Sorry for the long time away. I actually have had a lot of blogging to do this past month, but my computer died. Like literally died. On the spot. So, now I am sharing a computer with John and contemplating whether or not to get a new computer. Here I am finally back, and I have plenty to blog about.
John and I had a terrific week the first week of August. We were lucky enough to be able to take a trip out to Seattle to sight see, and stay with Peggy and Willie.
Day 1- We flew out of Seattle on Saturday, July 30. My dad dropped us off at the airport at about 8:00am, and then my parents watched the kids at our house until Tuesday, when John's parents took over. John and I flew into Denver for a couple hour lay over, and then we got to Seattle at around 3:00pm their time (two hour time difference between us and the West coast). We had some awesome views of Mt. Rainer from the plane. Once we landed, it seemed like it took forever to get our rental car squared away, and then find our way to Peggy and Willie's house.
We finally made it to their house around 5:00pm or so. We got a tour of their beautiful house and yard, and then they made us a delicious BBQ supper. It was nice to relax and hang out and visit after a long day of stuffy airplanes, and sitting in airports. After supper, John and I took our Camaro out and explored Seattle a little bit. We went to Gas Works Park, which gives a beautiful view of the Seattle Skyline, and is just a relaxing place to sit and watch the water. We headed back to the house at around 9:30, and we were completely beat and headed to bed, excited to do some more exploring the next day.
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| Mt. Rainer |
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Our Rental Car
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Day 2- We started off our first full day in Seattle with a trip to Lake Union Park to the Wooden Boats Museum. We were going to stand in line, and wait our turn to do some free sailing or rowing, but the line was insane, so we decided to move on and do something else. We headed to downtown Seattle, and hit up Pike Place Market. It was a fun little shopping area, but a little bit overwhelming. There were many, many shops and a ton of people there. We saw the very first Starbucks shop, and just had a good time exploring. I bought a couple of new purses, some beautiful flowers, and we had some lunch at a delicious Seafood Restaurant.
After lunch, we went on the Seattle Great Wheel, which gave us some beautiful views of the Elliott Bay, Puget Sound, and the skyline. It was a fun ride, and a nice way to get away from the crowds for a little while. We also went on an Argosy Cruise Harbor Tour which gave us a nice history of Seattle, and showed us all around Elliott Bay. It was an awesome tour, and it was nice to be out on the water for a little while. I purchased us a couple of Seattle City Passes which groups together a bunch of attractions and allows you to save some money on them, instead of buying them all separately. So, because of this, we went and visited the Seattle Aquarium which was included in the pass. It was pretty cool to see some of the salt water animals, but we didn't stay there very long.
We were back at the house around 6:30pm for a wonderful supper of steak and fresh crab legs. It was delicious, and totally hit the spot. We ended the evening with a campfire, some nice company, and topped off the evening with a smore.
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| Fish throwing |
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| The Great Wheel |
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| Seattle Skyline |
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| The Gum Wall |
Day 3- We started off our day with the way most people in Seattle do, with a warm cup of coffee at a local coffee shop. After that, we headed to the Seattle Center and checked out some Museums. We went to the EMP Museum, which is a local music museum and honors groups like Nirvana, Jimmy Hendrix, and other local musicians. It was a great museum, and we spent a good couple hours in there. John really enjoyed it. We also went to the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum. This Museum had beautiful glass sculptures and chandeliers, and was just very enjoyable to walk through. We also went outside and walked through the beautiful gardens and flowers with glass pieces scattered throughout. It was a beautiful, sightseeing day and we really enjoyed taking in the sights.
In the evening, we headed to Safeco Field with Peggy and Willie. We had great seats on the third base line, and it was a gorgeous evening for some baseball. We watched the Mariners take on the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox won 3-2. It was kind of a boring game, but it was such a great experience. We had good food, cold beer, and were able to watch a baseball game in the beautiful Seattle weather. It was a perfect end to a beautiful day.
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| The Space Needle |
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| EMP Museum |
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| Glass Museum |
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| Mariner's Game |
Day 4- Our Tuesday started off with a trip to the Museum of Flight. This place was absolutely insane. There were planes from WWI and WWII, along with just building after building full of planes. They actually build planes in Seattle, so there were so many to look at and see. It was a really cool trip to the museum, and we spent a solid 4 hours there exploring. It was an awesome museum, but I was so sick of airplanes by the time we were done there. After the museum, we took a bus downtown to go to the Space Needle.
The Space Needle was really amazing and gave some beautiful panoramic views of Seattle. It was a great experience, but I probably wouldn't need to go up there again. After we were done in the Space Needle Peg met up with us and gave us a local insiders tour. We went to Kerry Park, which also had some great views of the Seattle skyline. She also showed us a few other local places that had awesome views. It was a nice little tour. We ended up at a local bar that Peggy and Willie frequent. We hung out, ate some supper, and watched some pool. It was a nice day, and we were shot and ready for bed after such a busy day.
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| Blue Angel at Museum of Flight |
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| View from the Space Needle |
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| The view from Kerry Park |
Day 5- On Wednesday, Peggy and Willie had the day off, so they were able to hang out with us all day. We started off the day by going to Snoqualmie Falls. It was a beautiful park with a waterfall, and multiple hiking trails. We spent a good portion of the morning here exploring. It was nice to spend some time away from the city and the crowds.
After the falls, we took a ferry boat ride to Bainbridge Island. It was so awesome to ride one those ferry boats. I watch Grey's Anatomy, and I see those ferry boats on there all the time, and now I finally got to ride one. It was a beautiful 30 minute ride and gave us another view of the Seattle Skyline. On the Island, we ate some great Mexican food for lunch. Then we spent some time seeing the sights. They brought us to a beach, and we spent some time just sitting by the water, relaxing. We headed back to Seattle and grabbed some supper. It was a nice last evening in Seattle with some wonderful hosts.
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| Snoqualmie Falls |
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| Ferry Boats |
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| Paddle Boating |
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| The yacht we got to tour and visit some of Peggy and Willies friends |
Day 6- Thursday was our day to go back home. Basically, we packed up and headed to the airport. We had a wonderful time in Seattle. It was beautiful, we enjoyed every activity we did, and we really enjoyed having an adult trip and some time away from the kids. However, by Thursday, we were really missing the kids and we were more than ready to come back home and see everyone. Thursday was a long day of traveling, and we made it back home at around 9pm. So, we unpacked a little and got a good night's sleep, before going out to get the kids at the farm the next day.
On Friday, we went out to finally go get the kiddos, and they were so excited to see us. Emma gave lots of hugs and kisses, and Elliott became very clingy to mommy for the next few days. Like, I couldn't even leave a room without him crying and following me. Poor kid was somewhat traumatized. But, we settled back into our old routine pretty quickly, and the kids did have a lot of fun without us as well.
So to sum up this very long post, Seattle was absolutely awesome, and we definitely want to go back again some day.
