SEATTLE – Ever wanted to be a part of the highlight of someone’s Seattle vacation? You don’t need to book a concert at Pike Place Fish Market or the Space Needle — you can just make a cameo by swimming in the Ballard Locks.

For local boat owners, getting through the Ballard Locks is a tedious experience — even a pain on a busy summer weekend when there’s a long line. I don’t own a pleasure boat, so I always look out over the Locks from the observation deck with a mixture of fascination and envy. That is, until I find myself in a rowboat 12 feet below the tourist crowd, listening to the locksmith’s orders as the special miter gates close behind me.

The Deal: A guided tour with Ballard Kayak & Paddleboard, a three-hour excursion in the Locks ($98 per person plus tax and tip; includes kayaks and equipment; Friday through Monday and Wednesday). Your supporting role is just one highlight of a tour that offers something for everyone: fun on the water, dad jokes, a history lesson, an up-close look at local wildlife, and more.

On a pleasant, breezy July afternoon, I gathered with 14 others at the W Dock at Shilshole Bay Marina, where an 11-year-old boat rental company maintains a fleet of sit-on-top kayaks and stand-up paddleboards.

The tour is suitable for families (ages 4 and up) and beginner kayakers. A 30-minute safety demonstration and paddling clinic got us into the water and taught us the proper paddling moves for an efficient trip. For guided tours, clients wear life jackets and are assigned to Necky Looksha T tandems. These 18-foot plastic kayaks are stable—only one has ever tipped over on a tour in the past four years, when two paddlers simultaneously leaned over the same side of the boat and spotted a bald eagle.

Tandems have the rudder and foot pedals in the rear cockpit, making steering much easier, while the rower up front sets the pace. As our guide Lindsay Maggard explained, “The front seat is the gas pedal, the back seat is the steering wheel.”

Wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and rainbow-strapped Chaco sandals, Maggard looked like a sun-bleached ski guide soaking up every ray of a Northwest summer. He paired his easygoing style with Big Dad Joke Energy, offering up a slew of fun facts and figures about local ecology and history, as well as some truly groan-worthy one-liners. (“A lifetime of driving through the Locks, for example, has its ups and downs,” he said.)

With the wind at our back, we cruised at a leisurely pace, sometimes swimming more than paddling, as Maggard and his guide friend Cat Leonowicz led us about 2 miles east to the Locks. Along the way, we saw harbor seals, great blue herons, bald eagles, and a large jellyfish. These wildlife encounters make the tour more than just about the Locks; on the saltwater side, you encounter an impressive array of biodiversity that complements the marvel of human engineering that awaits you at the climax of the tour.

We learned about the transient nature of sea lions, the backstory of the century-old tall ship Adventuress, and evidence of glacial rocks hiding in plain sight in a cliff above Shilshole Bay.

For out-of-town guests, I think the entire tour will be amazing, from the sailboat activity in the marina to the open water with views of the West Point Lighthouse and beyond, to the beach houses and piers in Magnolia, to the heron colonies in Commodore Park.

Of course, the highlight is the passage through the Locks.

The pros at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who operate the Locks 24/7, make it look easy. Boats use the small lock and must swim sideways until the announcement system tells you it’s your turn. Step up, dive in, and grab one of the many yellow metal spikes on the sides of the lock. The higher spikes are aligned for boats to tie off; the ones closest to the water are easily accessible to a kayaker. Then sit tight as 33,000 gallons of fresh water gush out for every foot of elevation you must ascend to reach Salmon Bay. Smile at the tourists, wave to the lock operators, and wait until the gates open. Lather, rinse, and repeat on your way back.

The whole process is over before you know it. This efficiency is intentional.

The locks are a working navigational tool—the busiest lock system in the United States and one of the only lock systems in the world connecting saltwater and freshwater bodies. The locks are a brilliant necessity essential to Seattle’s maritime commerce—even as they have had long-lasting effects on Native concerns, from impeding salmon stocks to drying up the Black River, a lifeline for the Duwamish.

The guides cover this tension rather superficially. For those looking for more depth, pick up a copy of “Waterway: The Story of Seattle’s Locks and Ship Canal,” by historians Jennifer Ott and David B. Williams.

But while a three-hour kayak tour understandably lacks the professional historian’s rigour, it makes up for it with a fun day on the water that offers a microcosm of our city. As Maggard summed up as we paddled into Shilshole: “Here in Seattle, we try to live side by side with nature. The Locks are a symbol of our biodiverse side and our functional, human side.”