seattle trip
We decided to spend a weekend in Seattle, mostly because I've never been there and have always wanted to go! Also because we found a cheap fare--although that was somewhat mitigated by the ridiculously expensive whale watching trip to Victoria during which we only saw ONE WHALE NOSE and it wasn't even an ORCA but I'll get to that later.
It was a wonderful trip from beginning to end. Even flying in, just seeing the mountains was amazing. Seattle is beautiful, beautiful. And we had great weather, as every DJ on every radio station and every server at every restaurant and every Seattle friend on Twitter kept pointing out. It was truly gorgeous.
Okay, so we drive into the city and... this is the skyline I see. Notice anything? Anything at all? Is it that the Space Needle, which is supposed to be so huge and iconic, is MINIATURE SIZED? You guys, it's like half the size of the STRATOSPHERE HOTEL IN LAS VEGAS. And all the pictures make it look like it dominates the skyline. For the rest of the weekend, whenever we saw a postcard with an invariably huge-looking Space Needle, we'd point it out to each other. LIES.
The first thing we did was drive to Pike Place because I wanted some coffee, and where better to go than the one and only Original Starbucks? Except we went to the wrong Starbucks. I was surprised there were no souvenirs or signs on it--which is because it wasn't the actual first Starbucks. Thankfully, I chatted up an information booth guy whose picture I wanted to take, and he told us, so we walked back to the real first Starbucks! Phew!
(By the way, here is my Twitter from our walk through Pike Place: Fruit vendor at Pike Place Market: "San Francisco, huh? Ever go to the Ferry Building?" Ian: "That's for tourists." We laugh.)
After that we went to Salumi for sandwiches and ate them in the waterfall garden at Pioneer Square. We marvelled at the fact that Seattle looks like bizarro San Francisco--the same stores, similar street names, a diagonal street that looks like Market Street, the Port of Oakland cranes. Just instead of the bay, a mountain. And instead of the Transamerica Pyramid, the dinky little Space Needle. (Yeah, I just looked it up. The Transamerica Pyramid is also taller than the Space Needle.) Ian's pun for this feeling, which led us to repeatedly hallucinate that we were in San Francisco: Bay-ja vu.
Then we went up the Space Needle at my insistence (I even bought a souvenir magnet photo) where the view was really spectacular. Once again, we appreciated the magical, wonderful, wondrous weather that was making all the Seattlites (or maybe just that one radio DJ) weep for joy.
Next stop was Snoqualmie Falls, where we visited the Twin Peaks waterfall and the diner where you can get a slice of cherry pie and a cup of coffee. Which we of course did! It was ridiculously thrilling. As was our next stop: a meetup with sallysimpleton at a Belgian beer bar that had the most exhaustive list of Belgian beers I've ever seen on a menu outside of the Kulminator in Antwerp. There, we discovered our new favorite beer: Pannepot Struise. It made St. Bernardus 12 on tap taste like water.
Then we were exhausted (since we'd gotten up at 5am to make our flight in the first place) and full of beer, so we headed back to the hotel and crashed. The next day was a trip to Victoria to go whale watching! Well, sadly, we didn't see any Orcas. We did see a minke whale and I got a picture of its nose. We also saw a lighthouse and some cute seals, and I loved being out on the waters of Puget Sound. Unfortunately the ferry ride to Victoria was three hours long and really expensive.
We did also have a delicious brunch, walked a lot, and found a Dutch bakery, a flagpole garden, an oyster happy hour, and a big protest about salmon. We came back from the ferry ride and were once again exhausted from our day on the water and walking around, and also very hungry, so we went to McMinamins for a late dinner, which was delicious. Then bed!
Sunday our flight didn't leave until late, so we slept in (aaaah) and then hit Stumptown Coffee for morning coffee and in Ian's case, some beans to take home. We walked to Elliott Bay Books and I bought something to read on the plane, then it was time to meet up with sallysimpleton and her charming husband at Lunchbox Labs, a place one of her friends likes! Tons of burger options, delicious milkshakes, fun conversation. Definitely a highlight.
After that we browsed the weirdness at Archie McPhee, went back to have Pannepot at Brouwers one last time, and headed for the airport. Even there, the fun wasn't over: we got there early enough to hear that our flight had been delayed by an hour, so they were putting us on an earlier flight. We were the last two people on a very full flight. And then, weirdly, I ran into someone I know on the plane! One of the regulars at my friend Brad's coffee shop. It was a very "Cheers" moment, which is I guess appropriate for Seattle, the home of Frasier Crane.
So there you have it! Really an awesome little vacation, and we managed to pack a lot into a couple of days. Seattle's a great city--can't wait to go back again!