12th anniversary in Seattle

Todd and I finally celebrated an anniversary by NOT having a newborn.

(I took this picture just for Tara. Her maiden name is Salmon. This is the name of a restaurant in Seattle)
After celebrating three children's birthday's and giving Eliza a "special day"(she did not want to be left out), we left the children with my adorable Sister in law, Tara. They were so excited for Tara to come. It made Todd and I think that maybe we weren't really needed around here after all. And when we got back we saw that we, in fact, weren't needed. We had to convince Charlie to stop playing to give us hugs...crazy kid!! I meant to get a picture of Tara with the children before she left but I forgot. Needless to say they adore her and it made leaving them for four nights easier.

Todd and I met in the Seattle airport after his business trip to Calgary.

(Our Bed and Breakfast- The Hill House)

We arrived at our Bed and Breakfast late that night all to eager to crash from our extremely exhausting days. The next morning we ran four miles right there in the neighborhood and realized that we had picked an interesting part of Seattle to stay in...purely by accident. Here is the description of the area we stayed in that I found online(I wish we had of found that description before going)... "Capital Hill serves as the center of Seattle's counterculture and gay community...It gets busy in the evening with an extensive nightlife scene." Oh my! That is not really what Todd and I were looking for. It made me really appreciate my life and helped Todd and I to have plently of gospel related conversations.

There were lots of wonderful things to see outside of the little area we stayed though. Our first favorite spot was Pike Market. It was originally a fish market that now has everything. ...

The clouds in this picture were some of the only clouds we saw the entire time we were there. How lucky were we to go to Seattle and not have a drop of rain. The sky was clear and sunny the whole time so it was easy to do all of the things we wanted to.
I loved all of the flowers, trees, and architecture. So different than Arizona!
Oh my heavens...you can't even believe how beautiful the produce was. If I were a better photographer, these pictures would be amazing. But I think you get the idea. I had fun snapping away though.

Check out all of the gorgeous colors. I couldn't believe it.


Wow...this guy represents every crazy (I mean interesting) person that we saw in downtown Seattle. I mean really...what is going on there. I think the cloudy and rainy weather must get to them.
Todd was in heaven eating a bag of mini donuts...hot with cinnamon and sugar. (You should have seen the "interesting people" who served them to us. Todd was lusting after all of the wonderful bakery's. My poor husband lives in probably one of the only cities in America that doesn't have a yummy bakery to go to. (Or atleast that's his complaint....I'm not the bakery conossieur)
Again, my picture doesn't do these flowers justice. SSSOOOOO many flowers and you're not going to believe the price. $4.60 + tax= $5.00 for one of these bunches of flowers. Are you kidding me. If I could have, I would have bought a ton and filled my kitchen. I LOOOVVVEE fresh flowers! Okay, speaking of things I LOOOOOVE....cheesecake. But not just any cheesecake!! I want good cheesecake! This is probably the best cheesecake I've ever tasted. They are small and cost $4.00 a piece. The lady at the counter started to recognize us. We went back to the market the second day just for some cheesecake. We brought some home to Tara. To be honest, I wasn't quite sure I was going to be able to share. So now I'm dreaming of these little cheesecakes. Unfortunately I can't justify ordering them online. It cost $50.00 just for the shipping alone.

Todd was loving all of the seafood. I, on the other hand, do not like seafood. But it was amazing to look at all of the tons and tons of seafood all over the market.
Yep...quail eggs. Why would you buy quail eggs? Do people really eat them?

I have to agree with all of the Seattlites this really is the best apple I've ever had. It's a Washington Honey Crisp apple. I had no idea this apple existed! I wish we could get them down here in AZ. This apple (along with a yummy potsticker) was my lunch. I bought several more apples and that's what I snacked on around Seattle.
A little bit after my lunch of apple and potsticker we found this awesome bakery. I've never heard of "piroshky". Apparently it's any type of food(salmon, cheese, spinach, fruit) put inside dough and baked. Sounded like a good idea to me! We had their apple cinnamon roll. It was so yummy!

Apparently I've been away from Kentucky/Tennessee for too long. I couldn't get over how big the trees were. They were absolutely beautiful! The shade from one of these trees could cover my entire house.
I miss leaves being bigger than my hand.

This is our trusty map. These beautiful trees were in Pioneer Square.
This park is part of Pioneer Square. It's absolutely gorgeous! Sometimes people come up with really great creative businesses. Whoever thought of this boat thing is genious! How fun is that! Just walking down the street you could hear the tour guide being funny as she gave the tour. A great way to learn about Seattle.
There were some amazing stores! Oh, to have the money to actually shop in them. Check out http://www.watsonkennedy.com/ for this store. Beautiful!
We couldn't go to Seattle and not find a cute little eclectic bookstore. This bookstore was adorable! It was everything I imagine a quaint little bookstore to be...small, old and new books, a circular staircase that led to a tiny upstairs, bookcases of every size stacked on each other and employees that love books (a little too much)!
Seattle is, of course, known for the space needle so we couldn't pass it up. However, we thought the tickets were a bit pricey...$16.00/adult. Really!!...to go up an elevator and look around? We thought for a minute about the possibility of going to one of the tall buildings and seeing if we could look around. But we decided we may as well have the experience especially because it was such a beautiful, clear day (rare in Seattle).

You know the drill...look through the telescope thing and admire how beautiful the city is. This was one of only five days a year(on average)that you can see Mt. Rainer and Mt. Baker and whatever else is around Seattle. It really was quite beautiful!

Next...stand against the edge and get your picture taken.

We took the water taxi out to Alki Beach. This was probably my favorite part of the trip. We rented bikes and rode along the beach. You could see the beautiful Seattle skyline. We were out there at sunset and it was all kind of surreal.
Salty's Restaurant. A definite must when you go to Alki beach. They are obviously known for seafood but everything else is good too.

This is me collecting sand. I collect a little bit of sand or soil everywhere we go to document the trip. I put it in little bottles with a tag of the date and location. My collection is small but I love it and look forward to years from now when I can look at all of my collection and remember all the places we've been.