I Love Seattle

I got to visit Seattle twice this year and will say it is my new favorite city! The first trip was for a Cold Regions Engineering work training so I was tied up from 8-5 every day... and to top it off we had "homework" every night and a test at the end. Luckily I was in the training with my good friend Erin, so we made the most of the class and made sure to take fun lunch breaks around Lake Union where our class was held. We also made homework more fun every evening with some wine!

Doing homework - yikes!

Seattle is amazing for many reasons. Primarily it is a foodie heaven! One of my coworkers, Tracy, knows a lot about the Seattle foodie scene so hooked me up with a great list of places to try including Serious Pie (amazing pizza), Purple (super cool wine bar), and the Walrus and the Carpenter (great oysters and small plates). Beyond these great places, Erin and I ventured out to the Capital Hill district, enjoyed some seafood along Lake Union, and tried to maximize patio time as much as possible with the fabulous sunshine and weather. In addition to all the great food, I definitely maximized shopping time in Seattle as well. Living in Anchorage is rough sometimes because of the lack of shopping opportunities... So it was such a treat to hit up J. Crew, Loft, Anthropologie, Bath and Body Works, Lululemon, and several other stores I really miss! It is also awesome that Washington has an agreement with Alaska to honor our "sales tax free" purchases simply by showing my AK drivers license.

After I passed the test (yay!), I spend my final afternoon in Seattle soaking up the sun! I went to the Golden Gardens beach and laid out in my swim suit (haven't done that in about a year) and watched the sailboats pass by. I then explored the Ballard Locks, which are a pretty cool engineering feat that allow for ships to go from the salt water Puget Sound into the freshwater Lake Washington and Lake Union. The lakes are 20 feet above sea level so there is a height differential that must be maintained when moving boats in and out of the Puget Sound. So essentially the boats are parked in the locks while the water is adjusted each way. I was impressed. 

Golden Gardens Beach

Oh how I've missed the water

Such a nice warm day! 

Dock near the beach 

Ballard Locks - boats waiting while water is rising

Wall separating the Puget Sound from
freshwater lakes - 20 ft height difference!

The other wall of the Locks

I ended the day by jogging 6 miles around Lake Union and stopping at a couple parks along the way. One was called Gas Works Park because it contains remnants of the sole remaining coal gasification plant in the US. Another was housing the Museum of History and Industry sponsored by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. It was neat to see since I had just finished reading his biography - Amazon: The Everything Store.

Jogging around Lake Union

Not a cloud in the sky

Gas Works Park

Gas Works Park

Seattle House Boats on Lake Union

I was sad to head home after spending time in such an awesome place, so when I happened to see a flight deal on JetBlue for less than $300 to Seattle, I bought it that day! It's sad that I now consider that a cheap flight because it usually costs $700+ to get out of Alaska. It was easy to convince two of my good friends Katie and Abbey to join me in my new favorite city! It was such a last minute trip so we didn't even have to wait long for our mini vacation :)

I took off Friday from work and arrived in Seattle at 5am that morning. Abbey got in the night before so I headed downtown and took a little nap in the hotel until Katie arrived around 9am. We then ventured out for some tasty waffles to start off our bright sunny day! Our first stop was the Seattle Underground Tour. There is an entire neighborhood in Seattle that was essentially buried when the city built on top of it to prevent floods. So the ground floor of over 20 city blocks became basement storefronts. It was quite a dangerous situation since pedestrians had to climb ladders to get to street level and cross. The tour guide told us several people died falling off the ladders or getting suddenly hit after popping up on the new “ground level” street. They finally paved over the sidewalks as well to prevent injuries and they built skylights on these portions to let in light into the underground, which still remain today!

Abbey, Katie, and I in the Underground Tour

Skylights from below

Skylights from above in the sidewalk -
you would never know there was something underneath!

 After the tour, we walked over to the Smith Tower and took a trip up to the top for some wonderful views of the city, the Space Needle, the Seahawks stadium, and peak of Mt Rainer. Next stop was Pikes Place Market for some food and shopping!

Smith Tower

Taking the old school elevator up

View from the top of the Smith Tower

Space Needle in the distance

Seahawks Stadium

Hanging out at the top of the Smith Tower

Pikes Place Market it a huge outdoor market right along the water with fresh seafood, meats, souvenir shops, the original Starbucks, beautiful fresh flowers, and other random stores. It was bustling with people since it was such a nice day! Katie found some fresh flowers to liven up our hotel room. If I lived in Seattle, I would get fresh flowers every week here since the bouquets were only $5 -10 for such beauties! We also bought some fresh Washington peaches and I ate mine on the spot. It was sooooo delicious.

Fresh flowers at Pikes Place Market

I love Dahlias 

And fresh peaches

The original Starbucks

I had recently been to a restaurant in Alaska that served their crepes on this intricate Polish pottery dishes and I was instantly obsessed. So we came across a Polish Pottery store in the market and I was in heaven. Eventually I will make the splurge on a beautiful set of dishes… but for now I got a Christmas ornament (the new item I collect from my travel destinations) with a pretty pattern. We ended our afternoon at the market with a walk down the gum hallway (gross) and a snack at the Chowder House from some tasty seafood chowder. Thanks Ashley for the recommendation!

