On the Clipper
We have two young grandsons and wanted to take them on an exciting, but short, trip. A few days in a city might be fun for island kids: a zoo, a museum, the science centre perhaps? But then we stumbled on an idea that would make even the travel itself exciting: boats, trains and a border crossing!
The Clipper, the fast ferry between downtown Victoria and downtown Seattle offers packages on their website. We discovered that we could take the ferry to Seattle, stay in a hotel there, then return by train! The Clipper organized all details.
We made our way to Victoria where we boarded the Clipper in the inner harbour, right across from the Parliament Buildings. The ride takes less than 3 hours. You go through US Customs and Immigration prior to boarding. Because we were taking our grandkids, we had a letter from their parents saying that we were allowed to take the kids across the border. Children don’t need a passport for this land crossing (they DO need it if you are flying back!).
The Clipper has comfortable, assigned seats and offers food and drink. The kids can walk around and we played games at ‘our’ table.
It was fun for all of us to see the San Juan Islands from a different angle and a different side of Seattle as we approached.
Because the ferry docks right downtown, we didn’t even need a taxi to get to our hotel. We had booked a two night package deal through the Clipper and simply walked uphill to the downtown hotel.
The hotel was perfect, with two beds, plenty of space and a pool. The next day we walked to the famous Fisherman’s Wharf where large fish are being tossed through the air at the open market place. We visited our favourite little shop with magic tricks, where the kids’ dad shopped for flaming wallets and fake thumbs when he was their age. Of course we had a coffee at the original, very first, Starbucks on the water front in Seattle.
Seattle’s mono-rail
Riding the mono rail.
Another exciting form of transportation in Seattle was the mono rail. We boarded it not far from our hotel and rode, right up front, to the Space Needle. The Space Needle is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the US. It was built for the 1962 World’s Fair and stands 605 feet tall. The tower’s “top house” offers 360-degree views of downtown, Mount Rainier, Puget Sound, the Cascades and Olympic mountain ranges.
Floating on a glass floor high above Seattle!
The top includes a floor-to-ceiling glass observation deck with open-air glass walls and a rotating glass floor. I opted to stay on solid ground but Kees and the kids zoomed skyward in the elevator and loved walking around, gazing down on Seattle and surrounding area.
Right next to the Space Needle is Pacific Science Center. We spent hours in here, exploring tide pools, shooting water guns, playing with gigantic chess pieces and much, much more. Well worth a visit.
There is also a great, large playground right by the Space Needle and Science Center.
On our second full day in Seattle we rented a car to reach another of Seattle’s iconic landmarks: the Boeing factory. We had booked a tour time online to visit what is, apparently, the largest building in the world, measuring 13,385,378 m³ and covering 98.7 acres! We all enjoyed walking around this operational airplane factory to watch how Boeing airplanes are assembled from engines to wings to seats and everything in between. Be sure to check online if you want a tour because I think it has been closed during Covid. The Future of Flight shows do seem to be open.
Boeing: largest building in the world.
After these days full of excitement, it was great that our hotel had a pool where we could relax before bedtime. On the day of our return trip, we had to get up early and made our way to the Amtrak station. Our package included the return trip by train: Amtrak-Cascades. How exciting to settle into our seats for a different view. This time Washington zoomed by our window as the train clickety-clacked us back up to the Canadian border.
In Amtrak’s dome.
The train was a bit run down and food at the cafeteria cart was very limited so it was good that we brought some of our own lunches and snacks. But it was again great that the kids could move around. We spent much time in the view dome above the regular compartments. The border crossing was painless as US Immigration boarded the train and walked around checking passports while we traveled north.
This entire 3 day trip was something we thoroughly enjoyed. It was a chance to relax, not having to drive, to watch the scenery and explore attractions we had not visited before. With or without kids, this is a tour we highly recommend if you want to explore the Victoria/Seattle area.
RESOURCES:
https://www.clippervacations.com/seattle-victoria-ferry/
https://www.warwickhotels.com/warwick-seattle
https://pacificsciencecenter.org/
https://www.boeing.com/company/tours/
