). The Expressway was also one of the most beautiful roads that I have ever seen in my whole life. I remember getting that feeling only once before - when I and Aditya travelled to Mahabaleshwar by car some months ago.
Seattle by daylight was beautiful. (I had a glimpse of Seattle after dark while going home from the airport on Dec 16). The city is situated very conveniently in a valley, and it is surrounded on three sides by mountains, and on one side by the Pacific Ocean. Actually, a bay in the Pacific Ocean. By the time we reached Seattle, it had started to rain. Rain is just a way of life out here. But we Puneites are used to it by now - especially after the extended monsoon we have had this year.
After we got down at the Union Street bus stop, we had no idea of the direction that we had to walk in. We had no idea where Madison street was, and we had no idea where the Aquarium was. It is impossible to ask anybody in the streets, because there is no one around to ask. We started walking blindly in one direction, hoping it would be the right one. Due to the Holiday Season, some of the shops were closed as well. So we could not inquire in the shops. Finally we saw a shop open, and Aditya went in and asked the guy. He asked us to take the Universtiy Street and turn right at the next corner. Which is exactly what we did. We could see the sea in front of us (sorry if the phrase sounded too tacky) and we were sure the Aquarium would be somewhere nearby. We weren't sure exactly how near.
We finally saw the Waterfront area and asked another shopkeeper for directions. He helped us and showed us where the Aquarium was. Our guess was right - it was at seaside in the Waterfront area. After spending some time admiring the sea at Pier 10, and clicking some pictures at Pier 10, we hurried down to the Aquarium. We took the tickets and then we were transferred to a completely different world for the next 2 hours.
We went inside, and the first thing that we saw was otters. Simply marvelous. I had only heard of animals called otters. I had read about them in some books - I distinctly remembered an Enid Blyton book that had a mention of otters (even after years of studying literature, your childhood readings always stand you in good stead). These animals were huge - I had somehow imagined them smaller in size. It was their lunchtime and we saw them frolick around in the water while food was being served. It was a sight worth watching - worth taking all the trouble to go to the Aquarium in the rain and cold, not being able to feel our fingers and all the stuff. But the moment we entered the Aquarium, it was a riot of colours, shapes, sizes, and movement. Life took on a different meaning in there.
We saw such different varieties of life there! We saw huge mammals such as otters and Sea Lions. We also saw the almost invisible jellyfish. Starfish, octopus, whales, sharks, sting rays, sea horses, eels...name an aquatic animal and you would have it. We kept going to some exhibits again and again to see the kind of colours that we knew we would perhaps never be able to see anywhere else. We kept stopping at the exhibits again and again, because we knew we would never be able to see the vast variety of sea life in such a compact area.
After the otters, came the sea lions. As soon as we looked at them, we knew why they were called lions. These huge animals immediately struck as majestic and royal, as much as their feline namesake in the forests of Africa (I don't know if there are any remaining in the Gir to mention them). The sea lions were resting - some of them on the rocks, while others in the water. The ones in the water seemed to be only floating around on their backs. Looking at them, I thought wouldn't it be beautiful to be able to use your natural surrounding as your bed and cushions. We humans cannot sleep on the soil directly. We must have a bed, or at least a mattress. Such are the imperfections of human existence.
We saw numerous small fishes...I call it fishes, coz there were such a wide variety of them! It was easy to imagine them in their natural surroundings. The landscape would be a thousand times more vast and beautiful. Perhaps there would be uncountable different kinds of fishes in a single landscape. It would be wild and untamed. Untouched by human hands, the beauty would almost be surreal.
As we would say it in Marathi, 'aso'. There was the sharks section where a lady diver was cleaning the tank. (At least that's how it looked). She was wearing a Christmas cap under water!! It looked pretty interesting...I am sure if Santa chose a submarine as his vehicle instead of a carriage driven by reindeer, he would look exactly like the lady under water. After some time, she turned to us and she waved to us. Then she gestured something to the kids around and lay down on her back in the water. And then...lo and behold...she actually puffed out air rings for our benefit. The show was quite impressive, and the lady got a lot of applause. The kids were transfixed and the adults were appreciative. It was a nice few moments out there.
We also got to saw how they fed the octopus. A lady - Polly - had climed a ladder to reach the octopus tank. It was higher than most other tanks. She had a jar in her hand with goodies for the animal. She actually leant down deep in the tank over the octopus and gave the goodies right in the tentacles of the octopus. In the process, the octopus got hold of Polly's hands several times. She (they informed us that the octopus was female) also got hold of Polly's jar once or twice. Every time she did this, Polly had to really struggle to free herself of the octopus. The tentacles had suckers on them with which the octopus got hold of Polly. The suckers created a vaccum, and it would need a lot of strength to get away. In natural surroundings, I beleive the octopus would get hold of a victim with all eight of its tentacles at once, choking the victim to death. In the aquarium, the feeding tank was (thankfully) so small that the octopus could attach only one of her tentacles to Polly. The whole excersize was very interesting. They had also created two fake octopus tentacles in the octopus section. I took a picture with one of the tentacles over my shoulder.
There was a tank full of starfish near the octopus section. We went over to admire the starfish and I saw a notice - "Please touch the animals gently with only one finger at a time" or something to that effect. I was fascinated. I wanted to touch these animals desperately...but I also did not want to touch something slimy, and slippery, and basically something that looked partially like it belonged to the Slytherin House. But then...I knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So I went ahead and touched them. I was shocked by the encounter. These animals did not have slimy skins at all! In fact their skins were almost dry, and as hard as rock. I was going to touch some more, but I just happened to notice a crab really interested in the poky things that came in the tank and caressed the starfish all the time. He (I think he was male) also was an animal, he also had feelings. But I was not ready to risk my fingers to know what kind of feelings he actually had.
By this time, we were tired enough, and we had started thinking fondly of our warm home and hot lunch. We also had the challenge to find our bus stop and take the right bus at the right time. We were almost at the end of the tour. So we just looked at some more small fish quickly and found ourselves an exit. We came out of the aquarium, and it was cold and raining. We started walking in what we hoped was the right direction. In the process, I saw such huge garment shops with the most beautiful clothes that I had ever seen. I saw the most amazing wedding gowns! Oh they were so beautiful!! I understood immediately why women out here want to get married several times.
Downtown Seattle was very prettily decked for Christmas. The shops were nicely decorated, and they had their best stuff on window display. I really enjoyed this part also. I would have stayed there, looking around for some more time, but it was Christmas Eve, and Bus Service was not going to last forever. We finally found our bus stop. And we were very lucky...we got our bus in about 10 minutes. We were on our way back! We again changed busses at the BTC, and finally we were back to our home sweet home and for our lunch spicy lunch.
A day that can never be forgotten!
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