Seattle to Portland!!

Okay, okay. I'll have to make this one snappy as I want to get caught up on my posts but I also want to take on the day! 

Matt and I are celebrating our 3rd year Anniversary today! Three, is that it?? I think the true test of a great marriage and friendship is indeed a ROADTRIP! We've had some minor bumps when we've both gone stir crazy from driving but all in all we have had the most amazing time together. Thank goodness Matt is a forgiving and patient man having agreed to finally meet up for that historical first date back in 2006. Lotsa, lotsa, lotsa love! Now let's celebrate 90's style (if you don't get this joke ... watch more Portlandia already!)

SEATTLE!

Fan-TASTIC. I hate to not post MORE pictures right this second but I have to only choose a few (as hard as it is). Seattle was incredible. I know I’ve been using this word a lot .. let’s up the ante, Seattle was unbelievable – yes, that will do.

Just amazingly friendly people, beautiful sites, easy to navigate. Pike Place market was above and beyond the Strip District (sorry Pittsburgh). The selections available and the atmosphere were everything I expected and more. I could live here in a heartbeat but .. BUT .. I don’t think I could get used to the rain / cloudy weather that Seattle is known for.

We visited the Market around 8am to see the fish throwers in full action. They weren’t. It was really slow with tourists and I learned they really didn’t “get going” until around 10am. Off to breakfast then. We headed to a little French café a good walk from Pike Place Market. I love walking through cities just taking it in. Especially when the city is navigable on foot. Yes, we have done our fair share of cities that are not technically navigable .. Matt’s still yelling at me for making him walk from New Vegas to Old Vegas (bwhahahaha). I ordered the best yogurt/granola/fruit I’ve ever had with a “Rolly Polly” cinnamon roll (other than chocolate anything, my favorite bakery item) and a dark coffee. YUM! Matt ordered a onion prosciutto croissant that I think was bigger than his face!

Back to the Market. Things were really swinging by this point. We saw the fishery guys throwing stuff (jerky, lemons) but no fish. “No Fish”! Oh well. We had other adventures to tackle and the fruit and flower displays were like sirens to us and we couldn’t resist.

I bought a bag of dried peaches which are heavenly and may or may not make it back to be shared. Also bought delicious Washington Jazz apples, blood oranges (YAY!! It’s blood orange season), concord grapes that smell divine and a pear that just melted in your mouth. (getting hungry again just typing this).

We visited the Original Starbucks again to get some souvenirs and coffee (of course) and then headed back to the hotel to pack up our belongings and head to the Space Needle

Operation Space Needle and Chihuly Garden AND Glass was a great success. I could have spent ALL DAY at the Chihuly exhibit .. his work is, yes, INCREDIBLE! We could not have had a better day (weather wise) to enjoy it as well. That whole “future” thing will go into play here too when I say I’ll post more pics of his work later. I took WAY too many pictures again .. just couldn’t stop.

Before Pike Place was in full swing! (around 8:30am)

Beth's Heaven!! (Especially since the brussels sprouts are described as
"Little Green Balls of Death" .. so appropriate!)

A yogurt and granola large enough to feed a family of 4 for a week! (or just enough for me)

Loved this picture ... have you ever seen a store RENTING Umbrellas? Only in Seattle.

The Gum Wall! Yum. Still need to get my pics from Matt of me adding my gum to the wall ..
I went full contact (of course)

First Starbucks Store - We have arrived

Leaving The Edgewater hotel

Spiders on top of a building looking down from the Space Needle (shudder)

After the exhibit it was time to head to Portland!!!!!!

Not a bad drive. It rained a good bit between the two cities but arriving in Portland we found sunny skies.

We are staying at “The Nines” which is absolutely beautiful. Spoiled, I am. We have 3 glorious nights at this beautiful hotel .. just enough to finally relax!!

These were sooooo good! I almost ate the card too.

It was a laundry night so we packed up our dirty clothes and headed many many blocks to a coin-op. We made it just in the knick of time too. Happy to have clean clothes again (not that I didn’t pack enough for a year) but I’m happy to have my favorites ready for round 2!

My loving husband tells me I look like a turtle with this pack on. Nice. I do think if I were to fall backward on my "shell" I'd have a hard time getting back up!

 After laundry adventures we headed to “Hot Lips” for a late dinner. I have to add EVEN the guy working the laundromat was exceedingly pleasant telling us we didn't have to leave RIGHT at closing time if our clothes were not yet dry. He was borderline persistent that we didn't walk out with damp clothes .. where does this happen? :)  
Hot Lips was a pizza/soda joint for people who know what good food tastes like! Quality ingredients, amazingly friendly workers and great beer/wine selections by the glass as well. Our pizza and salads were what you would find in a snooty Italian restaurant where you would shell out too much $$ for questionable service.

We told the staff about our road trip adventures and they were kind enough to allow us to take their picture. Even wished us a “Happy Anniversary” upon leaving. (Yeah, we’re never leaving.)

These guys rocked! Thanks again for the great food and service.

Back to the hotel. More posts later in the week. Thanks for playing along. :)