Seattle Day 2: Seattle Center

It was a short Monorail ride over to Seattle Center, but it sure beat walking! This area, including the Space Needle, was originally built for the 1962 World’s Fair. Our first stop was at the Chihuly Garden and Glass. This museum opened in 2012 to display Dale Chihuly’s work. He is the same artist who created the ceiling at the Bellagio, which I’m obsessed with. He’s originally from the Seattle/Tacoma area, so it was fitting to have a museum of his work here. 

Since we were also going to be visiting the Space Needle, we bought the combination tickets to save a few bucks.  We spent about an hour and a half touring the museum, garden, and watching videos on Chihuly. Everything was so beautiful, and the lighting was done very well to accentuate the pieces. I loved it and took lots of photos.

Photo by Adam

photo by Adam

photo by Adam

See Adam's reflection and the Space Needle?

Our Space Needle tickets were for 2:30, which meant we were able to board starting at 2. 

 In line, we had an awesome blue screen photo taken. At the top, we got to pick our background and had the photo e-mailed to us for free. It was pretty cheesy but nice to have a photo of us together that wasn't a selfie.

At the top, Adam got a beer and we split some fresh house made horseradish chips. They were delicious! 

 Then we went outside to take in the view. The views of Seattle from the top were great! 

photo by Adam

photo by Adam

photo by some random nice person

 It was neat to go up the Space Needle, but it’s very similar to any other tower (Calgary Tower, Eiffel Tower, etc). I did like that it only required one elevator ride to get to the top and that there were windows in it so I didn't feel "trapped!"

 We spent about an hour at the Space Needle, and then headed over to the EMP (Experience Music Project) Museum. It’s a really strange museum; the outside is designed to look like a smashed guitar from above, and inside it has an eclectic assortment of displays. 

photo by Adam

 The main focus is on music from the area, so of course it’s all about Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana. These displays were interesting, but I was just expecting more. 

 There was also a temporary display on “Women Who Rock” which featured different costumes from female artists. This was actually pretty cool to see. 

Another cool thing was the two story tall display of guitars.

photo by Adam

 In addition, there are entertainment sections on Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction which include props and costumes from different movies, shows, and books of those genres. One highlight for us was Shawn's costume from Shawn of the Dead.

They even had on loan the Iron Throne from my favorite show, Game of Thrones! 

 I was a little underwhelmed by the EMP, but we still spent almost 2 hours there.

Since our touristing for the day was done, we took the Monorail back to our hotel. There we discovered a little convenience/drug store nearby, so Adam picked up a few beers and I got some peach pop to relax with in the room.

We had originally planned dinner down by the waterfront, but decided to save that for the next day when we were going to be already down there. Based on a Facebook recommendation, and some Googling, we decided to try out Tom Douglas’ Serious Pie. It’s an artisan pizza place from a well-known chef and restaurateur in the Pacific Northwest. There was a line outside, and the hostess thought it would be 20 minutes, but it only ended up being 10.

Neither of us was super hungry, so we split a pizza. I really wanted the mushroom one, but Adam hates mushrooms. We comprised with a pizza with penn cove clams, pancetta tesa, and chilies. It was delicious! Our waiter was inattentive and pretty awful, but otherwise it was great. 

Seattle Day 2: Pike Place Market

Our first real day in Seattle started around 8. We were still on Minnesota time, so it felt like we slept in. At 9, we wandered down to Pike Place Market, which was just a few blocks from our hotel. It was a foggy morning, so it was hard to even see the market at first. Our first stop was at Piroshky Piroshky  to pick up some piroshkies, which are Russian filled pastries. After lots of deliberation, Adam went for the Cheddar Cheese & Garlic Roll, while I settled on the Potato & Cheese. Both were delicious!

Right next door was the Original Starbucks, and the line was short, so we popped in so Adam could get a coffee to go with breakfast. Then the lady in front of us welcomed her 6 friends, and the line suddenly didn’t feel so short! We stuck it out though and I ended up getting a caramel frappe as well.

