Washington Part 3 - Seattle Day Two

Our second day in Seattle was beautiful.

We walked a few blocks down from our hotel to Pioneer Square and stumbled upon a local bakery and coffee shop.

I think it took me a good 5 minutes to decide what to order. The pastry options all looked amazing.

In the end I couldn't make up my mind so I ordered two things. The cinnamon roll - I'm almost always a sucker for a cinnamon roll - and a peach almond tart, with a mocha to drink.

Ben had a sausage egg biscuit sandwich and a coffee. That food, plus a newspaper and an interesting atmosphere with local folks coming and going, it was the perfect start to the day.

Then, we walked just a little bit further down the street and came to a vintage pottery shop called Laguna Pottery and it was my heaven on earth. I think it was the highlight of my time in Seattle - call my crazy, but it's true. They shipped these items to me!

Megan, check out the LuRay!

It was wonderful and the owner was friendly and down-to-earth.

Then we were off to Pike Place!

There's a blur in the middle of the photo below...it's a flying fish. :-)

After we took in all of Pike Place - surrounded by Husker fans, seriously there were people wearing red everywhere. Then, we hopped on the monorail to head to City Center

which is where the Space Needle is. Did you know is costs $18 to go to the top? Yep, so we skipped that.

City Center is also where the Experience Music Project is. We didn't pay to go inside but the outside was pretty cool.

There's also an amazing (and huge) fountain there.

See, I told you Husker fans were everywhere. They even left their mark on a parking sign.

Back to Pike Place - this guy was nuts. Harmonica in mouth, spinning the entire time to balance the guitar on top of the harmonica, playing the other guitar and he kept the hoola hoops going the whole time.

Can you see the Nebraska flag hanging off the balcony in the background?

For dinner we met up with Christine Thimm, a friend from Bethel. She's new to Seattle so we came up with some options and finally decided on 88 Keys, a dueling piano bar. It was interesting, but in the end the performers were amazing. They could play and sing any song thrown at them, it was ca-RAY-zy.

Washington Part 2 - Seattle Day One

We got to Seattle around 10:30 in the morning, took the train from the airport to downtown and then walked the 5 or so blocks to our hotel. Even on the airplane we could tell there were going to be a lot of Nebraska fans in Seattle. There were probably 15 Husker fans on our flight alone that day. I hadn't realized it, but my red camera bag/purse helped to identify me as part of that crowd. We checked into our hotel, put our stuff down, checked out all the views and then decided to head out and see what was near by.

Just down the street was Pike Place Market. I bet every person who visits Seattle says this but I'll say it too - that place was amazing.

We had been told to make sure and get some Beecher's mac and cheese, so we did and it was AMAZING.

They make the cheese right there, you can see it through huge windows and Beecher's is just across the street from Pike Place.

We quickly walked through Pike Place, but since we knew we'd return the next morning for a full visit we moved on pretty fast to go and catch the ferry. We had planned to take a ferry across the lake to Bainbridge Island, mostly to get out on the water, see the skyline, and get a feel for how a ferry works.

It was cloudy and rainy, but at least we could see the entire Space Needle.

The ferry was very relaxing and Ben promptly fell asleep. It was quiet and rocked just ever so slightly. If I wasn't determined to take pictures, I probably would have fallen asleep too.

So, while he slept I snapped a bunch of photos of this sail boat.

On Bainbridge, you just walk about 5 minutes to get to all the shops on their Main Street. Very cute, well kept and expensive.

So, we looked around for a while and then decided we'd rather catch the ferry leaving in 10 minutes then stick around in Bainbridge for the next hour. So, we hightailed it back to the dock just in time to catch a ride back to the city.

There were wonderful houses along the water, it was fun to see them and wonder how life right next to a lake would be.

Back in Seattle we saw this fireboat and had to take a picture for our boys.

We walked through Ye Old Curiosity Shop, ate some fish and chips and then we went back to our hotel room to rest for a little bit. See, those are the stadiums - I told you we could see them from our room.

After we took naps, we headed out for supper and ended up at a Mexican restaurant. We were the only 2 there, which was weird and the food wasn't very good - I guess that's why we were the only two there.

Washington Part 1 - the Hotel

Ok, so finally here is the beginning of my blog posts about our trip to Washington. There was so much "eye candy" in Seattle that I'm going to have to split this into several posts. This one is dedicated to documenting our hotel room. We stayed at Hotel 1000 in downtown Seattle. It was really nice and had amazing views of the water.

And, on our last morning, for a little while it was clear enough for us to actually see the mountains!

The bathroom was painted an amazing deep blue color.

Glass shower and behind the frosted glass is the toilet.

From our windows we could see the stadiums where the Mariners and the Seahawks play.

And the port, which was really interesting to watch.

Time with Grandparents

Grandpa and Grandma Schrag came to our house to stay with our boys while Ben and I went to Washington. The pictures posted here are from the few hours we had together before Ben and I took off.

Levi got out ALL of Tim and Sue's camping gear.

We borrowed a bike trailer for Tim and Sue to use during the MCC Flatlander Bike Ride. They fit in perfectly!

And, Sue showed us her latest project - making shopping bags out of old plastic shopping bags.

She flattens the old bag, cuts it into strips, ties the strips together and wraps them into a ball. Then she crochets it into a bag! Isn't that the coolest (and maybe craziest) thing ever!?!

Strong enough to hold Levi! :-)

Thank you Tim and Sue for coming to stay with the boys! Posts on Seattle and rural Eastern Washington coming soon.

2 years in a row

We aren't going for a record or anything, but it surprised me that we made it to the State Fair two years in a row. The boys were mostly interested in the tractors - go figure - but, Noah was also obsessed with the rides.

Levi, said he wanted to go on a ride, but when it came down to actually sitting on one, this was as far as he got:

he wouldn't allow himself to be put in the car.

Noah loved his ride, although for most of it he had a serious expression on his face. Each time he went past me he would grin slightly.

Next stop - ice cream!

This was Levi last year:

Here he is a year later!

We rode the train. Noah talked about this train nonstop during the MCC sale this year, so there was no way we could deny him a ride once he saw the train actually working.

We watched our first pig races.

and the highlight was the monkey show. The monkeys did all sorts of silly things and the boys are still talking about it.

We made the rounds through most of the animal barns

Including the rabbit barn. This photo is from last year

and this one from this year. Bunny faces!