One Day in Seattle (Is Just Not Enough!)

Hello and Happy June!

We drove to Seattle over the weekend to meet up with an old, dear college friend who was vacationing from Philly.  The trip was too short but we had a wonderful time.

The drive across Washington is beautiful -- there is not much commercial development but the terrain changes from high desert to beautiful green, striking mountains as we approached the Cascades.

The Columbia River in central Washington

We stayed at the Westin downtown (Priceline'd it!) which is just a short walk from the Pike Place Market, the Seattle Center and lots of shopping.

We met our friends for breakfast on Saturday at Bacco Cafe.  Then we walked around the Market, saw the fish-throwing guys and the most beautiful peonies I have ever seen in my life!  They were so big and full and gorgeous.  I'm still mad at myself for not buying any.

Pike Place Market

We took the monorail over to the Seattle Center to visit the Children's Museum.  Our friends have a daughter who is 2 weeks younger than M, so they were hilarious/adorable to watch.  M loved all the water features and completely soaked himself.  He also enjoyed driving a pretend taxi and playing with balls.  The Children's Museum was really nice and not terribly crowded for a Saturday.  It's a nice place to visit if you need to be inside and let the kids out of the stroller.

My happy little taxi driver

After lunch, we walked back to our hotels to get the cars and drive out to Carkeek Park.  It was packed!!  Whew.  The kids played on the playground and threw rocks into the water.  It was pretty neat to see all of the cruise ships going north to Alaska.  And the park had a bridge which goes over a train track, so the kids loved watching the trains pass by and waving to the conductor.

Toes in the Puget Sound

We had an awesome dinner at the Bick's Broadway Grill, close to the park, which is set in an old house and had a really nice atmosphere.  From there we had to say goodbye to our friends so they could catch their red-eye back to the East Coast. =(

On our drive home, we stopped by Kerry Park for some sunset photos of downtown.  The park has some epic views, and Saturday was perfect because the sky was nearly cloudless.  Plus, it was prom night (!) and the park was filled with highschoolers taking prom pictures - you know I love seeing some prom fashion! 

Seattle skyline from Kerry Park

We didn't do much on Sunday before hitting the road - we had breakfast at the Pike Place Grill and went to Ikea.  At breakfast, M looked over at me with a big smile on his face and said "Mommy big nose."  Well, gee thanks, lovey! =)  Haha.

5 Stars for the Pike Place Grill because they gave M a balloon, which we are still playing with today!

D kept remarking "wow, this really is a big city!" which made me laugh.  There was a lot of traffic and the houses seem to all be practically right on top of one another, but it is a beautiful area, and we really only saw a little bit of the downtown area.  I hope we'll have more trips to the area in our future because there's a lot over there that I want to explore!

The Cascades on our drive home

Thanks Seattle and thanks to the Q family for a wonderful weekend!

The picturesque Puget Sound