Since I was traveling for work on our 17th wedding anniversary, and daughter K’s best friend just moved to Seattle in August, I thought it might be a nice family treat to head there for a long weekend. Our departure from Denver set for Thursday night, all appeared to be smooth sailing until noon on Thursday when the school called for my DH (hereafter known as P) to pick up K because she had the stomach flu. She still wanted to go and was a trooper about her malady in the airport and on the plane and in the Seattle airport. Luckily, this was a 24-hour bug – and that’s all I have to say about that. We picked up our rental car from Enterprise – very nice staff, but it’s in a confusing location off the airport property – and headed to our hotel, the Red Lion in downtown Seattle. P didn’t like having to pay $26/day for parking (the rate for hotel guests) but I think that’s about average for any hotel these days, if not a bit low. The Red Lion was perfectly adequate for our needs. Two queen size beds, a small view of Puget Sound, Bath and Bodyworks products and very short walk to the Market. The walls were very thin, however, so we heard more of the baby next door than we needed to, and somehow it just felt a little run down, so I think I’d find someplace else for our next trip. I usually stay at the Mayflower Park when I’m in Seattle, but the package through Travelocity was too good to pass up. (I’ve never used a Travelocity package before – it was very convenient.)

K and I crashed our first night – P walked over to the Cheesecake Factory for a cheesesteak sandwich – he brought me back half and it was pretty good.

On Friday morning, K was still feeling a bit punky, but we set off for Bellevue to pick up her best friend (hereafter known as T), who was taking the day off from school to be with her. Traffic on the I-5 though Seattle seems like a real zoo, but once we got to the bridge to Bellevue, I was in heaven – being by the water AND the mountains is awesome – and it was a beautiful day! T worked like a tonic on K, and we went to have a huge breakfast at the Black Bear Diner in Bellevue – the kids loved it there, even if they didn’t eat much. Back to the city, and we walked down to the Pike Place Market. The kids were amazed by the fish and the views and took a ride on the bronze pig – we did a little browsing in the shops – the kids liked the magic shop a lot - and then went over towards the Aquarium. My plan was to do the Underground Tour, and then meet up with T’s dad for dinner. The kids played by the fountain for a while and we walked along the waterfront to the ferry terminal and across the highway to Pioneer Square. I had the timing for the Underground Tour wrong, so we decided to walk on to the Police Museum, which the kids loved. Lots of history of the police force in Seattle, an old dispatch console (with live calls coming in on the scanner), old uniforms and body armour to dress up in and a freestanding cell (and very friendly and informative lady staffing the museum.) Unfortunately, by this time, P was starting to feel kind of bad, so we stopped at a drugstore and headed back to the hotel so he could lie down for a while. K and T hung out and played on the computer while I went down to the terrace bar on the 5th floor and basked in the sunshine and had a glass of wine. By the time T’s dad showed up, P was feeling a bit better, so we all had dinner at the Elephant and Castle in the hotel. Their Shepherd’s Pie was only fair – that’s my standard traveling dish wherever I go. We packed up K and T’s dad took the kids back to his house in Issaqua until Sunday, so we had Saturday and Sunday morning to ourselves.

Being from Colorado, we’re of course trying to follow the Rockies in their quest for the Championship title. We heard Game 1 periodically on the airplane on Thursday night, but Game 2 was only on in the bar at the Elephant and Castle, so we went downstairs and had some cocktails with Mario, the kitchen manager, and watched the game – I went back upstairs in 9th inning, but P stuck it out for the final.

(And writing this in hindsight, I'm very proud of our Rockies!)

Saturday morning, we started the day by heading towards Lake Union. Had a nice little breakfast at the Grand Central Bakery and then went to the Wooden Boat Center. They had two old restored 128 ft. boats open for viewing this morning prior to their sailing that afternoon, so we wandered around admiring them and all the other small boats docked there. P thought the boat shop was wonderful and would like to recreate such a workshop at home. I’m a sail girl, but he’s a power guy, so we went over to the yacht harbor next door and let him pick out an anniversary present (in his dreams).

