This week, I got to travel to Seattle! I went to a social media conference for work, and was ecstatic to get to visit Beth and spend time in one of my favorite cities. I got in on Friday night, and went out to dinner with Beth, Claudia and Rachel! College buddies reunite!
We went to Smarty Pants, and I had a stuffed poblano. I love poblanos so much. It was so great to see everybody!
Beth just bought a condo!!! She just moved in, so she's working on choosing paint colors and buying furniture. Here's a little sneak peek. It's SO cute!
And it was so great to see Pepper! Pepper is one of my favorite kitties of all time. She's so cute and SO nice!
Pepper!
Beth's neighbor has an amazing garden. What a view!
Beth and I ventured out for the day and stumbled upon a parade! With a dog costume contest!
Pretty cool!
We went to Bakery Nouveau for lunch.
We each got sandwiches. Beth got the tuna salad, and I had a BLT on amazing fresh baguette!
Yay, lunch!
After our sandwiches, we watched some more of the parade.
We stopped by Beth's old apartment to get a few things. It was nice to visit her rooftop patio one last time. What a view!
That evening, we went to the Ballard Locks for a picnic going away party for Beth's friend Siri, who was leaving the country for several weeks.
Cheers!
The next morning, Ben and I went to Endoline Joe's for brunch.
Mimosas!
I had a mushroom omelet and it was SO MUSHROOMY. It hit the spot! The fried potatoes and biscuit were awesome, too.
That afternoon, we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island.
Sunglasses swap!
Skyline.
We went to the Bloedel Reserve, a 150-acre forest garden on the island. The benches looked like fairy tale benches.
Walkway through the forest.
Look at all that vegetation!
It felt sort of like Jurassic Park.
Oh, hi!
The Bloedel house.
This couple was enjoying the view of the pond.
I love that you can see through the doors of the house to the water on the other side.
There were gorgeous, intoxicating bouquets of flowers everywhere!
The back yard!
Beth!
Mmmm.
Birch garden.
Japanese garden! Look at the color of this tree!
Rock garden.
After the garden, we went to Anthony's for a seafood dinner.
And martinis!an
Mmm, halibut.
Sunset on the ferry home!
Skyline at night.
Pepper in the sunshine the next morning. Today Beth had to go back to work and I headed downtown for my conference.
Aw, goodbye Pepper!
That day I got to meet up with my friend Liz, from high school! We picked up lunch at Bakery Nouveau (I was stoked to get to go there again!), and went to a park for a picnic.
Mmm, macaron.
I got to meet her kids, Fiona and Aiden! Here's Fiona swinging!
Me and Liz!
Fiona and Aiden! They were so nice and fun. It was so cool to get to spend some time catching up with Liz!
That afternoon, I checked into my hotel. I met a cool woman named Alicia there, and we decided to go exploring. We headed to Pike Place Market. The first thing we saw was this musician singing No Children, one of my favorite Mountain Goats songs! What a treat.
Then we decided to ride the Great Wheel!
You can buy beer in a sippy cup! Cheers!
The views were fantastic!
Me and Alicia!
Pike Place Market.
I was staying at the Hotel Max, which is next door to the Miller's Guild restaurant. We were hungry from all the exploring, so we went there for dinner! I started with a manhattan.
Mmm, can't get enough halibut!
The next day, as part of the conference, we got to tour the Amazon Spheres.
The spheres are conservatories on the Amazon campus.
They are lush with vegetation!
Lots of neat nooks and crannies to explore.
A nest, for people!
There was a cocktail party on the 21st floor of the Oscar building, which offers panoramic views of Seattle.
Afterward, I went to Kiki Ramen with a woman I met at the conference.
It was DELICIOUS!
On my last night of the trip, I went to Miller's Guild again for some more of their delicious cocktails and food.
Mmm, salmon!
When I got home, Ben had prepared these little bouquets out of flowers from our deck!! Aw!!
