Seattle

I love exploring new cities.  Wes, Sam & I always have good intentions to go visit one every year . . . but since we already left Janie with my parents we didn’t want to leave all three so soon.  So Sam and I went to Seattle.  And I’ve added a new city to my “favorites” list.  Big thanks to Kristen, Brandon & Kerianne for great Seattle recommendations!

I think my favorite part of Seattle was the amount of water everywhere.  I’ve never been to a city with more water.  Lakes, bays, canals, creeks . . . you name it and it’s in Seattle.  Which means there are bridges everywhere – another favorite of mine.

Day one was spent in downtown Seattle.  We did your typical touristy things like Pike Place Market, saw the Space Needle, did a Duck Tour & did a little shopping {Nordstrom was founded as a shoe store in Seattle.  Lets just say the Nordstrom there is gigantic}.  The Duck Tour was fabulous.  Our tour guide was hilarious and gave us a good little history lesson on Seattle through Seattle’s Historic District and then out on Lake Union to see Gasworks Park and a peek at some adorable floating homes.  One being the home from Sleepless in Seattle!  I fell in love with the charming homes on the water.  We ended the day with a Mariners baseball game.

Day Two was in West Seattle at Alki Beach.  Such a cute area with the best views across the water of downtown Seattle.  We relaxed on the beach for an hour, ate a mexican lunch, went in to a cute surf shop and then rented this bike thing to ride along the coast.  We rode for a few miles there and back – it was great!

We went back to Bellevue {where our hotel was} in the early evening & went walking around cute downtown Bellevue and had delicious Mexican food at Cactus.  My good friend Brandon Curfew {friends since BYU} and his family live in Bellevue so I went and saw them tonight.  What cute little boys they have.  So great to see Brandon & Brittany and chat for a while.

On Day 3 I took my first ferry ride.  We drove our car on to the ferry and headed to Poulsbo and Bainbridge.  Loved these little towns, too!  So much character.  We went in to all of the little shops & grabbed lunch before heading back to Seattle.

We had some time so we drove to Snoqualmie Falls.  It was beautiful!  On our way back to Bellevue we stopped at the temple to tour the grounds.

Our final day started with a kayak on Lake Union.  We tried to go on to Lake Washington but there was a bike race down there and was nearly impossible for a tourist to make their way to the water.  So we abandoned that route and went to Lake Union.  Sam was hilarious with the Kayak.  She was very worried we were going to tip over and was very bossy with where to steer the kayak but I loved being out on the water getting a close-up view of the floating homes!

We spent the rest of the day exploring and discovering little neighborhoods like the Ballard District & Queen Anne.  The Ballard District was one of my favorite areas.  There was a farmers market going on this day which was fun.  The streets have so much character with unique shops and restaurants and friendly people.  We found some great stores & enjoyed walking around.  We headed to Queen Anne next with a stop in Kerry Park.  Kerry Park provides one of the best views of Seattle and the homes up there were Ah-mazing.  We walked around Queen Anne & then found a burger joint before heading to the airport.

So glad we went.  So glad we picked Seattle.  Exploring new cities really is the best.