This past weekend Andrew and I ran away together to Seattle! It was sooooooooo much fun. Did I mention that it was fun? Anyways, I have amazing parents who willingly watched our kids and let us have this time together. While we were gone we realized that the last time we went away somewhere for more than one night was when we went on our cruise while I was pregnant with Jonathan. We vowed to not let another 5 years pass before we do this again;)
Aside from making the hotel reservations and scheduling the weekend for our trip we made absolutely no plans. I was pretty impressed with myself since I am such a planner and control freak that I normally can't handle not knowing what we are going to do and everything turned out amazing!
We got up on Friday morning, packed, got the house cleaned up (okay that part was a me--not a we), dropped the kids off and headed out by 10:45 am. The weather was crummy and it poured the whole way up. Andrew had originally intended to give me a Ska education on our drive, but accidentally forgot all his CDs so we improvised with my phone and itunes sound bites for a while. We decided to make a stop of McChord AFB so that Andrew could get a few things from the military clothing store. That "quick" stop stretched into an hour+ long adventure, but it was okay (ish) with me.
After we made it to Seattle we got checked in and went to find our room. Surprise! Our room wasn't ready for us yet and the maid was still cleaning it up. Oh well, at least I saw actual cleaning happening;) Instead we checked out the view of the lake from the 7th floor of the hotel (That's right we were on the top floor.)
Once our room was ready we lounged about until our tummies were grumbling and decided that we were just going to walk until we stumbled upon a good place to eat. And we found the coolest restaurant just down the street from the hotel: Bocca di Beppo. An Italian restaurant with incredible food, an amazing atmosphere, and well worth every penny!
After dinner we were going to walk on the waterfront and we tried, but it was coooold! The wind was blowing pretty hard and I was freezing so we called it quits. It was so nice going to bed without setting an alarm clock or getting woken up by kidssnuggling with you kicking you in the face all night! When we woke up in the morning it was a run outside for Andrew and I checked out the treadmill in the hotel gym--fanciest equipment ever. After a shower, breakfast at the hotel, and checking out the tourist map we headed out on our adventure. First stop: The Space Needle!
Aside from making the hotel reservations and scheduling the weekend for our trip we made absolutely no plans. I was pretty impressed with myself since I am such a planner and control freak that I normally can't handle not knowing what we are going to do and everything turned out amazing!
We got up on Friday morning, packed, got the house cleaned up (okay that part was a me--not a we), dropped the kids off and headed out by 10:45 am. The weather was crummy and it poured the whole way up. Andrew had originally intended to give me a Ska education on our drive, but accidentally forgot all his CDs so we improvised with my phone and itunes sound bites for a while. We decided to make a stop of McChord AFB so that Andrew could get a few things from the military clothing store. That "quick" stop stretched into an hour+ long adventure, but it was okay (ish) with me.
After we made it to Seattle we got checked in and went to find our room. Surprise! Our room wasn't ready for us yet and the maid was still cleaning it up. Oh well, at least I saw actual cleaning happening;) Instead we checked out the view of the lake from the 7th floor of the hotel (That's right we were on the top floor.)
Once our room was ready we lounged about until our tummies were grumbling and decided that we were just going to walk until we stumbled upon a good place to eat. And we found the coolest restaurant just down the street from the hotel: Bocca di Beppo. An Italian restaurant with incredible food, an amazing atmosphere, and well worth every penny!
After dinner we were going to walk on the waterfront and we tried, but it was coooold! The wind was blowing pretty hard and I was freezing so we called it quits. It was so nice going to bed without setting an alarm clock or getting woken up by kids
We thought it would be cool to get something from the restaurant there, but when we went to it the nice hostess informed us that they were only serving brunch and it was $49.95 a person, but it was 3 courses. Seeing as we wanted to do more than just say we ate at the Space Needle and we had already had breakfast we passed.
There was a "glass garden" next door to the needle that neither of us felt like going in to see, but it was cool to look at from afar.
