Pretty nice eh? Anyway, the first thing we did was hit up Pike Place Market, a Seattle legend and my folks' strong recommendation as a must-see.
There were so many gorgeous flowers I could hardly stand it. Not to mention samples galore of local honey (Mountain Raspberry is where it's at), the famous fish throwers, and dozens of cool local artisans displaying their handiwork. Quite a place! We walked around town bit more, saw the original Starbucks, ate some truffles, and met Mike for dinner at the top of the Space Needle! Oh yes. Complete with rotating floor and 360 views of Seattle at sunset. Loved it.
The food was delicious and our dessert was quite spectacular.
The next day, Vicki and I took off on an adventure to the western coast of Washington to visit the Hoh Rainforest and Ruby Beach. Vicki was quite a trooper, as she took on a total of 8+ hours of driving in one day but it was well worth it. It was a day of firsts for me- first visit to a rainforest, first sighting of an elk, and first time to the Pacific Ocean!
We got lucky and it wasn't actually raining in the rainforest when we got there, so we got to see the green in all its glory! Pretty unique habitat with moss covering every surface and trees growing at more than twice the rate of those in other areas.
After we got our fill of moss, we headed to Ruby Beach to check out the Pacific Ocean! Pretty exciting stuff, puppy Max and I were ready to dip our toes in the water.
Isn't he just the cutest?
On the way back from our voyage, we had a delicious seafood dinner in Port Angeles and returned home as two tired travelers. But not before Vicki ever so subtly snuck Max onto the ferry deck from Bainbridge Island.
Cute : )
Saturday was Seattle day and Vicki and Mike patiently showed me all of the various tourist attractions I needed to see. These included the troll, city locks, Gas Works Park, Pioneer Square and the underground city tour. Did you know that the original city of Seattle was built at sea level and would flood at high tide every day? The city leaders finally decided this wasn't too fun and built the streets 15 feet higher than they had been, even after the buildings were already up. So the original Seattle storefronts can now be found underground. Pretty awesome!
For dinner, we headed to West Seattle's Alki Beach. It felt like a completely different town, bonfires on the beach, funky little beach houses and lots of people out roaming around. I loved it. We ate at a seafood restaurant called Salty's where I had some fresh Pacific salmon that was some of the tastiest fish I've ever put in my mouth. Plus the restaurant boasted a lovely view of the Seattle skyline across the water.
Oh my! Overall, it was a great trip with extremely generous and enjoyable hosts : ) I hope to come back soon. And that just might be possible because, as I volunteered to take a later flight back home on Sunday, I got a free round-trip ticket to anywhere in the US! Oh yeah, icing on the cake.
In the planning stages of the big move back to VA, there are quite a few details to handle but I enjoy a good bout of researching and organizing. The folks will be out here in about 7 weeks and then it's time for TELLURIDE. Seriously excited. Bluegrass in the San Juans will heal what ails you, and me.
No comments:
Post a Comment