Tillicum Village - our Northwest Coast Native American Village

Given that it was a nice sunny day yesterday, I decided to go and check out the Tillicum Village tour. This tour is a 4 hour trip including a one hour cruise to Blake Island State Park (plus another hour going back to Seattle), a traditional Indian-style salmon buffet meal and Northwest Coast Native American dance performance, arts and crafts demonstrations and 30 minutes free time to check out the island. If you asked me to describe the tour, I would say that it is definitely a tourist trap and really not worth the money. Admittedly the food was very nice, especially the traditional Indian-style Baked Salmon and Warm Tillicum Whole Grain Bread and that you can get multiple helpings (I did take a photo of the food, but it came out blurry so I am too embarrassed to put this photo up on the site), but the dance performance was short and the 30 minutes was not really enough time to do anything. Blake Island is densely wooded and with many forested walking and hiking trails and 5 miles of beaches, there are lots of do there but with only 30 minutes, I would have missed my boat ride back if I wanted to make use of these. Thinking about it, given that half of the tour is spend getting there and back, maybe the main attraction is the cruise, but I must admit that you could get the same views from the Bainbridge Island ferry rides for only a few dollars.

Here are some photos from the water, from Tillicum Village itself and from the show (I was sitting near the back so it was a good use of my zoom and flash on my camera):

Seattle Waterfront

Space Needle and a cruise boat waiting to go to Alaska

The race is on...

Just in case...

Arriving at Tillicum Village

The Tillicum Village Longhouse

One of many totem poles on the island

Inside the Longhouse

Preparing the salmon for baking

The show

Oh, I also watch "Ratatouille" at the cinema and really enjoyed it. If you have not had the chance to watch it then I recommend it - as long as you can get over the thought that it is about a rat in a kitchen :-)