Debating between Polish Pottery ornaments

Gum Walk - gross

Since we had been walking all day, I got to experience my very first Uber ride to the Capital Hill district where we had dinner and drinks. I made them go to this Chocolate dessert place that Erin and I went during my last time in Seattle because I wanted another chocolate martini. Once again it didn’t disappoint!

Chocolate beverages

Our hotel room decorations from the market

On Saturday we had a full day wine tour in Woodinville, a cute town 30-45 minutes drive from Seattle. We figured our tour would be packed since it was a gorgeous Saturday afternoon… however there was only one other lady from Alabama with us, so we basically had a personal tour. It was a scenic drive out there with views of Mt Rainer and Bill Gates house! Our tour started with the biggest winery – Chateau Ste Michelle. We got to walk outside and enjoy the property a bit after our tour. We then had a delicious lunch at Purple Café before heading to three of the smaller boutique wineries that don’t distribute their wine in stores. My favorite was Martedi Wines because the owners were so friendly and showed us around the building where they were actualy crushing grapes that day. I ended up buying a few bottles there, plus I loved their logo!

Mt. Rainer

Chateau Ste Michelle

My favorite Chardonnay of the day

Chateau Ste Michelle

Grapes

Walking around outside Chateau Ste Michelle

Selfie with the vineyards

Enjoying the afternoon outside

My favorite - Martedi Wines

Action shot

Final winery of the way

Neat decor inside

Our tour group

I loved this reclaimed wood shelf, obvi cause I love all reclaimed wood!

On the way back from our tour, we passed the University of Washington where I witnessed quite possibly the coolest college tailgate ever. The football stadium is right on a lake with an open endzone facing the water. There were a ton of boats parked in the lake watching the game, how awesome is that?! Tailgating to the next level with boats and water involved.

After returning to Seattle, I dragged Katie and Abbey to the Chihuly exhibit and gardens. I’ve been in love with Chihuly’s work for years ever since I saw the ceiling in the Bellagio hotel in Vegas. I also got to see the exhibit that came to the Dallas Arboretum a few seasons ago! So needless to say I was pumped to see his original exhibit in Seattle. We found out it was his birthday the day we went, so we had just missed him in person! Anyway, it was spectacular at sunset to walk through the gardens and watch the Space Needle light up overhead. We then went to dinner and I had the BEST coconut cream pie of my life at Serious Pie. So so good.

Chihuly!

Glass ceilings

So many ornate glass sculptures

I'm so happy!

Katie's lesson from the curator

Venturing to the gardens

I spy the Space Needle

Sunset at Chihuly exhibit

Best Coconut Cream Pie in the world!

We woke up really early on Sunday for another jam-packed day. We planned to take the ferry over to West Seattle and rent bikes for the afternoon. It leaves every hour so we had to time it perfectly so that we weren’t waiting forever if we missed the 8am ferry. I thought we were in the right line with 5 minutes to spare only to realize we were at the wrong port and needed to go to one over. We literally made it just in the knick of time after a mad dash over to the next port, what a crazy start to a Sunday! Things soon got better when the ferry pulled away and we saw the beautiful Seattle skyline in the crisp morning hours.

Seattle skyline from the ferry

Early morning ferry ride

That's where we are going - West Seattle

When we got over to West Seattle, I realized the bike rental shop didn’t open for another hour… Oops, so we sat along the water and watched some scuba divers. When the shopped opened a little early for us, I picked out the coolest blue and lime green cruiser. I was literally obsessed with it and wanted to take it home with me! We biked for quite a while along the beach and shops and eventually into some cool neighborhoods. Of course we were jamming to Mumford and Sons with my jammy pack as we rode. After about an hour we turned around and headed back to the beach. We picked a great spot on a log and opened up a bottle of Rose from our winery tour the day before. I had to sneakily wrap it in a towel from the hotel and I felt like I was underage again, It was a perfect morning in the sunshine, viewing the mountains, relaxing on the beach, and hanging with some great friends I rarely get to see.

Scuba divers

Relaxing while waiting for the bike shop to open

Our sweet cruisers

Cruising along the water

Time for a rose wine break on the beach

Love these ladies

And really love this bike!

Seattle skyline

Ferry back to Seattle

We then headed back to mainland Seattle via the ferry amongst the crowd headed to the stadium for the Seattle vs Denver football game aka Superbowl rematch. Now that Seattle is my new favorite city I wanted to get some Seahawks gear… not that I would ever change alliances from my beloved Packers, but I want to support Seattle too. Abbey and I found some hats and a tshirt at a Seahawks shop on the way to the field. We put on our new gear and headed down to the stadium to find some tailgates and see what this 12^th Man was all about in Seattle since we knew all about the Texas A&M 12^th Man traditions. Unfortunately, I’m a dummy and forgot my ID at the hotel, so no bars or fan watching zones would let me in. We ended up watching the game just outside the stadium at a Vietnamese restaurant while I drank a lemonade haha. It was pretty cool that all the restaurants and bars surrounding the stadium turn on all their tvs so fans can partake in the game. It was definitely a loud crowd and I would love to go back and actually go to a game someday! Until the next time Seattle.

Seahawks Stadium