Seattle

It's been a just over a month since we've been home from Seattle.   We both had a good time on our trip.  The husband really enjoyed his conference and the networking opportunities it gave him and I enjoyed visiting a city I had never been and for an opportunity to meet up with some online friends.

Was able to capture a few cool shots out the airplane window

We got in on a rainy Sunday (which of course was the norm for the week) and got checked into our hotel.  They gave us a really nice corner room that had tons of light....which was a good thing since most of the days were dreary, dreary, dreary.

 

Once we got settled in our room, we were both hungry and wanted to take a walk, so we heading toward Pike's Place Market which was only about 6 blocks away, an easy walk.

We had SO much fun exploring the market and no way could we see everything with only one visit, so we did come back several times to both eat and shop.

One of the fish counters

 

My husband pointing to a ginormous lobster tail

 

Baked goods and pastries to die for.........

 

Fabulous looking fruits and vegetables

 

More fish and seafood........

Our first meal was at a restaurant tucked into one of the buildings of the market called Place Pigalle and I ordered the daily special which was Halibut over Yukon gold potatoes with crimini mushrooms and broccolini.  It was heavely!  my husband who likes fish but not as much as I do also loved it.

 

The husband ordered their crab cakes and when they arrived, he was surprised how large the cakes were and they also were wonderful.  Our food experience was off to a good start on this trip!

After lunch we walked all around Pike's Place Market and the general downtown area where our hotel was and where my husband's conference was going to held.   I was anxious to check out Nordstrom department store....their flagship store, but was going to have to wait until the next day.

 

An urban garden outside on one of the patios of Pike's Place Market.

This live sculpture was so cool to watch....she was really good!

Tuesday was our day of doing some sightseeing.  I had purchased tickets in advance for the Space Needle and Chihuly Garden and Glass so all we had to do was hop on the monorail system from the Westlake Center straight to the Seattle Center.  I had my reservations about going that high due to my fear of heights, but I'm proud to say I made it and it wasn't too bad once we were at the top.

As you can see, it was a grey, cloudy day but I'm glad I could at least see the city and water around me.

Those spiders are painted on the roof of one of the buildings below....an very unique trompe l'oeil.

 

My sweetie checking out one of the telescopes at the top.

 

Downtown Seattle

 

Chiluly Garden and Glass from above

 

I'm going to save our visit to Chiluly Garden and Glass for a blog post of it's own because it was so fabulous and deserves it's own post.  It was some of the most beautiful exhibits I've ever seen and it's been on my bucket list since I heard of it's existence.   My visit there alone made the trip worth it.

 

After visiting the Needle and Chiluly, we walked around to look at the Experience Music Project Museum.   I needed to find a rest room and their gift shop looked cool, so we went inside to look around and I got some awesome photos of some of the interior.  We didn't go inside the paid part of the museum because husband was going to be coming back to the museum for a social function associated with the conference he's attending.

We had the opportunity to eat at some really good restaurants while in town.  I was trying to stay focused on the fish and seafood but one night we has some really good Italian at il Fornaio at the Pacific Place.  We also had a good meals at both the Athenian Restaurant and Lowell's.

On Friday I had the opportunity to meet up with some long time online friends for lunch at Pike Place Chowder at the same Pacific Place.   It was so wonderful to finally meet them.  Kris and Michelle both live in Washington and came into the city to meet up with me.  We had a nice lunch and then walked around, got some coffee and ended up at Barnes & Noble (not surprising) and talked about books while checking out everything at the store.

Unfortunately our time together went very fast before Michelle had to leave for another commitment, so Kris and I said our goodbyes to her and then she and I decided to walk over to the Olympic Sculpture Park down by the water.  It was quite the walk, but it felt good because the sun finally decided to grace us with it's presence.   I love sculpture parks as my family can attest to as we have a good one in Des Moines and I'm always wanting to pay it a visit, so I was game to see what the Seattle park had to share.

My favorite symbol  :)

 

I could finally see Mount Rainier peeking through the clouds for a bit of a glimpse.

All in all, it was a great visit to a city that neither one of us have never been to and both of us were glad we had the opportunity.

Hope you enjoyed my little tour of Seattle.......later....