Thing One visits the Port of Seattle
Today most of the 6th grade went on a school field trip to the Port of Seattle. First, we went to the Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center, near the cruise ship docks. I saw a plastic salmon statue, a Lego model of a cruise ship, and a model dam. There was more stuff at the museum but I didn’t see it because I was more interested in playing with the model dam, and some other students on the field trip were, too.
The model had a mountain where water came out, and there was a dam with square holes in it which could be opened and closed. There were 2 canals: one had blocks blocking the water, which you could take off and on. There were plastic stone edges and plastic stone islands, and orange and blue blocks to take on and off between joints below the dam to make floodgates. Then, there was a drain which took the water in (and probably took the water back up to the mountain) and a little dock, with toy boats mostly at that end, and also toy dolphins and sharks, a toy turtle and a rubber ducky with snorkeling goggles. We put up the floodgates and walls in the dam and closed the dam and put some of the boats and sea animals in the canals closed off, also from the dam’s water and then, let open the holes in the dams which made a big wave. The boats in the canals toppled over and the rubber ducky always fell off the boat he was on. We were at the museum for 25 minutes (I didn’t want to leave the museum).
Next, we went on an Argosy boat in which we toured around the Port of Seattle. After the harbor cruise we had lunch outdoors near the Seattle Aquarium and then went to the Port of Seattle Headquarters. We got to see a presentation about importing and exporting and “baby pictures” of the Port of Seattle and what they use to lift containers on train cars to take them across the United States. The presenter also gave us an interesting fact: the car garage in Sea-Tac airport is the biggest car garage under one roof in North America. Did you know that? After the presentation, we went back to school but we didn’t have to go to class because it was almost the end of school, and then we went home when school was over.
I think my cousins would enjoy the Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center, especially the Water At Work exhibit (the model dam). The museum’s web page has some games to play at home!
