Up, up and away!
Layover in Phoenix. Time for beers!
The restaurant we went to had these silly light up panels on the wall to make you feel like you were in the desert. Just drinking a beer out in the deserts of Phoenix!
Nachos!
Beth picked us up from the airport. We were pooped from a long day of traveling, so relaxing at her apartment was the perfect plan. And with a rooftop view like this, why would you want to go anywhere else?!
It was a chilly, refreshing night.
We had some wine and cheese!
Jenny, Kyle, Rachel and Chris all stopped by. It was a great first night of our trip!
Another super great thing about Beth's apartment is her cat Pepper. She is THE CUTEST. And very affectionate! She slept on the bed with us. It made missing our kitties a little less difficult!
On Friday morning, Beth made us breakfast!
Yum!! Breakfasty!
Pretty Pepper.
Beth, Ben and I went for a walking adventure in Beth's Capitol Hill neighborhood. We started with the Volunteer Park Water Tower!
It was quite a hike to get to the top!
The views from the top were very cool.
Pretty!
Then we headed back down the stairs to explore the park some more.
The Black Sun sculpture!
Space needle!
Oh, hi!
That afternoon, we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island.
The ferry ride was so fun! And what an incredible view of the skyline!
We were SO lucky with the weather. It was totally gorgeous the entire time we were there!
We went to a place called Bainbridge Thai for lunch. We sat out on the patio overlooking the marina. We got Thai Iced Teas to drink and they were SOOOOOO good. How relaxing!
Seattle is all about the views!
Mmm, green papaya salad.
Spring rolls, curry, and pad thai.
Beth and Ben!
Right around the corner was a coffee shop called Pegasus Coffee! I would definitely like to get a coffee there some day.
We drove around the island a bit, then walked down to a rocky beach.
There's Seattle!
Mountain man!
I set my camera up on a log to try and get a timed group photo of the three of us. I had it set up to take five pictures in a row. Right before it went off, it started to slip off the log! So the pictures are of us all noticing that and me diving to catch the camera before it hit the sand. ACTION PACKED!
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Take two! This time I just held the camera. Much better.
Hey, there's our ferry!
Heading back to the city. There were a bunch of kids in prom gear on the ferry. It was fun to look at their outfits.
Mount Rainier peeked out for us! What a treat!!
Almost there!
Friends!
For dinner that night, we went to Ray's Boathouse for seafood. Tasha joined us, which was so great! I hadn't seen her since 2007!! It was great to be able to catch up and hear some tales about her adventures as a new mom!
Pineapple Mojito. Cheers!
We had a reservation for five people, but ended up having six. They said that that would be fine, BUT we would have to eat out on the deck. OH DARN. That's where we wanted to eat in the first place! Look at that sunset view!
Ben's salmon was amazing!
My halibut was, too. Nothing like fresh seafood, mmm!
Saturday morning, Ben and I went on a walking adventure. We had breakfast at Eltana bagel cafe. They have a big crossword on the wall that you can play along with on a printout!
Sesame bagels and lox.
Fruit salad!
We walked around exploring and found a refreshing fountain!
Then we found a cool mosaic in front of somebody's house.
Ben really wanted to go for a run, but hadn't packed any running clothes. We went to a thrift store and found him a running outfit!
I got to help pick it out. Ben enjoyed a great run while Beth and I went shopping.
Then we got frozen yogurt at Red Mango! Mmm!
That afternoon, Ben and I checked into the Hotel Max and got ready for Claudia and Kyle's wedding. We decided to stop at RedFin Sushi Restaurant in the lobby of the hotel for a happy hour cocktail! We got raspberry margaritas. Cheers!
Their wedding was at E|M Fine Art Gallery.
Claudia got her cake topper from the same Etsy shop that Ben and I got our bunny cake topper! Sooooo cute.
Beautiful bride!
Lovely ceremony.
Married!!
After the ceremony, we had a cocktail hour while the space was reset for dinner.
