The Zoo & The Tacoma Nature Center

Yesterday Gabby & Ethan came down for a visit. We took them to Pt. Defiance Zoo so they could see the new walruses and polar bears.  We got there right when the zoo opened at 9am so it was still cool out and the animals were quite active.  The polar bears were wrestling with each other in the water right up against the glass, which was funny and very cool.  We even got to see the Arctic Fox, which hardly ever makes an appearance. We stayed for the educational show at the aquarium before going in to feed the budgies, which was fun.  For some reason they didn't like Scott's food stick, but they loved Gabby's sticks and many of them flew onto her hands.  After the zoo we went home for a yummy lunch of tacos and then we were off again to the nearby Tacoma Nature Center for a short hike to see some birds.  We did have some luck and had close up views of some more elusive birds. We heard some woodpeckers but didn't get to see any, so that was a bit of a bummer. But we didn't see any snakes, so I call that a win! The trail around Snake Lake was nice with two bridges. We did see some turtles in the water, but the water level was super low.  It's been a very dry and hot summer.  It was fun to see the kids and I'm glad they came down since we won't be seeing them for a while as they head to Alaska next Friday for vacation.

It took forever for a bird to land on Scott's stick and then it kept hopping onto Ethan & Gabby's sticks instead. They gave Scott a bad stick!

Looking for birds.

Britannia Mine Museum

Our last attraction was the Britannia Mine Museum just a couple miles south of the Sea to Sky Gondola in Squamish. We rode a little train into the old mine then did a 30-minute tour learning about how the miners did their jobs and the struggles they went through mining for copper.  Then we went into the old mine building (which was actually the 3rd mine structure built in 1923) and watched a video about the history of the mine. It was really isolated there as the only transportation to this area was by boat. It made it quite a closed knit community and stayed that way for decades before the highway was built, making it easier to get to Vancouver.  The mine operated for 70 years and employed over 60,000 people before it finally closed down in 1974.  Eventually it was designated a historical site and turned into a museum.  

Part of the foundation of the first building.

View of Howe Sound and the area that used to be known as the "Beach" where the workers lived in company housing.

On the little train heading into the mine.

The mine building. They told us that they filmed the live action Scooby Doo 2 movie here among others. It was huge at 20 stories tall. 

The building from the outside.

Original mine building #1.

Mine building #2, which ended up burning down.

Hard to believe 12 miners could fit in here. It was so cramped inside!

A metal stretcher inside the ambulance car.

This truck was HUGE!!!

With Scott for scale.

Sea to Sky Gondola

We checked out early on Thursday and headed straight to Squamish, which was about an hour south. There, we rode the Sea to Sky Gondola to the top of Mount Habrich, which is 885 meters tall. The gondola ride takes approximately 10 minutes to reach the top. We were lucky again and got an entire gondola to ourselves since it wasn't too crowded.  It ended up being a bit breezy that day, so our gondola swayed way more than on any of the others we had gone on so that was a bit nerve wracking. But we made it safely to the top where we promptly crossed the 100-meter suspension bridge to do the short Spirit Trail.  Then we decided to hike the 1.3k Panorama Trail and finally the 1.6k Wonderland Lake Trail.  The views of Howe Sound were amazing!

Really cool platform for views of Howe Sound and the surrounding hills.

They built a boardwalk all around the little lake which was cool.