We stayed at the Arctic Club Hotel. It was a really cool, historic hotel. The rooms were pretty small but it was really different and we loved it. The hotel was packed, there were two weddings there that weekend. Also in town was the University of Washington football game, a couple Mariner's games, a Sounders game, a comic convention and a music festival. So there was a lot going on!
After checking in to the hotel we went down the street to grab some lunch at a French Brasserie, yum!
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| so happy to be out of the car! |
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| my salad - so good! |
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| victor's sandwich |
After fueling up, we walked down to the Space Needle. We passed this weird little park on the way where all the tree trunks were painted bright blue.
There were also a lot of sculptures that look like real people scattered around.
I took the time to sit down and talk with one :)
After a good walk we made it to the Space Needle! It was smaller than I remembered. The line to get up took about half an hour but it wasn't too bad.
It was no surprise that the views from the Observation Deck were amazing! We didn't realize that it was the 50th anniversary of the Space Needle this year. We got to see some historic collectors items displayed and also got a commemorative Christmas ornament.
This is the view of the EMP Museum from the Space Needle O Deck. It is such an interesting building from both the inside and outside!
Here's a view of the Bumbershoot Music Festival from the O Deck. There were some pretty cool bands playing there that weekend, but we just didn't have enough time to go check it out. Maybe next year!
Next stop was the EMP Museum. This museum was unlike anything I had ever been to before. It was really interesting, but also a bit overwhelming. There was just so much for us to see, we could have spent another couple of hours in there. Everything was also really interactive, which was great.
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| A sculpture of guitars at the EMP |
I would highly recommend visiting the EMP if you are ever in Seattle. However, don't make the same mistake we did. Hit the place with a lot of energy and spend at least a couple hours there. We were there later in the day and didn't have the energy to really give it the time and attention I think it deserved. But then again, we are big music people :)
Outside the EMP and the Space Needle there was a Chihuly exhibit. I really wanted to go inside, but we just didn't have enough time. Here are a couple sculptures we could see from the outside. This place is definitely on the list for the next time we go up there!
Saturday night we had dinner at The Georgian restaurant in the Fairmont Hotel. We didn't see the menu ahead of time, but it came highly recommended so we took a chance. It was very good, but VERY fancy and a little more old school that what we have gotten used to in Portland. But we had a great time and really enjoyed it.
Sunday morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Then we headed over to the waterfront to check out Pike Place Market.
Kind of on accident we stumbled on the original Starbucks. The line to get in was around the block! Good thing in the Northwest there is a Starbucks literally on EVERY corner. So we just went over a block to get our caffeine fix!
The flowers at Pike Place were amazing. And most of the bouquets are only $5. I wish we could have taken some back with us.
These peppers also looked amazing.
And of course, we had to go in and see the fish vendors. We actually got to see them throw some fish!
After the markets, we grabbed some lunch and went to do the Underground Tour. This was one of the things we were the most excited about. I would say that it was pretty disappointing. We learned a lot of interesting things about the city. I would recommend it, but I don't think it was as entertaining as we thought it would be. But I think a lot of that had to do with our guide and some of the people in our group.
Once the tour was over we went up to Lynnwood, where my dad grew up. We stopped over at my grandparents' old house to see that they had painted it green! Agh!
We drove around Lynnwood for a little while, but there were a lot of cops out that looked like they were searching for someone, so we decided we should probably get out of there!
Then we went over to the funeral home to see where Nanny & Geege are now.
On the way back to the hotel we drove around the University of Washington for a little bit. We were both pretty amazed at how beautiful it looked. The campus is a really great mix of new, modern buildings and older, more traditional ones. And, of course, this time of year everything is really green and pretty!
Last thing on the list was to find the Troll under the bridge in the Fremont neighborhood. We got a little turned around, but we finally found it! I was sad to see it had so much spray paint on it!
Sunday night we had dinner at a restaurant called Anchovies & Olives. It was much more like what we find in Portland and it was great! On Monday, we went over to 13 Coins to have brunch and then hit the road back to Portland. It was funny because both ways we were driving the opposite of traffic on the highway. It looked like there were a lot of Washingtonians that left for Oregon for the weekend and not the other way around. Maybe a lot of people wanted to get out of town since there was so much going on. Who knows! But we didn't hit much traffic at all and it was a great drive back. We picked up the dogs, did some laundry and got ready to head back to work on Tuesday.
Overall, we had a great weekend and it was an awesome trip to start celebrating Victor's 30th birthday. He had always wanted to visit Seattle, and I think we got to cover all the must see's on his list, and even came up with a new list for next time!
Have a great week,
tasha
