This is going to be a long one....
The best part of the trip by far, of course, was getting to see my sister.
She has been gone since the end of March, so it was definitely time to see her. She seems so incredibly at ease in the city. I was incredibly impressed with how well she got around everywhere and how much she knew! It was like we were touring around with our own private tour guide all week! She knows so much about Seattle, it made the trip all that more interesting. Plus, she basically mapped out activities and places to go and things to do....we barely had to do anything other than show up! I feel I have somewhat of a new appreciation for my very free-spirited,
flannel wearing, easy-going, intelligent, always interesting, architecturally-minded, anything goes, beautiful sister. She is a great balance to me and always somehow makes even my life more interesting. She is just amazing and everything that goes along with it and I am so very blessed to have her in my life. Thank you Melissa for such a great trip. I love you.
So, here is what we did.....
We arrived around 11am (after 8 hours of traveling) Melissa was ready and waiting at the airport. We headed back to her place for a little bite to eat and she headed back to work so we could take naps and get ourselves on Pacific Time. (it's a 3 hour time difference, so it wasn't too bad) The only problem was that we arrived during a Seattle-heat wave. It was close to 90 degrees and barely anyone has air conditioning because it so rarely gets that warm there. (Nothing to us Ohioans of course, but we missed the a/c for our naps.)
Once Melissa got home we headed out for dinner at a cute place called OddFellows and had some delicious ice cream for dessert. Then we checked out her usual hangout - the park across the street. There were lots of people, all kinds of people and dogs. There was a group playing dodge ball, some doing some sort of karate, yoga, playing instruments and a group of pregnant women knitting, just to name a few.
After that, Melissa took us on an awesome driving tour of the city.
Thursday, Jason and I were on our own. Our amazing hostess did not leave us stranded though. We had lots of maps and a few ideas for fun that day. Our first stop...Pike Place Market.
Amazing!! And so fun! The fish throwing, the fresh flowers, fresh produce, all-natural almost everything, and all kinds of local artists selling goods. One could probably spend a day and nearly a fortune in there. One thing about Seattle I especially noticed was how beautiful all the flowers and green space is from all the rain. And the market did not let us down when it came to that. If I lived near there, I would most certainly always have fresh flowers at home. I cannot get over how beautiful they were. And good prices too. After a few hours, we continued on to get Jason some very fresh sushi. (Yum...except I just got to watch, due to baby. Well worth it of course.) We then headed down to the waterfront, Jason had a beer on the water, and then
we continued to Seattle Center. Luckily at this point we found a/c and cold drinks to just chill for awhile. Then, we found the fountain. (That's us in front of it - yes, that is a little baby bump - yay!) We spent about three hours just people watching and enjoying the sunshine. Melissa met us after work and then we headed up to the Space Needle just in time for sunset. After a bite to eat and watching a little karaoke, we called it a night.
Friday morning we took it easy until Melissa got home from work at lunch. We headed out for pizza and ice cream. :) Then, we headed to Ballard to see the locks and the fish ladder. There were only 2 salmon swimming in there, we are in between migrating seasons. The locks were super fun to watch though. Then we headed to the Fremont Troll, which is a huge piece of artwork under an overpass. Pretty cool. (You can check out the pics on Jason's site.) And I also could not forget one little surprise arranged by Melissa. She found a Cupcake Shop!! Wow! So fun! We all had a little snack, and they were quite tasty. I would love to have a cupcake shop. Actually, I think Melissa and I discussed some sort of cupcake/donut/ice cream brewhouse as a fun business venture. ;) We kept adding things as the days went on. Being a Friday night, we headed out of town to check out some local wineries as Washington has great wines. What we didn't do was research and we made it out there past closing time. So, we ended up at a brewhouse called Red Hook where we had dinner, Melissa & Jason had drinks, and we watched a Doors coverband for a short while. Fun night. By this time the weather had turned more Seattle-like, but still without rain. Definitely much cooler, but nice.
Saturday was our last day. :( We had the options to drive to the mountains or head back up to the wineries. But, first, we had to check out a "Man vs. Food" challenge location. We dined at Beth's. They have been "makin' bacon" since 1954. :) It's a small place that serves breakfast all day long. It was great!! I so wish they had something like that by us. The omeletes come in
either 6 or 12-egg sizes and you have your choice of toppings, they also come with all-you-can-eat hash browns and toast. Very fun, very delicious breakfast!
So, then, we opted for winery, as that is one of our favorite things to do. And, with my "psuedo-gout" and our long journey home the following day, mountain hiking did not sound as appealing. Plus, we had a DD! Me!
We headed back out to Woodinville. We went to a Columbia tasting room, toured Chateau ste Michelle and hit Melissa's favorite for the architecture, Novelty Hill/Januik where we played
bocce ball and watched a wedding party be photographed.
Fun day. But, it wasn't over yet. We headed back to town and had to hit yet another "Man vs. Food" location. This one not all-you-can-eat anything, but probably the most delicious burgers I have had. It's called Red Mill Burgers. Tasty. Then we headed out to Gasworks Park where we saw another wedding reception and listened to some live music. Also a beautiful park with a kite hill and view of the city. Next, because it was too early to call it quits, we headed to Pyramid Ale brewhouse. There, I had chili and water and they had beers and dessert. Quite a combo. Nice place though right across from the Mariners ballpark.
That was it, we headed home to get some sleep before having to get up at 4am to travel all day on Sunday.
I was sad to leave Melissa, but glad we had such a great trip and great memories. Plus, I get to see her this weekend again! Yay!
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