Seattle {Day One}

A little while back we decided we needed to take a little vacation, just the two of us. Justin has all these hotel and airline points from traveling for work so we started looking into the places that Southwest Airlines flies to. We couldn't get to Alaska or Hawaii, which were at the top of my list, and we didn't want to go to a beach down south. I've always wanted to get into Canada for a trip and we have never been to Seattle, so we decided it would be the perfect spot to go to escape the heat, see some family, and enjoy a little adult time! 

We had an early flight out of Dallas so we dropped the girls off at Mimi and Pops house the night before. {Yes, Ford too!} We got up bright and early and were in Seattle by 9:15 AM local time.

The plan for the day was just to explore the city and take it easy. We have plenty planned the rest of our trip. We checked into our hotel and dropped our bags before heading out to see the sights. 

Our first stop was the Seattle Public Library. It is literally a block from our hotel. I'm actually kind of surprised I can't see it from our room since we have TONS of windows. I suppose it's the other way... Anyways, the library is HUGE. I've never seen anything like it. The building, first of all, is an entirely mirrored glass building with thousands of panels {I'll research this later... UPDATE: There are just under 10,000 pieces of glass on this building!!} as it is 11 stories tall. It is HUGE. We checked out the children's section which has books in many different languages as well has rows upon rows of the kids books you'd expect. We went up and walked through large rooms with hundreds of computers. We walked through the three floors of nonfiction books and made it to the top of the library where you could {gasp!} look down to the bottom. Also a pretty neat looking historical collection that we couldn't get into as it was locked and unstaffed at the time. A very fun stop, indeed.

The view from our hotel windows. We had a great room with multiple views; this was just one side.

The Seattle Public Library downtown

Books in so many languages! Looked like a fun children's section.

Our walking journey continued towards the King Street Station, where we plan to catch a train later this week to get to Vancouver. We ventured by to get to the Pioneer Square area. We had our first cup of coffee and croissants at Caffe Umbria and sat outside to enjoy the amazing temperatures! We happened upon Occidental Square where there was someone playing live music and we played foosball! There were many games for children and adults alike which is a fun addition to a big city. We found the Waterfall Garden, which is dedicated to UPS workers. The company was founded here, according to Bob! We made our way back to the hotel while checking out close places to eat on the walk. 

At this point we realized we had already done quite a bit and it was barely lunch time. Once settled into our room, we  came up with a new plan for the rest of the day. We headed to waterfront area for lunch. Finding The Pink Door was an adventure itself, but the food was amazing and we sat out on the rooftop patio which had pretty views of the water. A great recommendation! We decided to just stroll after lunch, but not yet through Pike Place {we have other plans for that later} so we walked up the coast along the Alaskan Highway until we got to the Olympic Sculpture Park. We had a brief chat with the kids and enjoyed more of the water views here as well as further up the coast at Myrtle Edwards Park. We found ourselves about two miles away from our hotel at this point so we caught a ride back to relax before dinner. 

I'm not usually one to take pictures of my food, but OH MY GOODNESS.

This was in the top 2 favorite places we ate in Seattle, and maybe even the whole trip.

This is heirloom tomato bruschetta.

I don't even remember the name of this dish. But it was delicious!

Burrata cheese, basil, more tomatoes... Like a caprese salad but instead pasta.

If you ever go... this is the entrance! A little tricky to find.

Patio views.

Olympic Sculpture Park

We were able to meet and catch up with Josie for dinner at a cute little place near our hotel called Purple. The food was good but it was on the swankier end. We loved seeing Josie and hearing about her experiences in Seattle so far, since we do not get to see her very often! We have more plans for later this week and we are happy for those as well. 

By 9:00 we were pretty exhausted. With the time change and the early flight we had to call it an early evening. I did get to see some US gymnastics, but was not able to watch all of it. I wonder how late it was on?? 

It was a fun first day in Seattle! We saw more than we thought we would get to. We are looking forward to more fun this week and spending lots of time outdoors: biking, hiking, kayaking, wine tasting, and more! I will be rethinking footwear choices... 

More coming soon!