My family visited us in Seattle over Labor Day weekend and boy, did we have a great time!
We had 4 non-stop, fun-filled days touring the city, enjoying the water and each other.
Day 1: For anyone who hasn't been to Seattle, you must explore the Pike Place Market. Here you will see some of the most beautiful arrangements of flowers, as cheap as $5, an abundance of absolutely perfect produce (the peaches were amazing), stands full of pottery, glass, jewelry, honey, nuts, you name it, all from local vendors. We enjoyed taste-testing, Dad bought me a lovely bouquet of flowers, watching the fisherman through fish at the famous seafood market, visiting the original Starbucks and people watching. We also took in lunch at The Crap Pot on Pier 56 for basically a low country boil lunch. For those of you who are non-Southerners, that feast includes shrimp, corn, sausage and potatoes boiled in a bunch of seasonings and then dumped on a table to eat. Ours also had crab, mussels and clams in it which made it extra yummy.
We then headed to the 73rd floor of the Columbia Tower, the tallest building west of the Mississippi (and where I work) to see a 360 degree view of the city. Pretty cool!
We ended the night with dinner at Wild Ginger, a thai restaurant that is extremely popular in Seattle.
Day 2: We woke up, enjoyed a great breakfast made by Dad, packed our cooler full of goodies and headed to The Gorge for the Dave Matthews Band show.
On our way, we made a pit stop at The Salish Lodge in Snoqualmie to see the Falls. They were gorgeous! I believe that was the first waterfall my Dad had ever seen.
As we made our way to The Gorge, we made a quick stop at a lookout point overlooking the Columbia River. Little did we know that we were going to experience 30 mile per hour winds and the weather was not as cooperative as we had hoped.
Before the show, we enjoyed a little tailgating and listening to some DMB tunes along with thousands of other fans. The show was great, VERY COLD AND WINDY, but great. We weren't prepared clothing wise and Emily and Dad weren't able to stick it out. We headed back in the wee hours of the morning and caught some ZZZ's before our Day 3 adventure.
Day 3: On Sunday, we slept in, chatted about the show and then headed to the Pier to jump on a boat for The Locks Cruise. The tour was about 3.5 hours and really fun! We headed out into the Puget Sound, learned about the history of the area and headed into the locks which connects the salt water of Puget Sound and the fresh water of Lake Union via the Hiram Chittenden Locks. That was the coolest part! As our boat was lifted many, many feet in the air, I actually caught a quick glimpse of a sea lion and there were salmon jumping around in the air.
We then headed into Lake Union where you can see some of the pricest property in Seattle...the house boats. Everyone got to see the house boat in "Sleepless in Seattle," we watched a few sea planes land and then took a bus back to the Pier to grab some yummy ice cream cones and caramel covered marshmellows.
That night, we enjoyed a tasty dinner at Joey's. You should have seen Phillip's lobster.
Day 4: The guys rested and watched a little college football while the girls hit up our favorite store, Anthropologie. Of course Mom was generous and bought us a few things.
All and all, we had a wonderful time! It was great having the family together for the first time in a long time. I can't wait to see everyone again at Christmas! Thanks for everything!!!
