Seattle

Brandon and I spent this past Labor Day weekend in Seattle with our friends Chip, Jodi & Chris. I had been wanting to go visit Seattle for a long time and when we found out OSU football would be playing their season opener there, Jodi and I used it as our excuse. Jodi, Chris, Brandon and I all arrived on Thursday night, but by 4 separate flights--could we make anything more complicated? It was a very busy weekend, but it was wonderful and we were able to see quite a bit (though I was wishing it was slightly warmer, but I guess a girl can't have everything.) Our first stop of the trip was eating at Alki Cafe overlooking Puget Sound. This place had a wonderful breakfast and I think Chris and I picked the best breakfast of the bunch...The Cafe Benedict (English Muffin, Crab Cake, Poached Egg, with a Swiss and Asiago Cheese Sauce...Yum!!) Afterward we headed to the beach for some pictures, though unfortunately it was too cold to hop in the water. After all the pictures had been taken, we finally headed to Downtown Seattle to start all the site seeing which I have summarized below:

• Friday
• Pike Place Market and watching the fish fly!! The Market was so cool and there was so much more than just the fish. My favorite part was all of the flowers. They were everywhere and they were so cheap ($5 for a decent size bouquet). Jodi and I wanted to move there just to be able to have the flowers every week. Sadly, I was unable to convince Brandon to buy me any :(
• The Seattle Public Library is a very cool modern building inside and out. While looking around I sometimes forgot that I was inside a library.
• Seattle Underground. In 1889, Seattle was destroyed by a fire and had many infrastructure issues. To help ease some of the infrastructure issues, the decided to regrade the city from 45 degrees to 18 degrees. Since it would take time to regrade the city and buildings needed to be rebuilt before hand, Seattle was left with sidewalks and buildings still intact (for the most part) under the city of Seattle. It was really cool to learn some history about the city.
• Saturday
• OSU vs Washington State @ Qwest Field--OSU Wins!! It was a wonderful game and we were sitting in the first row. It felt slightly like college cheering for OSU. Only having the OSU band there could have made it better.
• Walking the Piers--Brandon and I headed down to Elliott Bay and walked along all the piers. We had dinner at Ivar's Fish Bar and ate with a lovely audience of Seagulls. Even, though I am not a big fan of seafood, I have to admit that the Clam Chowder and Fish and Chips were delicious. (Thanks Gretchen for the recommendation!!)
• Experience Music Project--This is basically a museum of Music, but it also has an area where you can learn to play different instruments. We spent more time in that area than actually looking through the museum.
• Space Needle--I had to see this thing up close, though Brandon and I decided not to go up. I think Brandon was happy that I didn't think it would be worth the $20 a person to go to the top, since he is terrified of heights :) But I was still completely satisfied with just seeing it and taking tons of pictures.
• Sunday
• Sailing--Brandon and I spent part of Sunday afternoon sailing on Elliott Bay. I think this was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We got a beautiful view of the city and it was just very peaceful out there. Brandon was able to steer the boat for a good amount of time and I think he had a great time. Especially when we were on the way back to the hotel and he said that we should just buy a sailboat and live on it. Though when I asked him where we would park the boat he decided that maybe there were a few things to work out still :)
  

Overall it was a wonderful trip and I wouldn't mind going back. We ate some wonderful food got to experience most of Seattle. Hope you enjoy the pictures, sorry there are so many of the same thing, but I couldn't decided which ones I liked best.