[ around and about in Seattle ]

Our 4 days in Seattle...what a wonderful Spring Break getaway! It was just right - the right amount of time to be gone, the right distance, the right things to do & see. Here's a play by play...

On Tuesday, we got to Seattle fairly quickly, stopping in Royal City for lunch and Ellensburg for Starbucks. I taught my Mom to use the map feature on my phone and we found our way to one of our favorite stamp stores in Green Lake: Amuse. We found some cute stamps and paper - had fun looking around. We'd gone to their store a few years ago when we were in town for the CK Convention, but they'd moved locations and so it was fun to see their new home.

We meandered around and found our way to U Village. I *heart* U Village. :) There is so much to see there and many of my favorite stores are located there.

Example #1: Anthropologie. My roommate in college, Andrea, introduced me to this wonderful oasis of kitsch-ware. They have beautiful clothes, furniture, housewares, linens, jewelry, dishes, kitchenware, etc. etc. It's a little, no, a lot, expensive, so I didn't buy anything. I just love being in the presence of all those wonderful things!

Example #2: Sephora. I'd been trying to talk Mom into trying Bare Escentuals for a few weeks and told her when we got to Sephora, I'd make her try it. She did, we both bought a few items, and got our Sephora fix.

This is Mom leaving our favorite restaurant at U Village. It's a delicious Thai place that I also learned from Andrea. I had Pad Thai with Tofu (yes, tofu - it's good in this dish!) and Prawns. YUM! Mom had Kung Pao Chicken and we both enjoyed some Passion Iced Tea.

It's always raining at U Village and so they have these great bright yellow umbrellas that are outside every store - you just grab one on your way out and leave it at the door on your way in. There always seems to be one available for anyone who needs it! Doesn't she look natural?!

I didn't get any pictures, but we also went to Crate & Barrel and Miller-Pollard. :)

Example #3: Storables. This is for you, Jess. U Village doesn't have "The Container Store," but they do have Storables. I thought I was organized until I went here and saw all the things I could organize things in. WOW! I didn't buy anything here either - too many choices.

Seriously, do you want colored baskets? What size?

Or clear or white baskets? What size?!

We didn't go to Mrs. Cook's, but I like the name! :)

After our rainy, but fun afternoon at U Village, we found a hotel at South Center, watched Dancing with the Stars, and crashed. We had a big day ahead!

Wednesday:

We stopped by our neighborhood Starbucks:

A familiar sight:

and got to IKEA around 9:40am. Do you see what time it opens?!

We waited in the parking lot until it opened and then spent three - THREE - glorious hours strolling IKEA. Mom surprised me with a belated birthday gift on our way into IKEA - a gift card! YES! It was awesome! :) She felt bad that she'd forgotten to give it to me on my birthday - but I told her this was even better. So exciting!

We were exhausted after all that shopping, so we enjoyed lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. We shared a chicken and avacado club sandwhich and a salad. We had to save room for cheesecake, of course! I had a Kahlua cheesecake and Mom tried the Snickers. We ate half and saved half for a bedtime snack. (Doesn't this make you drool? I could've stared at that case all afternoon!)

Then, we went to our other favorite stamp store: Impress. There are four locations around Seattle, but this is their original store (read: biggest and best) and we could spend hours there. Besides all the great stamps, the examples are awesome. We found some cute things, of course! :)

We stopped a few other stores (including JoAnn's...I got a Cuttlebug and I got the pattern for that green fabric quilt kit, Jess), then met my cousin Kevin at BJ's for drinks when he got off work. He moved to the Seattle area about a year ago (2? I don't remember...) and works for the Seattle Thunderbirds as a marketing...person. He sells season tickets, advertising, etc. It was great to see him and hang out. We used to be really close, but have grown apart in the last few years. I miss him and his friendship a lot.

The next morning, we went to the Seattle Thunderbirds arena - Showare Center - and Kevin gave us a tour. They just moved into this arena in January, it's brand new. His office is in the arena too. It's a really nice arena and I could see that it would be fun to see a hockey game there!

The new arena is in Kent and Kevin suggested we go to Kent Station for some shopping, so we drove around and decided on lunch instead.

I'd heard of Panera Bread but had never seen one in real life. We decided to try it and are sure glad we did!! It was amazing!

...even if they did misunderstand our names...

Introducing Marvi...and Toni. :)

Mom's Roast Beef sandwhich and my Chicken Panini.

We decided to find some fabric stores that I'd searched for online. We went to one called The Calico Cat in Auburn. They had some beatiful quilts on display, I found a pattern for a 4th of July Table Runner and this cute Christmas countdown:

I don't remember the brand, but - Amy - I thought of you! It's so adorable!

