a ferry trip to bainbridge island

one of the "must do" activities in seattle is to take a ferry to one of the many surrounding islands. we had talked about doing it all summer, but never found the time. thatcher had last wednesday off for veteran's day (and azalea was off school), so we decided to take a ferry to bainbridge island. it ended up being a rare sunny day in the 50's, so it was perfect! 

we drove downtown to catch the ferry. it was way bigger than i was expecting because it was also a car ferry. the kids were really good on the 30 minute ride over to bainbridge. we spent some time outside and some time inside. the view of the city as we pulled away was awesome! as you'll see, most of these pics are from the ferry rather than the island. 

bainbridge was a really cute place! lots of shops and restaurants - it would be fun to go back without the kids sometime. ha! we ended up only being there for 2 hours because i needed to get back to seattle to meet up with a friend in the afternoon. we had lunch in the downtown (vietnamese from a to go hut for thatcher and me, random stuff from the hot deli at the grocery store for the kids). whatever works, right?! 

the kids were a lot more squirrly on the ride back. they had a blast running around and squealing with some other kids they met. 

i'm so glad we finally got to experience a ferry ride here, now we have to to think about which island to visit next!