About 3 weeks ago, Chase and I took a fantastic trip to Seattle! We had a wonderful time. One of our favorite things to do together is explore new cities. We both love downtown areas with the high rising buildings. What is neat about Seattle is that since it's near the water and has a small amount of land (compared to phoenix), so the city is forced to build up and not out (phoenix)
Chase had to fly up to seattle for business on a Monday and Tuesday, so we decided it would be fun if he flew in Friday and I joined him for the weekend. Another nurse graciously switched me a work day so I had Monday off. Chase booked a hotel through hotwire.com and it ended up being the Westin, which is smack dab in the middle of downtown Seattle and within walking distance of EVERYTHING!!
We got in late Friday evening. Our flight was delayed, so we didn't get into Seattle until about 12:45am. What was such a bummer about this is that the light rail from the airport to downtown seattle stopped running at 12:10am. So instead of paying $5.00 for both of us to hop on the light rail, we paid $50 for a cab ride. This didn't make my man too happy. The next morning we woke with a great view of the city (the westin is a cylinder and every room has a huge window). I knew that this being seattle, I would want to have a lot of coffee on the trip. The day was cloudy and chilly (compared to Phoenix!) so we wore jackets and headed out to this delicious little bakery in Belltown that Chase found. It ended up being named one of the top bread bakeries in the country by Bon Appetit. This bakery, called Macrina Bakery, was so cozy and small. It had a great feel to it, and we had to wait awhile for 2 seats, but it was SOO worth it. While we were waiting, I had a latte served in a big round mug. It was so delicious I didn't even use splenda. The coffee had such a high quality, smooth taste.
Right around the corner from this place, we stumbled upon Mars Hill Graduate School. Mars Hill is a newer church in Seattle that has a wonderful pastor, Mark Driscoll, who preaches God's truth in a really authentic way. This church is completely changing Seattle, which used to be America's most unchurched city. This past Easter, Mars Hill church has their Easter service at Quest Field and over 17000 people came in the rain. They have several campuses and even a "graduate school" for christians wishing to pursue a higher level of christian studies.
There is so much in Seattle to see. We worked our way back downtown, walking along the water and occasionally walking out on a pier. We stopped at the Seattle Museum of Art. My favorite room was one full of this fantastic porcelain. I'm not usually too overly concerned with porcelain, but the beautiful hand-painted designs on these pieces from all over the world dating back hundreds of years combined with the incredible lay-out and lighting of the room was enough to awe me.
We visited the world-famous Pike Place Market, which was amazing! It was so fun and so crowded! The fish was unbelievably fresh. A fisherman told us that it was caught up by Alaska 2 days ago and flown down the day before. They were passing out samples of smoked salmon - absolutely delicious. There were fresh fruit and vegetables everywhere. But of course, my favorite part was the sea of freshly cut tulips.
We saw the first original Starbucks, which of course had a line out the door. 
We found a gum wall...
Nearby we went and sat on a lawn that overlooked the marina and Puget Sound. Even when it's cloudy we both love the city, but oh boy, when the sun is shining, it's one of the best places on earth!
On Sunday we got up and wanted to hit the city again. We met my cousin, Chris, downtown for lunch. He moved out to Seattle a few years ago because he used to come out here to visit and absolutely loved it. He climbed Mount Rainer 2 years ago! Pretty impressive when you actually see the peak poking through the clouds from downtown seattle. It was awesome to visit with him. Chase and I decided to be even more touristy after lunch as we visited the Space Needle. At first we were just going to hang out in the area that it was in, which is a really neat mall area with lots to do, but then we said why not? Lets go to the top and have a look around. And I am so glad we did, because the clouds opened up and the sun peeked out and it was GORGEOUS!!
We finished up the night with another trip to Mars Hill church, but this time to the main campus in Ballard. We took the metro bus to get there - that was quite the experience!!
We had a great experience in Seattle and truthfully may find ourselves living there someday. Definitely can't rule it out!
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