It was such a relaxing vacation, which is just what I've been needing after how hectic my schedule has been lately. We slept in until between 8 and 9 every day (which is west coast time mind you, so it's like sleeping until 11 or 12 here!) and then we'd find a great place to get breakfast and some Seattle coffee (I made my mind up that I wasn't gonna have any Starbucks while I was there, just other local coffee).
Mike drinking coffee at one of our favorite breakfast places, Lola. He became quite the little coffee drinker on this trip and he loved himself some Tully's coffee. Some other great Seattle coffees that we tried were Stumptown and Cafe Vita.
My pancakes were to die for and these little gems were ahhhmaaazing....
Yes, these are homemade donuts with a honey and a vanilla spread and they tasted even better than they look.
My other favorite breakfast place.
Those juices were fresh squeezed and delicious! My was on the left and had oranges, pineapple, and pear. Mike's had strawberry, pineapple, apple, and banana. They had Cafe Vita coffee at this joint and my latte was yummy. So was my actual breakfast (Belgian waffle) by the way.
So anyway, after breakfast Mike would occasionally do conference stuff and I would go shopping. Let me just tell you that the shopping in downtown Seattle is amazing! I guess it's a good thing that I'm pregnant, because I couldn't really buy any clothes (but don't worry, I found 2 maternity stores). However, what I failed to purchase in clothing, I more than made up for in accessories. Let's see....I got a large brown leather purse to use as a carry on, a gym bag, and a cashmere scarf at Nordstrom Rack. I got cute flats and a gray leather purse at Aldo. Some jewelry at Francesca's. Three books at Barnes and Noble. And some maternity bras (which are more of a necessity at this point as my regular bras are getting uncomfortable) and a maternity shirt from the maternity stores. Whew. All of this and I still had to literally force myself to go back to the hotel. I could've gone on and on. Shopping for me is a hit or miss. Sometimes I want to shop and I don't like anything anywhere. Other times....well, this is the result of the other times.
Unfortunately my checked bag is still MIA from Seattle and it has a lot of my new stuff in it, so I am feeling some anxiety at this point. The airline said it would be delivered to my house today, but it has yet to show up and I have been waiting patiently(?) allllll day. Every car that drives by causes me to run and look out the window only to have my hopes shattered again. Oh well, as long as I get it back at some point I guess.
We went to some great places for dinner in Seattle. On the first night we went to Elliott's and had some delicious Seafood right on the water at Elliott Bay.
They are famous for their Dungeness crab and Mike decided to try it out and loved it.
Mike's friend from school (across from me) happened to have a high school acquaintance that lives in Seattle so he suggested this place for dinner and then he took us around for a personal tour of Seattle. It was a great way to see the city!
A great lookout point he took us to for a view of the city. Of course, this picture doesn't do it any justice, but it was beautiful, take my word for it.
There were two drawbacks to going to Seattle pregnant. One: I couldn't partake in as much coffee consumption as I would've liked, and two: I could partake in any of the alcohol consumption. Mike and his friends went IPA wild in Seattle, like at this bar for example, which had 160 beers on tap!
We went down to Pike Place Market a few times too, which is the famous one in Seattle where they throw the fish. It was so cool to see and they had a lot of great looking stuff at that market. The flowers were so gorgeous and vibrant, and cheap! You could get a really nice bunch for $5! All of the produce looked amazing as well.
Random crazy bike that was parked down at the market one day.
So we're strolling down Post Alley on our way to Pike Place and what do we see but this gum wall! Apparently it's famous and I've never heard of it, we just happened to stumble upon it in our travels! And yes, I did add my current piece of gum to the wall.
The world famous fish throwing place
This sign was right inside the market by the fish place.
Note that the weather looks pretty dreary in some of these pics, but it didn't really bother us. It drizzled a little bit on about half of the days, but it never really "rained" and it was great to get a break from the 100 degree weather down here. Most days were in the 60's or low 70's. Heavenly.
Mike and I down at the Market while he was chatting with my mom. This day was his 31st birthday!!
We also did an underground tour in Seattle which was just OK. Downtown Seattle burnt down a long time ago and they built the new city one story on top of the old city, so we got to take a little underground tour and see parts of the old city. It had the potential to be cool, but our tour guide was wacko, I almost fainted (more on that later), and like Mike said "I'm from PA, I've seen grungy basements before".
So yeah, we're down there in the basement type thing and I start feeling that all too familiar sensation coming on. I used to pass out fairly frequently, so I can feel it coming a mile away. I grab Mike's arm, which he doesn't notice until I'm really digging into it, at which point he whips around and says "WHAT?" Then he takes one look at my pale face and is like "Oh no, what's wrong with you?". So I move to the back of the group, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible and kneel down and put my head down. Kinda hard to be inconspicuous when you're doing that in a disgusting old dirty basement in front of a group of 30 people. That helped though, thank goodness. So I didn't actually pass out, but I did draw attention to myself (my worst nightmare) from the tour guide and probably everyone else. Soooo embarrassing. So for the rest of the tour I couldn't really pay attention because I was trying so hard not to pass out. I skipped lunch that day because I was out and about and it was about 5PM by this point, so lesson learned. Pregnancy and skipping meals do not mix. I think that was the first time I've skipped a meal since becoming pregnant, and it'll definitely be the last.
We also went to a Seattle Mariners game one of the nights. Going to a pro baseball game is a ritual for Mike and his friends at these conferences. He went to one in Cleveland, Denver, and now Seattle.
View of the city from one side of the field
View of the Olympic Mountains from the other side of the field
Then, on our last day Mike and I went out to the Space Needle for a really awesome view of the city. It was the nicest day we had so far, so the perfect day to go up there.
Mike facing West Seattle and the Olympic Mountains on the other side of the Puget Sound.
Side note: I was wearing my PSU sweatshirt one day and our waiter said to me, "So, you're from around here huh?". I laughed, thinking he was joking and told him my sweatshirt stood for Penn State. He then laughed and said there is a college out there called the Puget Sound University, which they call PSU. I never knew there was another PSU in this country! So then I continued wearing that sweatshirt everywhere so that everyone would think I was a local. Haha!
Cool view of the city with Mount Rainier in the background to the left
View of the city and you can see the stadium where we were the night before by my left ear
See, I told you we had a gorgeous day!
I got a pic of our hotel too, just to remember it because it was amazing.
The Olive 8 (conveniently located at 8th and Olive Streets) is Seattle's "greenest" hotel and had lots of cool features like a huge green area on the roof to prevent rainwater runoff and save money on heating and cooling. The rooms also had a slot for your key card which is what turned on your lights. Then when you left the room and took your key, the lights would shut off. Pretty cool huh? There was an amazing pool, gym, and spa in the hotel too, all of which I utilized! I got a "mommy to be" massage which was outstanding. I would definitely stay in this hotel again and recommend it to anyone else going out to Seattle.
So that's about it for my barrage of pictures and stories from this trip. We really had such a relaxing time. No schedules to follow, just got up when we wanted to and played the days by ear. I really, really loved that about this vacation, and it was a "babymoon" to remember!
P.S. I just got a call that my bag is on its way! Yay!
Looks sooooo fun! I'm determined to do a Cali trip next year....maybe for our 1st anniversary!
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