I am so behind on my blog! The past week has been crazy...good, but crazy!
What an amazing gift of technology it is to be able to take off and fly hundreds of miles away for to spend a weekend with some of your best friends! I can't believe how much fun we were able to pack in to less than two days without even taking a day off work! And we got some slammin' deals on the plane tickets. It was worth every penny!
The purpose of the trip was to visit Many, my dear roommate from the past year and a half, who is going to graduate school at the University of Washington. It was actually a roommate reunion, as the four of us from Millrace 3 all live in different cities now. Tessa flew in from Wyoming and Kate and I came from Provo and Springville. We made such wonderful memories. We've now visited
one country and
two states outside of Utah together!
Kate and I left about an hour and a half after work on Friday and headed to Seattle!
Melissa picked us up from the airport at around 8:30 p.m. that night.
After checking in to the hotel, we went back to the airport (five minutes away!) to pick up Tessa Wessa. We came back to the hotel and just sat on the bed and talked! We caught up on everyone's dating lives and wedding plans and it was wonderful. I, of course, fell asleep before anyone else and missed out on some of that, darn it.
The next morning, we headed out for a day on the town!
Our first stop was Pike's Place.
Melissa took us to a delicious crepe shop where I promptly ditched my gluten free diet because I just couldn't resist it. I ended up getting really sick afterwards, which I'm telling myself was just a coincidence!
Next, we walked around the famous farmer's market there. It was SO fun and one of the highlights of the trip for me!
Throwing entire fish for paying customers is a huge tourist attraction as Pike's place and a lot of fun to watch! Above is a fish being caught.
I saw the above fish move and completely freak out someone who had come up close to take a picture. We're not sure if someone was pulling it from behind, if it has a mechanism in it that makes it move, or if it was just plain not dead yet! ;-)
One of the things we loved seeing the most were all the gorgeous flowers! They were so cheap that we were all tempted to buy some just to carry around with us for the day, even if it meant we couldn't take them home. Kate said it best when she admitted to picturing her imaginary life as a Seattle resident, picking up fresh flowers each week from the Farmer's Market to have on the table in her home. Too good to be true!
We got a glipse of the original Starbucks, one of the many things putting Seattle on the map (or should I say
Seattle is what put
Starbucks on the map?!)
Even the bathrooms were cool and very clearly marked.
Many was a terrific hostess and took us to all the coolest Seattle sites, such as the infamous gum wall. We were all bummed to realize none of us had gum in our purses so we could leave our mark. Instead, we took some with us for the road (just kidding!).
Many navigated her way around the streets of Seattle like an old pro and meanwhile, I followed along like a little girl, just trusting in her abilities to get us wherever we needed to go, despite the fact that she has only lived in the state for a few weeks! It started to rain a little bit as we walked, which actually made us all very excited because we felt like we were getting the true Seattle experience!
I forgot an umbrella, but luckily Tessa and I had our hoods so we could stay dry
and look ghetto.
Our next stop was the
Space Needle, and what a stop that was!
We rode to the top and had lunch on a revolving floor, allowing us to see Seattle from all points of view!
We are very much equal opportunists and made sure that each of us got our own personal head shot with Seattle in the background.
We enjoyed reading and at times commenting on shameless notes like the one above that would pass by us as the floor turned.
We decided to leave our own note (a pass-along card) offering a free Bible from the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Tessa caught a picture of it as it rotated away and maybe, miraculously, into the hands of someone who could really use it!
At the gift shop, they were selling emeralds made from the ashes of the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helen's. There was a necklace with a square stone of such a rich, beautiful green. I was so tempted to buy it, but chickened out at the last minute because I felt like $50.00 was too extravagant for a necklace for myself. Please don't ask how much I spent to eat lunch there, however! I love how I am a walking contradiction.
Our next stop was the beautiful campus of the University of Washington (go Huskies!). Not only was it fall and the leaves were gorgeous, but the campus is rich with beautiful, historic buildings. It was so fun for us to walk the halls where Many is now studying so we can picture what her life is like a little bit better!
Melissa told us we had to check out this troll. We really didn't have any clue what she was talking about it, but we were all excited to find out. Turns out THIS is what she was talking about!
We caught a little bit of the locks happening when the boats where being moved from downstream to upstream, just like I saw in Stratford upon Avon. As naive as I am, I didn't know it existed in the U.S., too!
We were able to see from a distance the row of house boats where Sleepless in Seattle was filmed. The view of Seattle at night is really quite spectacular.
To end our day, we took a ferry to Bainbridge island. We didn't get out there, but instead looked back at the city of Seattle from the boat. Beautiful!
We also entertained ourselves for at least an hour playing "Telephone Charades" on the ferry (45 minute ride there, 45 minutes back). Two of us would get together and think of 1) someone who "died," 2) how they died, and 3) where they died. One example of one that Tessa and I came up with was 1) Gilbert Blythe died 2) by falling out of a hot air balloon 3) in the bathroom. We then called in one of the other two who asked us to act out each part separately. After we did, that person had to act out each thing all over again for the last person. The last person then had to try to guess who, where, and how and see how close they came to the original scenario. We had a little too much fun in a public setting, but it was worth it! We also enjoyed taking pictures of ourselves in the reflection of the boat windows.
What a great trip! The next day, we were able to attend church with Melissa and participate in choir practice which she directs in her new ward. We were on our way back home by about 5:00 p.m. Sunday night. I can't wait for more adventures to come with these three ladies! Our next two stops will be back in California for Kate's wedding in November and to Nashville in January for Tessa's wedding! We then plan on reuniting next summer for Frontier Days in Wyoming with Tessa in order to open our one year time capsule that we made this past summer.
ILYGSMAIKWWBFF!
Above is Grant's little foot. He weighed 5 lbs 13 oz and, according to his Mom and Dad, he is very mellow and relaxed.
