A few weeks ago I spent the most amazing long weekend in Seattle visiting my best friend, Emily. She, and her boyfriend, Peter, moved out there about 2 years go after he graduated from business school at Dartmouth. I’ve only seen her once since then, when she visited at Christmas shortly after Autumn was born. I miss not having the opportunity of getting to see her in Boston whenever, but I’m glad she loves life in Seattle. Anyway, it’s needless to say that I was very excited to get to visit her and the city she now calls home.
I arrived late Thursday night. Well, 10pm might not be so late but it was 1am for me… stupid time change! I tried to sleep on the flight but it was so hot that I couldn’t get comfortable. I got off the plane sounding like a frog. At least there was Wi-fi on the flight!
Anyway, Emily and her Instafamous dog Aldo (aka Fluffz) picked me up.
We headed to her place in Lower Queen Anne to crash as we all had a long week of deadlines and general insanity. But of course, I had to check out the view before I called it a night so we took the Fluffz out for a walk. And then a second wind hit so we call did some catching up so we all turned in at 1am, which felt like 4am to me. A tiring long day, but so worth it.
We kicked off Friday by walking down to Pike Place Market. I’ve always wanted to go there ever since I used to watch The Real World Seattle. Dorkish. But it was such a fantastic visit there. As there actually is so much to see and do as it’s large and packed full of vendors, shops, and restaurants.
I couldn’t get over the amount of affordable flowers there were. Big bunches of flower for $3-7 and big bouquets for $10-15. I couldn’t get over it. I took soooo many pictures of them.
And the fresh food that was available was incredible. It varied from fruit and vegetables to fish and shell fish to specialty sausages and smoked meats. There was something for everyone.
I even got to see the guys throwing fish at the “World Famous” Pike Place Fish Market.
While at Pike Place we snacked on mini donuts from Daily Dozen to hold us over while we discussed lunch options. They were so tiny and yummy. Emily got the maple bacon and I got the maple glazed one. I also sampled Elleno’s Greek Yogurt. It was so creamy and sweet, but still had that tang that is signature to Greek Yogurt.
For the most part we just wandered around Pike Place market as it was so large and there was so much to check out. I did a bit of shopping as I got some spices at Market Spice, near Pike Place Fish Market.
And, of course, we stopped by the Gum Wall. Ummm, so gross.
For lunch we picked up food at Piroshky Piroshky and went to Rachel’s Ginger Beer. There is no seating at Piroshky Piroshky and Rachel’s doesn’t serve food so it worked out perfectly. Our food and drinks were really enjoyable.
We then continued our journey downtown. We stopped off into the central branch of the Seattle Public Library. It’s such a cool building. So was City Hall. (Boston needs to learn a thing or two about designing nice public buildings…)
Stopping off at Bar Sajor for a mid afternoon glass of wine, and oyster’s for Emily, was a great way of giving our feet a break.
I picked up this pretty awesome ring! I loved everything at Velouria.
By now we were a pretty decent walk from the house, so we hoped on the bus and then the monorail. Both were so clean. (Again, Boston…) But the monorail was so freaking cool. It was so well taken care of and just a cool experience breezing through the city.
After a long day of being on our feet we decided to keep dinner pretty chill so we ordered some amazing Mexican take out from El Camion in Ballard. The perfect way to end the very active day (21K+ steps!).
The sun was shining bright on Saturday. It was going to be a wonderful day!!
Toulouse Petit has been voted one of the best brunch places in the United States, so it was an obvious choice to go there for brunch. I could see why it was so well respected as both of our drinks and meals were amazing.
We continued up into the Queen Anne neighborhood to wander around. And get some great nibbles along the way. We stopped off at Cupcake Royale to split a Whiskey Maple Bacon cupcake. And then we got some donuts to go from Top Pot Doughnuts. Thankfully we were doing so much walking that we were ‘walking off’ all the food we were enjoying.
The blooming flowers were a beautiful sight, especially after coming from such a HORRIBLE winter in Boston. I just loved checking out the Queen Anne neighborhood as the houses were so well maintained and down right adorable.
As we headed back to their apartment we stopped off at Kerry Park, which provided a wonderful view of the Seattle skyline.
Thanks for getting the Seattle skyline in our photo dude… ha!
Peter had seen there was an Instagram Seattle meet up at Discovery Park so we went there for an afternoon hike. The pace of the large (200+) group was a bit slower than our preference so we decided to go ahead and take the longer route along the beach. It worked out perfectly as we basically arrived at the lighthouse.
Plus, we got to see some seals playing as we took the route along the water. A total win!!
The weather that afternoon was just gorgeous. It was a beautiful spring day. I loved being out in the fresh air, although the hills were a little tough at times. Seattle, why do you have to be so hilly?!?!?!
Emily had been telling me about how wonderful Revel in Freemont was so it was a given that we were going to go at some point. They don’t take reservations so it was walked around “The Center of The Universe” while we waited for a table to open up to savor their creative Asian dishes. It was well worth the 30 minute wait as the food was incredible.
While we immensely enjoyed the food at Revel our overall eating ‘game-plan’ was to eat a bit at all different places so we saved room for some ice cream at Molly Moon’s, a local ice cream shop in Queen Anne. The kiddie scoop of Vegan Coconut Chunk was a perfect way to end the day.
The weather on Sunday was the dreariest, but it honestly it wasn’t that bad. We still got in a lot of sightseeing and walking in (18K+ steps!).
We had talked about going on a Ferry Ride to Bainbridge Island but we decided to head back to Freemont as I wanted to do some more sightseeing there. Too bad you can’t be in two places at once!
There is a weekend market in downtown Freemont that is a must visit. There were local craftsman and a fun variety of food trucks. Of course, I couldn’t resist the food from BeanFish as it’s a Taiyaki food truck. Basically, a kick butt Asian fish-shaped waffle.
Of course I had to say ‘hi’ to the Freemont Troll!
Gas Works Park is such a great place to visit to see the old over grown oil refinery. Plus, it has such great views of the city. You can even see the “Sleepless in Seattle” house boat from the point!!! (grey house in center)
Peter and Aldo then met us at Gas Works Park so we could go for lunch. We ended up at The Leary Traveler, where we enjoyed some food and hard ciders.
A really cool thing about Seattle is how dog friendly it is. There were so many bars in Freemont that allowed dogs. We saw one patio that had more than 5 dogs on it. I loved the laid back atmosphere of it all.
Oh, and just a blog photo shoot in the mix. I needed some pictures for a clothing review so Emily helped me out with that. woohoo!
We just hung around for a bit in the afternoon giving out legs a break after all the walking we had done over the past 2 days. Plus, Emily had to set up her 3D printer for some stuff for work. 3D printing is so cool. She even made Autumn a little purple owl. eeek!
Emily and I headed down into Belltown for dinner. We ended up at Steelhead Diner, which is located above Rachel’s Ginger Beer outside Pike Place Market. Their Crab and Shrimp Tater Totes are a MUST GET. They are such a great combination of flavors and textures. I was in love.
The trip wrapped up Monday morning with breakfast at Nielsen’s Pastries for danish pastries before heading to the airport.
I completed my Seattle trip with lunch from Bleecher’s at Sea-Tac. I can definitely understand why their mac and cheese is ‘World Famous’.
I got back into Boston, hoped a cab, and was home by 9.30pm. I recapped my trip to Price but mainly crashed. Besides, I couldn’t wait for Autumn to wake up the next morning. I missed my babe.
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Places we went to:
Where we shopped:
Market Spice in Pike Place
Where we ate & drank:
