Seattle

This past weekend I had the privilege to get away from it all and spend 4 fantastic days in Seattle, WA.

The occasion?  Nothing.  Just 4 friends wanting to get away from the mundane day to day life of washing dishes, cleaning house, taking kids to and from school. etc etc. 

It was fabulous.

Ashley is from the area, and it only being an 8 hr drive, it worked out great.  We rented a condo that ended up being right down town off of Pike St.  If you walked up, you were on Capital Hill with all the great restaurants and hang out joints, if you walked down, you were in the shopping district that ended up at Pike Place Open Market, and the Waterfront. 

The first day we went to the Puyallup (pronounced pew-al-up- not pull y'all up like I kept wanting to say) Western Washington Fair.  It was a lot of fun and we felt like kids.  Our first stop was the scone booth.  Ashley told the lady that this was our first time (us other 3) there, so we scored some free scones with jam.  Y-U-UM

 We rode the Ferris Wheel, the Swing and a small roller coaster.  Below is Ashley and Lori trying not to think about dying.

 Karen was a pro

   Sometimes, I feel I need one of these in my garage with the amount of diapers that are changed.  Plus it's fun.  When we visited the animals we saw a cow that desperately needed milking, very large Bavarian Horses and one with a super sonic fart blast that made his tail flap.  It was so funny, and at that moment I really wished my kids were there, because they would have died laughing.  It was great.  Plus with them there I could pretend I was laughing at them laughing- and not me being imature and laughing at the super awesome horse fart.

 They provided plenty of photo-op scenes.  The sign on the arch literally says "please enjoy this booth to take pictures to enjoy for a life time.  Ok, maybe not literally- and more paraphrased. ;)

 Giant pumkin.  Please excuse me if I offend you, but we all had to admit that the pumpkin reminded us of the morbidly obese bathing.  You know you see it too.

 Photo bombed

 The doll house exhibit was kind of a let down, until I saw this bad boy,  The details were amazingly accurate down to the broken cabinet and dirty sheets.  It won by a landslide.

 When in Seattle. one must visit the gum wall.

 I love Lori's face here.  She was so grossed out.

Do you ever have one of those moments where you are momentarily transported and you find yourself in a situation that just brings joy, energy and a giant smile on your face?  I had several of those moments, but the most memorable was this one.  Saturday morning at Pike's Market, surrounded by people and my friends, holding (and devouring) the most amazing almondine croissant from the french bakery, and you find yourself listening to a street band perform blue grass jazz on the sidewalk in front of the original Starbucks.  Loved it.  It was one of those moments that recharges your batteries.  I loved watching the guy on the washboard.  They all looked like they loved what they were doing and it translated to their music.  I will take this over any over processed 'music' that is spewed out to make a buck.  Anyone can sound great with modern technology, but give me the rough, the true and honest music with soul and I am happy.

 We met up with Ashley's Mom and headed to Chuhuly Glass Galery and Gardens.  Fantastic.  Another charge to my battery.  I am a little sad we did not make it to the Seattle Museum of Art, but this was amazing.

 My favorite chandelier.  I figured I could put it in my dining room. 

 Love it.

 They even take your picture for free and email it to you!  I loved how this one turned out.  Fun.

 They let you climb on the sculpture in the park.  Karen, the climber tried it out.

 She got injured.  Be careful out there kids.

We took the Ferry to Bremerton to visit Ashley's  Mom and get haircuts.  Loved this view as we left

 Our return home (back)

 Luckily, I was the last to get my hair cut, and we ran out of time.  The girl with the fuzzy hair+no time to style= awkward side braid.

 After eating a giant sandwich, riding on a crazy drive to try and reach the ferry and being on a boat right after resulted in a not so happy stomach.  All was better later, but there were moment when we were like:

 The last night, we were exhausted from walking EVERYWHERE, going here, going there.  We decided to pick up some things from Pike's market and make food at the condo.  We all put on our stretchy pants and cooked dinner and hung out watching reruns of Friends.  For a moment we all pretended that we lived there and had no responsibility.  It was fun.  Then we headed to the roof deck to check out the sunset and hang out.  We ended up doing some Yoga with who knows who watching us.  We didn't care.  Strechy pants be damned, it was fun!

 We pulled the last of our energy together and headed to the Seattle Great Wheel.  It's set up to be like the London Eye, but not quite as big.  We all kept on our stretchy pants and headed out into the night.

 I love traveling.  The problem with travel, is that the more you do it, the more you want to do it.  Seattle was a little stinky and a lot of homeless wandered about, but it was still beatiful.  We were comparing cities.  The women in SLC seem to be a little too over done.  So much peroxide, lipstick and layers to uncover to find the real face.  Seattle it is was all out there.  It was more common that the women didn't wear make up or dress up.  Frizzy hair was all the rage- so on the last day when I found my frizzy hair escaping my braid, my make up rubbed off from a day of play...my stretchy pants with a skirt, and running shoes for comfort as we walked the @ 2 miles to and from the wheel that night- I felt like a native. ;)
    In the end we really appreciated Boise.  I really do love Boise- it's big but not too big.  We have a wide variety of no make up to the over done.  It's clean, green (most of the time), and I feel I can call it home now. 
     It was a blast, and was the perfect amount of time to be gone.  So excited to be there, but didn't stay too long to start to resent things.  I thought of my family from time to time, like the horse fart, the store of all Hello Kitty, and a picture of a couple kissing infront of the Eiffel Tower hanging in the French Bakery.  At that moment I really missed Preston and wanted to plant one right on his lips.  Now I am back home and back into the grind.  Fun memories with some fun ladies.  See ya, Seattle.  Until next time.