Vacation 2013 Part 1 - Seattle

Hello friends,

It's been a while since we've blogged. We figured this would be as good a time as any to post another entry. Every year we try to take a big trip somewhere. The past 2 years we've been to Costa Rica and this year we decided to explore the northwest. It was an incredible trip that we both enjoyed and we're really excited to share this trip with you. We did so much which is why this is just part 1. We hope you enjoy!

Travel day: Holy moly, the Austin airport was unusually busy! It took us about 45 minutes to get through security, when normally we spend no more than 15. Our plane arrived on time but when we landed in Denver (layover), I got an email saying our plane was delayed... by 2 hours!! Fortunately, the Denver airport is awesome and we didn't mind... until we got really tired and realized that we wouldn't be arriving in Seattle until about 3 AM, which would really be 5 AM for our internal clocks. Anyways, we arrived at our condo (we rented a condo from Home Away) at 3:15 and were sound asleep by 3:16.

Day 1: We were up by 9 AM and figured that we should get out and see the town. We took a bus to Pike Place Market and explored all of the shops and even saw some fish get tossed around! We met a nice, quirky owner of a bookstore who sang when he spoke, and he recommended a good sandwich place for breakfast. We got coffee at the original Starbucks and then walked to the waterfront. We didn't have many activities planned out, so we made up our trip as it went along. We decided to rent bikes and to check out the baseball stadium. For $15 a pop we got nosebleeds to watch the Seattle Mariners play against the Angels for Friday night. Our bikes were really comfy and we biked about 18 miles around the city! We saw so many cool sights and built up quite an appetite. For dinner we went to Ballard (a neighborhood just north of downtown) where we ate at Staple and Fancy. We chose their tasting menu, where the chef chooses the dishes that you eat for the night. We had anchovies, home made mozzarella, home made ravioli, a delicious pork chop, and a chocolaty velvet cake. Not a bad way to kick off the first day of vacay! (We didn't like the anchovies but the rest was delicious)

Our first morning at Pike Place Market

At a park we stopped at while biking- great views of downtown Seattle!

The original Starbucks

Day 2: We still had our bikes and explored more of the shops around Pike Place. We ate some really good pastries and a crumpet. We also stopped by a coffee shop that made some really fancy coffee (our friend Ted recommended this). They had a coffee from El Salvador!! At the end of our trip when we went back in for coffee, our barista still remembered us, which we thought was cool.


Off to Bainbridge Island we went, where we biked around, bought a book at a used book store, and walked into some cool shops. Lunch was delicious and we were ready for our big night at the ball park. A shout out goes to Adam who informed us that Safeco Field had awesome food. Chelsea investigated and they did in fact have really good food. We ate tacos right behind 3rd base and then went up to our seats and sat there until the 7th inning. We walked back to our place to get some rest for Saturday, which was when we were going to ride the Amtrak up to Vancouver.

The view from our ferry from Bainbridge

On the ferry deck headed to Bainbridge Island

Edwin chose pizza at the baseball game

Day 3: The Amtrak was great! It was my first time on a train and I really enjoyed it. The sights were breathtaking and the seats were comfy! We sat behind this really loud family which was a little off-putting, but we walked over to the dining car and enjoyed the rest of our trip from there.

View from the Amtrak

More views from the train

Though we only spent about a day and a half in Seattle, we did as much as we could to get a feel for the city. The weather was great and we found the city to be very walkable and easy to get around with a bike. We definitely want to go back and explore the other neighborhoods of Seattle. Our next post will be about Vancouver. We both agree that Vancouver (and our day trip to Whistler) was the highlight of our trip. We're starting to realize that our kind of vacation is one that involves a fair amount of physical activity, delicious food, and incredible scenery (mountains and water). Stay tuned, and until next time enjoy the photos!

One of many fish stalls at Pike Place Market