Daddy, Stone, ugh, I was confusing my own brain, balked at the admission prices and tried to get out of it. “Not on your life, sir,” I huffed. “This is our trip and we are experiencing these things together. Two, please,” I told the attendant.
Stone and I stopped long enough for me to take a picture of us with the Space Needle in the background before heading up in the elevator.
“Whoa.” My eyes widened as we stepped off and onto the rotating platform. “This is insanely cool.” I’d have to upgrade my cloud storage before the day was over for sure. “Let’s get another picture of us with Seattle in the background.” We moved near the fenced edge and I snapped away. Stone was so cool with my excitement, never telling me to calm down. He smiled and went along with everything I wanted to do. The platform rotated at the perfect speed. Just enough to see a 360 view of Seattle but not enough to scramble your brains.
We took the long path to Pike Place, according to the map on my phone, but it was the one our driver had suggested. Just didn’t expect to walk right into the… “Daddy!” I squealed louder than I meant but was so excited. “The Aquarium. Can we go? Please?”
“Lead the way, little unicorn.”
Best soon to be Daddy ever.
“Okay, wait over there while I get the tickets.” No use making him feel any worse than he already did at the Space Needle. As soon as we entered, grown up me vanished and my little was in heaven.
I tried taking a few pictures but was so excited they kept coming out blurry. I huffed and deleted them.
“Little unicorn, hand me the phone and I’ll take the pictures while you explore.”
Up on tip toes I went, kissing his cheek. “Thank you, Daddy.”
I petted the stingrays and stopped at every exhibit. “Look Daddy, I’m a puffer fish.” I blew my cheeks up and Daddy laughed.
“You’re a silly boy is what you are. What’s your favorite SeaLife so far?”
“Umm,” I got all thinky. “I love them all, but the Sea Otters are my favorite. It’s so cute the way they hold each other’s hands. The seals were cool too but kinda stinky.” We headed up to the top where the gift shop was.
“What stuffy are you gonna get?” Daddy already knew me so well.
“Um, Sea Otters for sure.” I made a loop around the shop, just like I did at the train depot before, then made my final decision. “Sea Otter stuffy, Sea Otters holding hands magnet and a shiny rainbow Sting Ray. They were so silky smooth when I got to pet them.”
How many best days ever was one boy allowed to have?
We walked along the pier, holding hands just like my new otter friends. No one yelled ugly things at us or gave us dirty looks. It was so nice. “Daddy, my tummy’s grumbly.”
“I heard that. Time to feed my boy.”
“But nothing big cause I have a dinner surprise for Daddy,” I giggled.
“What’s my little imp up to?”
“Nothingggg,” I drug the word out. “It a s’prise.”
We had a nice lunch outdoors by the giant Ferris wheel and bought a few souvenirs for my parents and work colleagues plus more magnets. Daddy said it would be more fun to hang up the pictures I colored on the fridge with them.
Smart Daddy.
“I’m so full,” I whined as we walked back to the hotel, glad there were a couple of hours before dinner would be delivered. Then I had time to get hungry again.
“Me too. This was a wonderful day, little unicorn, thanks for letting me tag along.”
I stopped. “Tag along? Today wouldn’t have been half as much fun without you there.”
“You have no idea how much it means to hear you say that.”
He had no idea how much it meant for me to have him, even if it wasn’t the forever I wanted. This time we’ve had together opened my eyes to a whole new world. A world I wanted to be a part of, with him.
By the time we reached our room, we were both dragging. “How about a shower and a nap?”
“Sounds really good.” My feet and legs were done. “You go first.” Then I had time to get all my shower stuff together. I wanted to be extra clean for tonight, even had condoms since bad Daddy never wanted to do anything without them and now I had a pretty good idea why. Probably the best thing he ever did for me was insist on using them.