We grabbed our treats and headed over to where our tour would start. 

Photo taken by our tour guide with the fog in the background.

 We went on the Pike Place Market Tour, which is offered twice daily, at 10 am. It was a late addition to “the plan,” and I’m so glad we added it. The tour was a great intro to the market and the city. Our tour guide was funny, and we were provided with headsets so we could hear him better. There’s nothing worse than a tour when you can’t hear the tour guide and constantly have to keep close to him/her.

 On the tour we learned about the history of the market, the different buildings,

interesting art installation,

and even saw the disgusting gum wall!

 

Our tour wrapped up at 11, and we took some time to wander around. We admired the view of the Puget Sound, 

 and then wandered through the market. I found a super cute birthday gift for my mom, a penny press machine for my sister, and a Space Needle ornament for us. We also watched them throw (a few) fish, but were kind of disappointed by it as they only throw when people buy something and nobody was buying as it was all tourists. Oh well.

At 11:30, we decided to grab lunch and headed up to Pike Place Chowder. The line was kind of long but moved really fast. I got the Market Chowder which that day was Creamy Halibut + corn + asparagus, and Adam got a combo with a Dungeness crab roll & Salmon Chowder. We were lucky to find a little table in the restaurant. While we were eating, a random guy came up and asked to take a photo of our food. It was super weird…

Next, we headed back towards our hotel to take the Monorail to Seattle Center for the Space Needle, Chihuly Garden & Glass, and EMP. And then we got lost. My phone map led us too far down. While we were back tracking, Adam turns to me and says, "We just passed Deduno!" I was like "Huh? TURN AROUND!" So then we stalked him a block to his hotel but I was too much of a wimp to say anything to him. I'm not saying I didn't believe Adam that it was him, but I kind of didn't believe him. All I saw until he turned to go into the hotel was the back of his head. You guys, Deduno is my favorite Twins player! Why didn't I just say something to him?!?  I will always regret this!

After that exciting diversion, and a frantic text to my sister, we took the monorail over to Seattle Center.

Seattle Day 1: Anniversary in the Air

Adam and I both worked full days on our anniversary/departure day. I picked him a bit after 4:30, and we grabbed a romantic dinner at Which Wich (split a large sandwich). Nothing but the best for my hubby! Then we took a cab over to the airport. Our flight didn’t leave until 7:30, but we got there around 5:30. I’m paranoid, so I always like to allow plenty of time. Security took a while to go through, so we didn’t have too much time before boarding.

Our flight was smooth and uneventful. We had a large newer airplane that had comfy seats and video screens in the headrests. Instead of reading my book, I took advantage of them and watched a movie. Adam did too.

A few photos from the air-

Snow on the mountains,

and the Puget Sound.

From our gate to the Light rail was a long walk. We bought our Orca cards for $5 and loaded them with $10. It was just enough for the light rail and bus rides we took.

We arrived in Seattle too late to check anything out. We took the light rail from SeaTac to Westlake Center which took about half an hour. Our hotel was on the other side of the block, which was really nice. Checking-in made me nervous as we could overhear the guy in front of us needing to be sent to a different hotel because they were over booked. The front desk attendant told me how “lucky” we were to not get bumped. All I could think was I had called the week before to confirm and tell them they we would be getting in late. The lady had reassured me that we were guaranteed for late check-in, so I would have been extra pissed if I had to go across town to a different hotel when all I wanted was to go up and go to sleep! Since it was 10:30 in Seattle, it was 12:30 am back home.

Our room was small but quaint and suited us well for the four nights we were there. And the bed was super comfy! I can't sleep without a pillow top.

The location was perfect as we were just a few blocks from Pike Place Market, on the other side of the block from the light rail and monorail, and on multiple bus routes to the ballpark.

Spending our anniversary working and then flying wasn’t the most glamorous, but we celebrated our anniversary all weekend so it was fine.