4. Take a weekend trip to Seattle.

Recently, we received a tag-team gift of a weekend away, courtesy of all of Sophie's grandparents. (And Aunt Kristi helped out with babysitting, too.) For our weekend away, we chose to check out Seattle, because we live so close, and had never explored it before. So we donned our most touristy outfits and took a four hour bus ride to downtown Seattle on the Friday evening before the Memorial Day long weekend.

FRIDAY:
We got in around 10pm, checked into our hotel (close enough to the Space Needle that, if the Needle fell over, and, um, were twice as high, it would hit us), and wandered through the Seattle night, taking random pictures and getting carded by the bouncer at a bar and grill. (We were denied entry - Holly forgot her ID, and apparently, looks 18.)



SATURDAY:
O touristiest of days, it started innocently enough with Belgium waffles at the hotel. I could have sworn they were supposed to be Belgian waffles, but maybe they didn't want to get sued by Belgium. We left the hotel at 9am and went up the Space Needle. We were both pretty impressed by its presence - more than just a tall tower, it has style. In a nutshell, it looks neato. From there, we wandered into downtown, stopping to look at a glassblowing studio, a few clothes stores, Bill Gates' footprints in a sidewalk (I have slightly bigger feet, go me!), and some fancy everything store called Anthropologie that Holly really wanted to see. After all this, we hit the Pike Place Market, taking in such features as the original Starbucks store (would have been more impressive if we drank coffee, even though we did partake), pigs everwhere (the market's mascot), loads of fresh flowers and produce, hot dogs on the lawn overlooking the harbour, a giant gummi bear made of smaller gummi bears, and finally, the fishmongers who throw fish around like frisbees. Hooray!





After Pike Place Market, we went for a tour of the main branch of the library, a most amazing building with a fantastic kids' section and an interior viewpoint of all 8+ floors that we both found more dizzying than the Space Needle. From there, we wandered through the old section of town, found a neat old bookstore, and collapsed on the stoop of a fancy Italian restaurant. Disgusted with our appearance, but sympathetic for our obvious tiredness, they put us at a table in the back. After getting some food into our systems, we decided to kick the already-seized day while it was down, and attend a Mariners-Giants game at Safeco Field. It was very exciting, we saw Ken Griffey Jr. get a hit, and we saw the Mariners get the only run - until the end of the 3rd inning, at least, when I felt way too woozy and ill to stay, so we left. We had some confusion at the gate, and managed to get slightly ripped off by a scalper - fun! After walking and busing back to the hotel, we watched the rest of the game on TV, and saw the Giants have a blockbuster 8th inning to win the game 5-1.



SUNDAY:
We didn't have time for the same amount of touristy nonsense on Sunday, so we had to settle for: a walk around the Queen Anne Hill area, a visit to the Experience Music Project (where we got to operate actual Muppets!) and the Science Fiction Museum (both located in the weirdest building I've ever seen, designed by Frank Gehry), a ferris wheel ride, and a folk festival. After all this, it was a short four hour bus ride back home to see our little girl again!



All in all, a very tourism-packed weekend, and lots of fun. Thanks again, Sophie-grandparents! We'll have to do this again sometime!