We headed across the city, which seems very easy to figure out when you’re avoiding the freeways – went right by the Space Needle and it was cool to have the close-up perspective. (The Space Needle kept eerily appearing unexpectedly through the fog on this day – way cool.) It was easy to find parking and we headed to the Seattle Art Museum cafe (I guess this is more of an annex as it wasn’t in the actual museum), had a cup of coffee. Loved the giant balls that you could store your kids inside of while you sipped your beverage! We wandered along the waterfront Olympic Sculpture Garden. This place was awesome – certainly some sculptures were more compelling than others, but the setting was spectacular. The fog that had been there when we awoke in the morning was just starting to lift, revealing some lovely views. Our dinner plans included sunset at Ray’s Boathouse, so we looked around for something quick to do, and decided to check out Chinatown. It’s small – not nearly as impressive as San Francisco’s Chinatown, but still full of little noodle shops and parks. We stopped for eggrolls and potstickers at the one of them (can’t recall the name, but it’s on the corner across from the main park with the pagoda), which was good (although I’d recommend that they remove the graphic sign protesting forced organ donation from outside the front of the restaurant – an excellent cause, but not good marketing.) We also got some ribs from another establishment to take home for later in case of unanticipated hunger. P needed a nap at this point (still feeling a little below par) so he dropped me back at Pike Market and I explored some more and just soaked up the atmosphere (and took pictures since the fog had completely cleared.)

Back to the room, cleaned up and we headed for Ray’s – except, expert navigator that I am, we headed the wrong direction for about 15 minutes until I figured out we were going the wrong way. Duh. Usually the sort of thing that ticks P off, but not this time. The directions to Ray’s that they give on the phone recording are not the way I’m accustomed to going, and it took a lot longer than I remember it taking (even with my stellar impression of Wrong Way Corrigan). But arrive we finally did, and in time for the sun to be making its descent and sinking behind the mountains, turning the water gold. Our appetizer (calamari – very good) accompanied the sunset. The waitress brought out blankets and we wrapped up and ate our entrees pretty hastily (salmon for me, and sablefish for P – neither entrée was stellar). We headed back the way I remembered, and it was much faster, although there was STILL a traffic jam into the city! What are all those people doing at that time of the evening?

We were greeted by more fog when we awoke Sunday morning, but it was still lovely and comfortable. We walked back down to the Market and picked up a few trinkets and presents for the pet-sitting relatives. I made sure P got to see the original Starbucks – I remember having coffee in there when their current success was just a twinkle in their eye – wish I’d invested then! We had a couple of unimpressive pirogues from a little café, examined the totem pole in the park, listened to some wisdom from some of the homeless folks (really!) and watched the market come alive. This is always one of my favorite things to do. I love it when the flowers are coming in and the fruits and veggies are being unveiled and everything is waking up.

Checking out, we went off to pick up K. Her friend lives just off of Lake Sammamish in a lovely little wooded area, with a creek that the salmon run on flowing by the property that The kids had been having a wonderful time – ‘just like peas and carrots again’. T’s dad took us for a walk through the woods down to the water’s edge. Beavers had been exceptionally busy and had many works in progress. We had barbequed salmon back at the house, which was awesome. Can’t get enough of that salmon!

Sad goodbyes, and we headed back to the airport, but Wrong Way again couldn’t find the directions to return the rental car, so we wound up going around in circles through the airport twice – I called the local phone number and got a recording – we stopped to ask directions and were given the wrong ones – and then finally stopped again to ask and discovered we were practically next door. This had made us later than I like to be for departure, but check in was quick and security was only about 15 minutes, so we were fine. And finally, safe home.

We loved Seattle. P and I both agreed it’s a place we could live if we ever wanted to move. While I’ve visited many times for work and for fun, there’s so much I haven’t’ seen. And it’s always been lovely weather when I’ve been there. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that the ‘constant rain’ is just a myth perpetuated by residents to keep more people from moving there. But rain and grey days would make me horribly blue – that would not be pretty. People there were very friendly, it felt very clean and safe. We left a lot undone (if you read my long weekend trip report with K to San Francisco, you know we can fit a lot in and still be relaxed), so I guess we’ll just have to go back!