Enjoy your cruise from Pier 55 on Seattle's Waterfront to Beautiful Blake Island State Park.

To the south as you leave Pier 55 is the main Seattle ferry terminal where the green and white double ended Washington State ferries depart for Bremerton and Bainbridge Island. You can see the giant Port of Seattle cranes loading and unloading containers on the huge cargo ships arriving from all over the world. Cruise ships come and go as they share the wonders of Alaska with visitors pampered in luxury on the round trip cruises out of Seattle's busy harbor. Quest Field, home of the Seahawks football team and Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariner's baseball club, anchor the southern city skyline with the splendor of Mt. Rainier in the distance.

To the north, the Seattle Aquarium, Port of Seattle offices, and the Edgewater Hotel with its giant "E" serving as a navigational marker, line the waterfront. Set just back from the shore is the historic Pike Place Market, the spectacular Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park and, behind that is the Seattle Center with the soaring arches of the Pacific Science Center and the iconic Seattle Space Needle.

As you cruise out into Elliott Bay, the vista of Seattle's spectacular cityscape opens up behind you and beyond that is the beautiful Cascade Mountain Range.

Cruise past Alki beach and the Alki Point Lighthouse. Alki, a Native word meaning "by and by", was used to describe the birthplace of Seattle in 1851. The pioneers named their tiny settlement on Puget Sound, "New York Alki" in anticipation of the city's growth into a major metropolitan hub on the country's west coast. On the east side of Puget Sound is Bainbridge Island. Captain George Vancouver, in 1791, was the first European explorer to visit Puget Sound waters and anchored just off Restoration Point, the southern tip of Bainbridge Island. From there his crew set out to explore and name much of the area. Past Bainbridge you can see the Kitsap Peninsula and beyond that the Olympic Mountains, most of which are protected as National Forest and the magnificent Olympic National Park.

Blake Island is directly ahead of you as you cruise past Alki Point. Slightly to the port, (left), side of the tour boat is Vashon Island stretching down the channel to Tacoma, along with an absolutely incredible view of Mount Rainier. Puget Sound is a semi enclosed glacial fiord that was carved out in the last ice age thousands of years ago. The average depth of the sound is about 450 feet with some areas deeper than 900 feet. The mid channel depth crossing to Blake Island is slightly deeper than the height of the Space Needle. A unique body of water, Puget Sound stretches about 100 miles south to Olympia, the capitol of Washington State. The sound is actually a huge estuary with the fresh water running down from Cascade and Olympic mountain rivers mingling with the salt water of the Pacific Ocean.

Blake Island is a jewel of the Washington State Parks system. The 475 acre island is a wonderful example of a Pacific Northwest lowland forest and has a 5 mile saltwater beach circling the island park. Tillicum Village was built on Blake Island with private funds, then donated to the state. The Tillicum Village Northwest Coast Indian Cultural Center and Restaurant opened in 1962. The cruise from Seattle's Pier 55 to Blake Island State Park and Tillicum Village takes about 45 minutes.