I had found a few other quilt stores in the area, so we set off on a mission to find them. Long story short, we drove around FOREVER, in the rain, only to find one no longer there, and another, the address led us to a house - in a neighborhood - that was vacant. It became pretty funny, even though it really wasn't.

We decided just to drive around, check out downtown Burien, which I'd remembered as being pretty cute, but we didn't really see anything. We ended up driving along this road that had homes that looked out over the Puget Sound...can't you imagine living here?

It was like out of a movie or a book. So cute!

We decided to return to reality: Target.

Not that we really needed anything, but hey - it's always done us good!

Ok - now my favorite story. We went to Nordstrom at South Center. Mom decided to buy Bare Escentuals, but wanted to do it at Nordstrom to use her card (smart, right?!). I love Nordstrom, so we looked at all the cute shoes, fun spring clothes, jewelry, purses, oh my.

(P.S. I cannot stress how hard it was raining. I think I heard on the news that it rained an entire inch yesterday!)

So, as we're preparing to run out into the rain to our car, I'm trying to get my keys out of my purse (which I think has put a kink in my shoulder!), and I glance over at the ladies coming into Nordstrom. I do a double take. I kid you not, I swear it was Sarah Palin and her daughter Willow. I am not kidding. She had the suit, the hair, the glasses. I didn't want to make a scene and do a triple take, but I should have. Once we got outside, I told Mom, "That lady looked like Sarah Palin" and she said she had thought so too! Now that I've thought about it for an entire day, I am more sure (or I've talked myself into it) that it was her. Why didn't I stop and check? I would've never seen them (or the random lady) again. What did I have to lose?!

We braved the rain to go have some appetizers and drinks at a favorite restaurant, Claim Jumper. We enjoyed yummy Mojitos and a "dirty" Root Beer Float with Calamari and Cheesy Potatocakes. The atmosphere at Claim Jumper is so cozy; perfect for a raining evening.

We went back to our hotel to watch the Series Finale of ER. I was a little sad, I have to admit. I feel like I grew up with ER and now it's over. I loved seeing Drs. Weaver, Carter, Lewis, Corday, and Benton. My friends... I think I need to Netflix ER from the very beginning.

Friday, we got up and headed to Seattle to Pike's Place Market.

I think we were "had" at the Parking Lot. It advertises $14, but when I went to pay, I could only use a debit/credit, and it was $16.53...FOR TWO HOURS! Oh well, it was jut enough time.

One of my favorite sights in Seattle.

These two accumulated quite a crowd - but they were worth it. They were really good!

Fresh fruits and veggies...aren't the colors beautiful?

$17.99?! What kind of shrimp are these?!

I loved looking and smelling the fresh flowers - daffodils, tulips, mixed bouquets. So pretty.

Jessica Fife suggested we try this Russian restaraunt. They had great stuffed pastries. They were as good as she described, but a little messy to eat while walking and gawking.

Well well well...look what we found. The flagship Starbucks. The very first one. It was like a mothership calling us home. Mecca. The Holy Grail.

Call it what you want...it was fun to be in the presence. It got Mom & I thinking and talking about how this one little non-descript coffee shop launched a worldwide phenomenon. Really...how did that happen?

We watched the famous fish throwers for a while. This guy was chasing some tweens around with this fish...funny!

After Thursday's fiasco looking for a quilt shop, I had given up, even though I'd written down the name and address of one on Pike St. As we were looking around the market and in the shops below the market, we stumbled upon this:

Of course, I bought a cute Amy Butler quilt kit. (Jessica, I think this brings it to 11 projects...)

There was a pub in the basement of the market and they had these trays around the ceiling...check that one out!

We decided we'd better get on the road since we'd been hearing the pass was pretty bad the last couple of days. We passed this familiar landmark on our way to I-5.

How could we not stop in North Bend to peek at what they have?

(I got Samson a new Spring collar - it's teal! - and it was 50% off!)

Here's what the pass looked like. Notice it's bare and dry!!! I was so relieved. I was really nervous since all the news talked about was getting cars of out ditches and the max speed was 25mph. I was so so so happy.

We did have to stop for about 45 minutes while they did Avalanche Control. We turned off the car and rolled down the windows to enjoy the mountain fresh air. Once we got going again, we saw a few snowmen along the side of the road!!

Our list of "to-do's". I think we pretty much crossed everything off, except for going to dinner at "The Melting Pot" in Bellevue. Oh well, we got to enjoy so many fun things - do and see so many fun things - it was a great break. But I am glad to be home and that we still get to enjoy Saturday and Sunday at home!

Now, we get to unpack and play with our new toys!!! I hope everyone else has had such a great Spring Break!