Beth and Claudia!
Heading outside to get some food.
Dinner was provided by a local food truck!
Mmm, pork tacos.
The art was really cool! We did some artsy portraits. Me and Ben:
Lindsey and Angel:
The bar area was upstairs, and it was fun to peek down on the party from the windows! There is Beth peeking!
We also got a bird's eye view of the cake cutting!
CAAAAAAKE! The cake was DELICIOUS. I ate a HUGE piece.
They also had a dessert table with desserts made by friends. One of the desserts was these little pie pops! Aren't they the cutest?! Also delicious.
The next morning, we went out for dim sum in the Chinatown-International District!
I had never had dim sum before, but had always wanted to try it. It was great!
Congratulations to the newlyweds!
After brunch, Ben and I walked to Pike's Place. It was fun to be able to walk around and explore the city! This guy was doing really cool tricks with his parrot.
Fresh flowers in the market!
We met up with Beth at the Steelhead Diner. After walking all morning, it was great to relax on a sunny patio.
Ben and I shared all of this food. Margarita chicken sandwich and vegetarian chili.
The waitress apologized because the service had been kind of slow, and offered us any dessert we wanted for free!! We were surprised because we hadn't even noticed that it seemed slow, since we had actually been looking forward to sitting and chilling for awhile. And the waitress had been SUPER nice the whole time, and we actually had a conversation during the lunch about what a pleasant experience we were having. Then we ALSO got a free treat?! Lucky day! We chose the sorbet, thinking it would be small. It was huge!!! And so delicious! The three of us working together ALMOST finished it.
Relaxing patio lunch!
After lunch, we walked to the Columbia Center. The tallest building in Seattle, it features an observation deck on the 73rd floor. For $9 a person, it was much cheaper than going to the Space Needle to get some amazing aerial views of Seattle! Plus it's way taller!
City! Looking down on the Space Needle.
Barge!
Highways!
That building with the tower is the Smith Tower, and it used to be the tallest building in Seattle at the beginning of the century. There is a family that lives in the pyramid level of the tower! That would be amazing!
There's Beth's apartment in Capitol Hill!
Beth, me, Ben and the Space Needle!
We did some more walking and stopped for a rest in Westlake Park. The trees are painted blue with a nontoxic paint as part of an art installation to raise awareness about global deforestation.
When it was time for dinner, our plan was to go to Cactus for Mexican food. Since Brave Horse Tavern is right upstairs, we decided to stop there for a beer and a pretzel as an appetizer. These pretzels and dipping sauces were DELICIOUS. We decided it was sort of a lot for an appetizer, since we were pretty full when we got to Cactus, but it was DEFINITELY worth it. No regrets!!
Cheers!
After our pretzels, we headed downstairs to Cactus.
We got cucumber mint vodka cocktails!
Amazing guacamole.
Cup of tortilla soup.
Ben and I shared these butternut squash and goat cheese enchiladas. Even sharing, we had TONS of leftovers. We were stuffed!
As we were talking about how full we were, our waiter came out with a free dessert!!! Our second free dessert of the day! He said that since we had never been to Cactus before, he wanted to give us a treat. As full as we all were, we sure managed to polish off this entire delicious flan. Seattle sure knows how to make people feel special!
After dinner, we walked Beth to her bus stop on our way back to our hotel. Our last night in the city. Sigh!
During our walk, we noticed a girl posing in the window of this building, wearing a skimpy outfit!!
There was some sort of photo shoot going on, because the director kept coming over and adjusting her position, and there were some bright lights and flashes.
Eventually she noticed us staring up at her and taking pictures, and waved at us!! She called over the rest of the team and they all smiled and waved! So funny.
This morning we packed up our suitcases, ate our delicious leftover Cactus for breakfast, and headed to the airport on the light rail. We had such a fun trip, it was hard to leave! We were treated to a gorgeous view of Mount Rainier on our flight out.
Oh, hi!
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