Our Last Day in Seattle

On Saturday morning, we headed to the flagship REI and I was able to get some awesome shoes and a harness for rock climbing.  That harness is awesome and is so much more comfortable than the ones you can rent.  After that we headed down to Pike Place Market.  I was so excited and looking everywhere that we only got one picture!  The flying fish store was right at the entrance to the market, and I was lucky enough to get to see a fish get thrown over the heads of those watching.  Brett missed it, and we didn't see them do it again.  We did get a picture of Brett with the ugly monkfish they had on display.

This thing had a string attached to it's tail that the employees would pull when people walked by or tried to get a picture of it.  It was hilarious.  There were tons of awesome vendors with fun and beautiful produce.  There were tons of flowers for sale, and I went nuts trying to take everything in.  We bought some roasted garlic and herb flavored pasta, cheesecake truffles, marinated cheese curds, and some roasted lemon pepitas and caramel cashews.  We tasted pepper jellies, beef jerky, chocolate pasta, and a wonderful orange.  We had a fantastic lunch there too!  I was also pleased to find out that Chez Shea, which is mentioned on Frasier all the time, is a real place!  I thought they just made it up. :)  The market was spectacular, but we couldn't stay all day.  We headed to the Seattle Aquarium.

I love aquariums, and this one had tons of seals and otters, and some glowing fish!  It was fun to walk through and see all the kids.  Brett got this picture of the Space Needle as we were driving by it.

We decided to head about an hour north of Seattle to see a tulip festival that Noelle's dad recommended.  We stopped at Trophy Cupcakes on the way there.  Although they were good, they don't come close to Sprinkles.  The tulips and daffodils were gorgeous, and there were so many of them!  The first field we came to was just a sea of red.

Other fields had sections with many different colors.  Here were some of my favorites.

There were tons of yellow and white daffodils too, and tons of people!  We had a hard time getting pictures because so many people were there.

The next morning we headed out early so we could come home to get Kennedy.  It was a fabulous and beautiful trip, and I'm so glad we got to go.  I was sad to leave, but hopefully we will be there someday!

Hopefully We'll Be Huskies

After visiting Snoqulamie, we headed over to the University of Washington campus to take a self-guided tour.  UW is our #1 choice for Brett's grad school work to get a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.  It was our top pick even before we visited, but now, we really hope that we'll be huskies soon!  The campus was huge and gorgeous.  I can't believe that we didn't get pictures of the beautiful gothic library.  Holy cow.  I think I would have gotten all A's if I had had that library to study in because I never would have wanted to leave it.  It was a beautiful day (which helped of course, it didn't rain at all the whole time we were in Seattle), so we had a good time seeing what the campus has to offer.

This fountain is huge.  It would be such a nice place to sit when it's nice outside and hear the water rushing.  You can see a sample of the buildings behind it.  There pretty much wasn't an ugly building on campus.  We then found the bookstore and decided to find the health building.  In order to get there we had to go through a huge line of pink trees.

Talk about pretty.  People were taking pictures like mad, tons of people were out on the lawn playing frisbee, napping, and having fun.  We talked to some people in the nursing department, and we are so excited to apply in a few years!  Here is the view of the main part of campus from those pink trees you just saw.

Isn't it beautiful?  We just loved the campus, loved the people in the nursing department, loved the fact that there is a hospital on campus, loved the library, loved everything about it.  We are so happy that we took the time to visit the campus and solidify our desire to be here for grad school!

Mariners and Waterfalls

Our trip to Seattle last weekend was a huge success.  We had a fantastic time!  It was a long drive (but beautiful through Oregon and Washington), but when we got there we went straight to Safeco Field to meet our friends for a Mariners game.  Neal and Michelle Bastian were nice enough to get us some tickets and show us around since they were in town.  The game was great.  The Mariners beat Tampa Bay 1-0.  The field was right on the water and was beautiful.  We forgot our camera, so the Bastians have all of the pictures of us at the game.  Afterwards, we went on a drive to a beautiful area of the city to see some views.

That was our view of the city from the hill.  It was beautiful.  And the houses on that hill were beautiful and probably worth millions of dollars.  Here is a statue on top of that hill too.

Since Brett always wants to be behind the camera, there are more pictures of me than of him.  Here I am with Michelle, Neal, and Neal's brother Daniel.

After that we went to Dick's and had some burgers.  Really cheap, and really yummy.  We spent the night with Neal's parents and watched the Jazz beat the Lakers.  (Too bad they couldn't do it again.)  The next morning we headed down to Snoqualmie Falls.  And it was gorgeous.

The city of Snoqualmie was gorgeous too, and we stopped there to have lunch.  Beautiful nature, beautiful houses, nice shopping.  It was just awesome!  I just realized how many times I used the word beautiful in this post.  I guess that's probably the best word to sum up Seattle!  I will probably use it again for the next couple of posts.

Bittersweet

Brett and I are heading to Seattle tonight.  And we'll be leaving Kennedy with Brett's parents from this afternoon to Sunday night.  We have never left her before, and I am really sad!  I am excited to have a weekend away, check out a new city, meet up with friends, etc, but I am so sad to leave Kennedy for so long!  If we took her with us, we would all be miserable (since we're driving and not stopping at all while we're there), so it really is for the best.  But we will miss her terribly and already look forward to seeing her on Sunday night!

Pike Place Market: My Mecca

Yes, it's true. The other day Brett mentioned that he may want to live in Seattle when we are done with school, so I started doing some research. First of all, I found out that the University of Washington has the number 4 program in the nation for what Brett wants to do, which is awesome. After I found that out I started looking for some more information about the city itself. I started with weather, and it turns out that the average temperature in June and July is 75 degrees. 75! That is so amazing. But the best was yet to come. I found Pike Place Market. Brace yourself.

I love food and I love to cook, so naturally Farmer's Markets and exotic and fresh ingredients are some of my favorite things. I could not believe how amazing this market is! They have all kinds of produce, meats, and anything else you could possibly imagine needing. They have a whole store dedicated to spices, and another completely for products made from blueberries.
They also have a ton of pastry shops (including French and Russian), more than 50 restaurants, and a ton of other kinds of shops of random stuff (not food). I am so excited to take a trip out there so that I can go to this market.
I am sure that Brett will be horrified when we go, because he hates shopping for long periods of time, and I have an inkling that this place could take a whole day for me. I don't think I have ever heard of a place as cool as this before as far as food goes. I can't wait to delve in and see what I find! It may be a while yet, but I'm sold on the idea of Seattle.

My friend Noelle is currently having fun in Costa Rica, but since she grew up in Seattle, maybe she'll be able to tell me a little bit more about it (as well as the city itself)!