Seattle

Tonight is my cousin Lindsey's wedding in Seattle! I couldn't be more excited that I am here to be a part of it all! In the 29 years we have been spending our summers together - this is the first time I have traveled to see her in Seattle!! 

We flew in on Thursday, late afternoon, and headed right to Bob and Gretta's house. Bob is my Mom's cousin, whom I have never met (at least that I can remember). They called and asked us to come for dinner. Auntie Sis was there, she is staying with them, and Lindsey, Karen and their brother David (which I have also never met) and their mom Jodi were able to come too! It was really nice to visit with everybody since tonight at the wedding I know that I will barely be able to see them at all! Bob made a delicious dinner of hot pepper shrimp, pesto pasta and a yummy candied walnut and blue cheese salad! 

While we are here in Seattle, we are staying at an adorable little house (Jodi's cousin who is  out of town this weekend) in Medina. It is right outside of the city, close to everything, very cozy and secluded. 

Friday morning we woke up bright and early (6:45am)... Seriously?!? I wasn't exactly thrilled about it, but it was the one day with nothing to do so we spent all day adventuring! 

Our first adventure was finding Brandon some dress clothes for the wedding. Yes, that's right, we came for a wedding and he failed to pack appropriate wedding attire! Honestly!!!! Anyway- we spend our morning shopping for dress clothes... It wasn't really the best start to our vacation, but we found a few things and moved on! 

We decided to head into Seattle to Pike's Peek Market and check it out! We spend several hours wondering in and out of all if the side streets, up and down the cobblestone paths, watched musicians perform on the corners of every block, inhaled the smells of freshly cut flowers, fresh fish, French fries, and a lot of marijuana (yikes)! The market was filled with people! 

We didn't buy anything, but sure had fun wondering about and people watching. If only we could fly home with dozens of flowers and fresh fruit!!! We also were able to find the famous Gum Wall down a back ally. We didn't add any gum to it, but stopped by for a quick visit! 

We had lunch at Etta's, recommended to us by everyone at Bob and Gretta's house. It was fantastic!!! The  service was splendid and the food was delicious. I ordered the local Dungeness crab and Brandon had a giant burger and fresh cut fries. 

After lunch we walked down to the water front. We spent some time watching people feed the seagulls french fries. People were literally ordering baskets of fries just to feed to the birds. One lady had 5 baskets of fries for them!!! It was fun to watch. It made me miss Avery- she would have loved to do that!! 

We walked the pier, watched the boats come and go, listened to the waves crash and seagulls scream at each other! 

Their were food shoppes and ice cream parlors everywhere, of course I needed to have a waffle cone! We walked back to the car, came home and rested out feet for a little while then headed out to Kirkland for dinner. Brandon found this delicious steak house near the lake. We wondered about for a while, people watching, meandered in and out of little shops until we were hungry. Our dinner was fabulous! Brandon had prime rib and I had the best steak I have ever ordered and king crab legs. Don't judge me that I enjoyed crab legs two meals in a row... I never get them and they are one of my favorite things to eat! Brandon isn't a seafood guy - and Minnesota doesn't have great seafood resturants so I was taking advantage of the situation!!

After dinner, we came back home and spent some time talking in the back yard under the gazebo. It was the perfect way to end our night. There are NO, not one that I've seen, Mosquitos here! Hardly any bugs at all really! The house we are staying at doesn't have grass either, it's all moss... And is really soft! I kind of love it actually, it feels great on my bare feet!!

This morning we slept in and went to a little diner for breakfast. The food was good, the service was great! The service at resturants around here is great! They wait staff and everyone has been so friendly, they keep your glass full and don't stop to chat 100 times like at home!!!

After breakfast we drove around in and out of the neighborhoods around here after learning that where we were staying, Medina, was one if the most affluent cities around (we are neighbors with Bill Gates this weekend we have been told). Our waiter at the restaurant asked where we were staying and when we said Medina his eyes about popped out of his head and he said "oh........WOW.......that's a really nice place to stay." We were both laughing! 

Here are some of the things we have noticed about Seattle:

Greens & Landscaping:

Everyone has the most beautiful shrubs and plants. It is green and lush every where you go! The city, right downtown, there are huge trees and greenery everywhere- it is so nice to have such an balance of greens mixed in the mountains of concrete buildings and tar roads. Maybe because we are in Medina- maybe not?!? 

Bridges & Driving:

The roads here are crazy- there are bridges and bridges and bridges stacked 4 high on top of each other! There are mile and a half bridges over water (Brandon loves those - kidding of course). The road systems here are nuts.  They are very well planned out, merging lanes are great, the lights are long, both green and red. You only have to wait at a light once then it's green long enough to let a ton of cars go through!! The roads don't have lines painted on them, instead they use what looks like baseballs (not actually baseballs, but white reflective spheres) cut in half and lined up to make the lines and also double as bumps if you cross over. Genius!! Brandon hates them- I think it's a great idea (naturally, we can't agree). 

Starbucks:

The original Starbucks is in Seattle so naturally they are all over but seriously THEY ARE ALL OVER!!! 

Beer is cheap:

I got a 12 pack of Coors Light Summmer Brew (which I have been looking for in Minnesota and can't find) for $5.76! I obviously will probably drink 2 of them, and have to leave the rest here but for 6 bucks- I don't even feel bad! 

Pedestrians:

Cars are so good about stopping for pedestrians. Cross walk or not, people get to cross! 

As I am sitting outside in a lawn chair near the gazebo blogging Brandon is relaxing on the deck listening to music and pouring back a cold one. He looks like a happy camper to me!!

*We are home safe and sound now, the wedding was a great! The flight home, not so much! We took off early, landed late, couldn't unfasten seat belts almost the whole time due to turbulence, the flight was freezing, water was dripping in through my window on me, someone had a cat on board so Brandon's allergies were acting up, and we had to circle the airport for nearly 30 minutes before landing after they said we would be on te ground in less than 5 (naturally Brandon was freaking out). Really fun?!? 

The wedding was beautiful! I don't have a ton of photos because I was out having fun but I have a few! The dinner was really good; prime rib, halibut, salads, fruit, rolls, steamed veggies etc. The salted caramel tarts were to die for! And the company was also great! As much fun as we had, we were SO ready to come back and snuggle Avery!