Oh Seattle, I love you.
I don’t even know how to start this. We ended the most perfect Alaska vacation by spending a glorious week in Seattle. I am so in love with this city and have been since the moment I experienced it as a teenager. We lucked out with a great hotel (Hyatt, whoot whoot) that gave is a perfect view of the Space Needle out our window and despite having a rental car (our rocking VW) put us within walking distance of EVERYTHING. It was amazing. I knew right away the first place to stop was Pike’s Market, getting their early to avoid long lines for delicious pastries and everything the market has to offer. We literally ate our way through the market, I highly recommend to anyone that goes to just go with sweat pants (you’ll thank me after). We did all the required tourist activities: original Starbucks, watched some fish tossin, ate some mini donuts, and stopped by The Pike Brewing Company for some lunch and refreshment. We decided to go completely all out on our first day and cram in the Space Needle as well. Even though I typically avoid this kind of tourist activity I felt it was iconic to experience again. We also visited Olympic Park and walked about the city in the most AMAZING weather that the city has to offer. The entire week we were there, it was 70 and sunny. We ended the evening at Kerry Park where the view of the city there just CANNOT be outdone. The sunset there, ridiculous. I knew that I also wanted to do a day trip to somewhere amazing in the area so what better place to venture out to than Mt. Rainier National Park. The weather was SO beautiful that the mountain was in clear view all the way from the city and basically my un-edited cell phone shots from my iPhone look exactly like the photos you see posted here from my Nikon. With perfect weather comes perfect light and the beautiful waterfall at the base of Rainier looked like a postcard.
We spent another morning at Pike’s Market, again, eating our way through the market and looking at the incredible art from the vendors there. We found a unique map store in the area and bought a wooden map of the London Underground (which we used quite a bit in our European travels) that we just had to have. We had to include a visit to Alki Beach which has some of the most beautiful homes you will ever see in your life. The beach area was crowded with a vendor art fair and we caught the tail end of the festival and were falling in love tent after tent with all of the work of the local artists. We topped that off with the BEST fish and chips I have ever had at Spud’s where the long line was worth the wait. It was after this visit, I was convinced I needed to move here. The beauty of this place can’t even be described and its hard to admit a counter argument to that because it has everything: mountains, ocean, city life, great food, amazing art.
We crammed as much experience as we could into this trip and ended the trip on a very high note. Many years ago I fell in love with the work of a local photographer in the Charleston, IL area named Lauren LaPlante. Her style, which is very different from mine, used to leave me so impressed by her ability to harness natural light and capture true expression all at the same time. When she moved to Seattle many years ago I was a little heart broken because I thought I’d never get an opportunity to meet her and be the subject of her art. Thankfully, as fate would have it, we found ourselves on the beach at Discovery Park with a brand new friend. Introductions weren’t really needed because it felt like we had known her forever. We greatly appreciate her giving us a mini tour of the city through her eyes and capturing our relationship from behind the lens of her camera. We will cherish this trip forever and can’t express our gratitude to her for taking the time to share her gift with us.
I was sad to leave Seattle. As I promised long ago as a teenager, I will for sure return.
(my awesome mountain roadside illegal parking job 😉
