Todd once again gave me a surprise. He planned a trip to Seattle for us for Valentine's Day. To be fair, this was a little easier for him than the average guy since we get free flights and cheap hotel rooms.... :) Nonetheless, he planned and organized everything. He had talked to one of my co-workers and asked her to ask my boss if I could leave early on the day of our flight. He set up the dogs to go to the kennel for the weekend, etc. Luckily he told me two nights before leaving that we would be going somewhere so I could do laundry and pack! He had been trying to get me to do laundry all week, but I don't do laundry on weeknights. So I kept brushing him off. He finally had to let the cat out of the bag so that I could pick out my clothes and make sure what I wanted to bring was clean.
He did give me some hints about the mystery place; he told me was that the average temperature would be in the 50s, that we were flying, and that it was west of the Mississippi River. And then proceeded to torture me about not knowing where we were going for the next two days. I technically guessed the place the night before while we were packing. Only because I found out that we would be seeing one of his friends that lived in the city. For some reason, I was thinking it was his friend, Brianna in Seattle, because I knew she lived there and he had never been there.
So off we were Friday after work. The flight was wide open leaving. It was a long flight of 4 hours, and we got seats next to each other. Upon landing, Brianna and her husband, Brian, picked us up at the airport and took us back to our hotel; the Marriott on the waterfront.
We spent the weekend sight-seeing and walking the fish market and downtown Seattle. We ate so much great seafood! Below are some pictures of our trip.
Todd and I each in front of the waterfront near our hotel. This was actually a platform for a street elevator that went from one block where our hotel was, to the next block "up." The city is steep and all different levels.
The Pike and Western Wine Shop. This was just a few blocks from our hotel, on the corner by the fish market. We ended up buying a couple of bottles of Washington wine to bring back with us, from this store.
The fresh food market..jpg)
In front of the Pike Fish Market. I asked my cousin to edit this picture for us so we can blow it up a bit and frame it. In the new version, the letters are red, but the rest is black and white. Instant art!
More Cityscapes.
The Seattle Art Museum (SAM)
Me in front of what we thought was the "Original Starbucks." I really wanted to visit this place, but turns out, the "original" is on the next block up! We actually passed it a couple times and never noticed it! Oh well....
Us in front of the Fish Market.
We went to lunch at the Pike Brewery and Pub. We had beer flights to try a bunch of original Washington brews, crab chowder, and fresh clams and mussels. Above is the chowder. Below are the clams and mussels. Yum!
We took a cab over to the Seattle Space Needle to see the views from the top and learn about some history.
A view atop the Space Needle.
Another view.
Space Needle from the ground.
We went on a tour of the "underground city." Seattle was a city built on top of a city, after a fire struck and wiped out the whole downtown. This is below ground, but at one time was the level city street.
A "sky light" when the city was rebuilt after the fire. The stores were at the old level, and the streets were a level above. These skylights were used as lights.
What the "skylight" looks like today, from the street level.
The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Not very original, but I love the architecture of this building.
Us at dinner Saturday night at the "Salmon House." We went to dinner with Brianna and Brian, and enjoyed fresh salmon and oysters. .jpg)
A view of the city from the waterfront piers.
More views. You can see the Space Needle in the distance below.
We are one block away from what is at the top of these stairs. Crazy!
More Fish Market
More fish market pictures. I could stay by the fish market and watch the activity all day.It was such a great trip! We almost didn't make it home because the flights miraculously filled up on the return. Somehow we both made it on. I wasn't expecting that, and was actually planning to spend another night. What do you know? We seem to have good luck flying standby.
Thanks to Todd for surprising me!
