Nelson Family Blog: Seattle 2025 Days 1&2

Our trip to Seattle was amazing! We spent 5 nights in Seattle and we had the greatest time. We were busy and super tired at the end of every day, but we had such a good time. We saw everything we wanted to see, had amazing weather, spent time with family, and made great memories.

We flew out to Seattle last Thursday morning. We had Heather drop us off at the airport, and we made it through security and to our gate in no time at all. We had a good hour and a half to just hang out in the airport and chill before our flight. Out flight out of Sioux Falls was delayed by an hour and 15 minutes because of weather in Denver, so we were a little late coming into Denver. On the plane ride, Emma had a middle seat, I sat by the isle, and across the isle was John and then Elliott in the middle. We all had a good flight, and then we had to book it off the plane, get to our next gate and immediately get on the next plane. It was a tight layover, but we made it! Elliott left his water bottle on the very first plane, but other than that we survived.

The flight to Seattle was a little longer. Emma lucked out and got a window seat because a passenger no-showed. So, she got the window seat, then Elliott in the middle, and then me by the isle. John was across in the isle and had no one in the middle, which was nice for him. We had a great flight. Emma saw the Rocky Mountains and Mount Rainier from the air. We landed, got our rental car, and then went to meet Peg so we could head into Seattle.

Once we picked up Peg (and hugged and said hello) we headed to Pike Place. Both kids really like Pike Place. Elliott loved all the shopping and food. Emma just loved the experience. We got to see fish being thrown, we saw the gum wall, and we tried all kinds of food. We had some Piroshky, Piroshky pastries, a salmon wrap, fish and chips, popcorn shrimp, and hombao. It was all really good.

Once Pike Place closed, we went to Kerry Park to get some amazing pictures of the Seattle Skyline and then we went to visit the Freemont Troll. After all that excitement, we stopped at a grocery store (the kids hated that part, especially because the car alarm went off twice) and then we finally went to Peg and Willie's house. We unpacked, and then enjoyed the hot tub and a fire before going to bed.

Friday was our first full day in Seattle. We were up and at 'em at around 7:00 am because we had a 9:00 appointment at the Space Needle. The Space Needle is so busy that you have to reserve a time to go. We ended up hitting some pretty thick traffic on the interstate and we weren't sure we were going to make our time, but we parked outside the Space Needle at 8:55 am. We beat the crowds, had a beautiful sunny, clear day. We saw both Mount Rainier and Mount Baker. We took our time taking in the view, taking pictures, and just enjoying ourselves. We also went on The Loupe, which had see-through glass floors and rotated 360 degrees. It was pretty cool. The kids loved the whole thing (so did we!)

Once we were done viewing everything, we had a nice lunch at our car with the Space Needle in the background. We packed sandwiches, chips, fruit, and water. It was a lot nicer than overpriced tourist food.

Next, we went to the Chihuly Glass Museum. This was pretty cool. It was beautiful and set up really neat. Emma really enjoyed the artistic vibes and got a t-shirt there. We spent a good hour there and even got to see a glass-blowing demonstration.

Our next stop was the Mo-Pop museum (Museum of Popular Culture). They had movie props, costumes, guitars, and all kinds of cool things to look at. Emma loved this museum, Elliott got bored. They also had a hands-on exhibit where you could play musical instruments and sing in sound rooms. Emma really loved that part. We spent a solid 2-2.5 hours here, and Emma would have loved to spend more time.

We finally headed back to Peg's house around 5pm. We relaxed for a little bit, and then we headed to the Binford Field of Dreams car show, where Willie's BBQ business "Willie's Addictive BBQ" had a food tent. The kids worked in the foot tent while John and I walked around and looked at cars. We all got to enjoy some wonderful BBQ, and then we headed back to the house at around 8:00 pm. There was more hot tub time and campfire, and then we all went to bed really tired, but happy.