3 Days in Seattle: Day 3

This was our final full day in our Pac NW adventure.

Day 1  Day in Vancouver  Day 2

That morning we grabbed a bus over to the Capitol Hill neighborhood, Seattle's most populated residential area, to stroll around. We quickly came upon the famous Dick's Drive In on Broadway that has been operating since 1954. No, we did not eat there because gallbladderless Emily + any greasy food = never a good combination. But I did snap a picture and smell the delicious burgers and fries.

The neighborhood was quaint and had lots of interesting shops and restaurants we walked by.

There was a "best walk" suggested in a travel guide of taking (from Broadway) Roy St. to Harvard Ave to Highland for a nice stroll among gorgeous trees and homes. Some of Seattle's millionaires live in that area.

Wonder who lives here...

Lots of luscious greenery. And check out my fun new hat and new tunic (well not actually new but new to me from my mama)! Great for a day of exploring.

We then walked through Volunteer park and took a quick break there before heading to the nearby Volunteer Park Conservatory. It was filled with tons of beautiful flowers and plants. I can't imagine how awesome it must be in the spring.

 

Then it was about time for lunch so we took a short walked to Volunteer Park Cafe. It was a cute little place and was pretty busy. I had the chicken salad sandwich and Eric had the herb roasted chicken arugula mozzarella panini. Both were yummy and just the right amount.

Next we walked to the bus stop and took a couple of buses to get to the Space Needle. You didn't think we could visit Seattle without doing that right? And what is better than 1 trip up... 2 trips up! We went ahead and bought the twice in a day pass for just a few bucks more so we could visit again that night.

We easily spotted the apartments we were staying at to the north of the space needle.

Great 360 degree views. We were so thankful for a clear day.

After taking it all in and looking around at the rest of the outdoor Space Needle area on ground level, we decided to walk back to the apartment. It was not far but it was uphill the whole way. We stopped part way to get a shot of the Gates Foundation.

We relaxed the rest of the afternoon and got ready for dinner.  During my research seeing that Little Water Cantina was voted Best Neighborhood Restaurant and Best Place for Outdoor Dining it was an easy decision especially since we love mexican. We took a couple of buses to get to an area above Capitol Hill called Eastlake where the restaurant was.

All the food was wonderful but they had the best guacamole we've ever had at a restaurant. And we have sure tasted a lot of guacs. Yep those are green onions on top... may just have to add those next time I make some. The homemade chips were different than any we had ever tasted too. They were crispy and light but sturdy and nothing like tortilla chips. They somehow tasted a little like the leftover pie crust my mom use to bake during the holidays for us to snack on. Whatever it is they do, they were amazing!

Then we were off to the Space Needle again for our night visit.

Different but equally great view and feeling at night.

We are a little bit bright in this picture but I still like it to show it was pretty windy and chilly up there at night.

The next morning we flew back to Charlottle so this concludes our wonderful extended Labor Day weekend trip! We successfully avoided all Democratic Nat'l Convention craziness. Hope you enjoyed reading and that this helps anyone planning a trip to Seattle (with a day trip to Vancouver)!

LaForce Likes #26

For inspiration for our new home, I have been watching HGTV while I workout using our cycle bike. I have been watching a lot of Property Brothers and while the same plot is repeated over and over, I like it just for the designs they come up with. I like seeing the end product with the perfectly designed layout, furniture, paint and accessories.

One episode included a great bold painted powder room so I did some searching to figure out the paint color. I stumbled upon a resource guide for every episode! It has details about all the products from flooring to paint to art. So happy to see they are sharing this information so I thought in this LaForce Likes I would pass that onto you!

I couldn't find a picture of the bold powder room but I found a picture of the kitchen they renovated from that same episode that turned out great! Love the white cabinets!

source

Enjoy!

3 Days in Seattle: Day 2

Previous Days:

Day 1
Day in Vancouver

On day 2 in Seattle (day 3 of our overall trip) we grabbed 2 buses to get from the Queen Anne area where we were staying to get to the Ballard area. One note about the buses in Seattle is that they are consistently different from the schedule. If you have to be somewhere at a certain time I would allow extra time. For the most part we did not so it wasn't a big deal.

Upon arriving in the Ballard area we headed straight to the Ballard Locks which is free. We walked through a nice park on our way to the locks. At the time I had high hopes of hubby merging these 2 pictures so we were actually standing side by side in the same photo but I haven't remember to ask him about it since.

It was neat to read about how the locks separate the Puget Sound and the lakes. It is there to prevent the mixing of the salt water and fresh water and to maintain correct water levels of the lakes and move boats from the lakes to the Puget Sound. Here you can see boats lined up waiting to cross over.

Salmon also migrate through the locks through something called the fish ladder. They hatch in lakes and migrate to sea and then later return to the lakes to starting the cycle all over again.

We saw a seal and named him Sammy. We hoped he would come closer so we waited awhile taking in the view but he didn't return. Camera shy little guy.

 

 

After that we rode the buses back to the apartment and had lunch there.


Then we took the bus downtown and walked around for a bit and stopped to get Trophy Cupcakes! I had Snickerdoodle and Eric had a Chocolate Salted Caramel. This is where the new lens really shined! They were heavenly! I am a sucker for cinnamon flavor :)

Of course Eric found a nearby penguin sculpture thingy.

 

Then we hopped on another bus to the International District area of town.

Jackson St.

I wanted to see the Panama Hotel. This hotel was around during WWII and separated the Chinese and Japanese parts of town which was a large part of the Seattle population.. During that time most Japanese were forced to leave and stay in camps in other states until the war was over due to fear of their loyalty to Japan even though many of them were American born. If you have read the book The Corner of Bitter and Sweet you will know what I am talking about with the hotel being important.

From there we walked to the docks to board the Ferry to West Seattle. One of my to-do items in Seattle was to ride on a ferry.

This ferry was just a 15 minute ride. I had read about a park in West Seattle with spectacular views of the city close to where this ferry dropped off.

We did have quite the hike uphill but Hamilton Viewpoint Park views were amazing. Yes I used the tripod.

I wish we could have stayed til the sun completely set but we wanted to catch the last ferry back and go to dinner. Especially since Eric tried to eat the city.

I did get a few good shots on the ferry back too.

 

Earlier in the day we made reservations at an Italian place east of downtown recommended by a coworker, La Spiga. I had gnocchi and Eric had lasagna. It was very delicious and I would recommend it. Even worth the 20 minute seriously uphill walk from the ferry dock, and that was with us hustling. At least we didn't feel bad about eating carbs after that :)

After we took a cheap fixed fair cab (buses weren't running as frequently in this area) back to the Queen Anne area to take a few night shots at Kerry Park with the tripod. What a pretty night!