We took the monorail over to the mall and then went on the subway light rail train over to Pioneer Square for the Underground Tours. Andrew is way into this kind of thing so I humored him;)
The tour guides were pretty funny and we learned a lot about Seattle. Highlights: exploding toilets, town burned down, climbing ladders, "seamstresses" and "sewing circles," sea of rats, house the homeless, haunted. Basically, I am so grateful that I am living now and not then!
After the tour we hopped back on the light rail subway and then walked down to Pike St. Market. Even though I am terrified of heights I wanted to not only go up the Space Needle, but ride the Great Wheel as well.
The view was pretty amazing and as long as I kept my eyes at horizon level or above I was fine:)
We ate a late lunch at a Thai restaurant at the marketplace, wandered around some antique stores, checked out the original Starbucks (did not wait in that ridiculous line!), and then headed back to the monorail--we were tired!
Andrew was really excited to find "Republican St."
And the Space Needle is pretty cool all lit up like a UFO at night. We went to the Tower of Americas in San Antonio, TX back in 2007 which is actually taller, but we didn't see that one at night.
On our walk back to the hotel we decided to do a little bit of quick geocaching.
After taking a nap we woke up hungry and ventured out to find some food. This time we drove since our feet were not liking us very much! As we drove we found Troll St. and after a quick turn and drive up a hill we found the troll under the bridge.
Our wandering around the Freemont area landed us at a Mexican food place where we shared a giant wet burrito that was muy bien. After that we thought we would check out Pier 91 and see if we really could check-in on FB as though we were in Hawaii. The man at the security shack seemed suspicious of us and wouldn't let us through since we had no "real" reason for going out on the pier. I wonder if the fact that it was 10:30 at night had anything to do with that?
We eventually made it back to our hotel and fell asleep pretty quick. According to my Fuel band we walked over 20,000 steps that day! Another un-interrupted night of sleep found us sleeping in. I woke up at 8:30 and to my surprise Andrew (Mr. Morning Person) didn't wake up until 9:15! We eventually got ourselves ready and packed up then checked out and went after breakfast. The Oddfellows cafe was our destination and the food was yummy! The seating was a little too cozy up to your neighbor style for us, which would have been fine except for the crazy girls sitting next to us talking about way too many private things, dropping way too many F-bombs, and being completely obnoxious. But, you can't judge a place by some weirdo patrons so I would totally go there again.
Sadly, all things must eventually come to an end and so did our trip. We returned home and life got back to "normal."
The end.
Before you start feeling jealous just know that Monday morning meant a 45 minute tantrum from Jonathan, mounds of laundry, and a whiny 2 year old. Vacations over!
We eventually made it back to our hotel and fell asleep pretty quick. According to my Fuel band we walked over 20,000 steps that day! Another un-interrupted night of sleep found us sleeping in. I woke up at 8:30 and to my surprise Andrew (Mr. Morning Person) didn't wake up until 9:15! We eventually got ourselves ready and packed up then checked out and went after breakfast. The Oddfellows cafe was our destination and the food was yummy! The seating was a little too cozy up to your neighbor style for us, which would have been fine except for the crazy girls sitting next to us talking about way too many private things, dropping way too many F-bombs, and being completely obnoxious. But, you can't judge a place by some weirdo patrons so I would totally go there again.
Sadly, all things must eventually come to an end and so did our trip. We returned home and life got back to "normal."
The end.
Before you start feeling jealous just know that Monday morning meant a 45 minute tantrum from Jonathan, mounds of laundry, and a whiny 2 year old. Vacations over!
1 comments:
OH my gosh. This sounds SO FUN!!!! I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE Seattle, and even though we lived in Vancouver for 11 years, we only went to Seattle like 2 or 3 times. (Of course, I thought I had 80 years to do it.) Anyway, some of what you did I have done before, but some of it was totally new. (Troll Bridge?) SO COOL!!! What an awesome, fantastic trip. Yeah, definitely don't let 5 more years pass before you do this again. Love it.
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