Seattle Trip

Last month, I went to Seattle for my company's annual sales meeting. We regroup on our fiscal year that just ended, and then we spend a lot of time discussing strategies to win for the upcoming fiscal year. In addition to that, though, they let us have some fun and take us to some cool places. Since we were in Seattle, we had to go to the Space Needle to check out the views. And they were worth the trip! It happened to be a clear day, so you could see all of the city from the top floor.

After the work part of the trip was done, Matt flew out to join me for a fun weekend. We didn't make a ton of plans or reservations - just decided to wing it and enjoy walking around a new city. So on the first day, we went down to Pike's Place Market. That place was packed with fresh food, trinkets and some of the most beautiful bouquets of flowers I had ever seen! Apparently everything grows a lot easier in the moderate coastal weather than it does in the middle of the desert :) We made a stop at the "original" Starbucks and hit it during a good pocket because we didn't have to wait in line at all. (Turns out the real original Starbucks burned down, so they decided to re-build a mile up the road and not tell tourists the truth...)

Then we walked down towards the coast and ate at a restaurant called Ivar's Acres of Clams. It had gotten really good reviews online and we were not disappointed! We started with some Goat Cheese & Crab Dip (similar to a spinach artichoke dip in texture, but with a seafood flavor). Then for dinner, we split some Bacon-Wrapped Halibut. Holy cow that stuff was good!! I'm really glad I decided to give this seafood thing a try a few years ago because now I am a total convert. After dinner, we walked around in Pioneer Square and stumbled upon the cutest park I'd ever seen - Occidental Park. What makes it so cute? Check out these pictures - somebody put SWEATERS on all of the TREES!! It looked like a world created by Dr. Seuss himself and it was adorable.

View from Ivar's; Awesome Trees

After that, it was time to go to our Underground Walking Tour of historic Seattle. Some of my coworkers had done the day tour and weren't super impressed. But the night tour was adults-only, which meant we got adult beverages and a raunchy, comedy-infused guide to Seattle's history. A lot of the history was really cool - they talked about how a huge fire destroyed Old Town Seattle, and the damage would take 10 years to repair. But the businessmen didn't want to wait 10 years to start making money again, so they put up retention walls and started building a city on top of a city. The original stores now became basements, and the story above became the new store fronts. But over time, the underground portion became a seedy place for drugs and hookers. We learned a lot and had a ton of good laughs. Our tour guide suggested a local bar to go to afterward called Vons. The best feature: a giant Wheel Of Fortune-style wheel that the bartender spun every half hour. Whatever the wheel landed on was the $3 special for the next 30 minutes. And the wheel lords were looking out for Matt because it kept landing on Rum & Coke, Whiskey & Coke and other Matt-favorites.

Crazy optical illusion - that structure is actually level!!

The next day was the most exciting for me because we went on a gourmet food tour of downtown Seattle. Over 2 hours, we got to sample everything from fresh cinnamon donuts to Rainier cherries to the world's best clam chowder (in my opinion!) The famous fish market was really fun - we saw the workers tossing fish and hollering - it seems like an awesome place to work if you don't mind smelling like salmon all day. And the samples there were delicious. And then the cheese... Oh, my, the cheese. We stopped at a place called Beecher's where they make some of the tastiest cheese in-house. We tried their flagship cheddar, their world-famous chipotle mac & cheese (Oprah AND Martha Stewart's favorite!), and even got to try some fresh cheese curds that were heavenly.

With our happy tummies, we decided to head over towards the coast again to look at some of the artwork around town. We walked to the Olympic Sculpture Park and enjoyed the weather and the ocean views as much as we liked the funky, modern art scattered around. We then headed back to the hotel to meet up with Matt's sister Liz and her boyfriend John, who were driving in from Olympia, WA to visit us. This was really the highlight of our trip, since we don't get to see Liz very often. Our first stop together was a trip to Serious Pie - a pizza place recommended to us by my sisters Kim & Liz. The wait there is never less than an hour, but you can leave your cell phone number with the hostess, head over to a nearby bar, and they will call you when they have a table available. So we spent a little time at an Irish Pub catching up with Liz & John, and then got to indulge in some very tasty pizza. After dinner, we headed over to a wine bar called Purple and enjoyed the wide variety of wine flights they had available. The building itself was really beautiful and modern, and it made for a fun, relaxing end to the night.

The next morning, Liz had booked a ferry tour around the cove for all of us. So we got to motor around and see the city skyline from the water - a very cool view. Matt also liked seeing the giant orb thing in the water that apparently Raytheon (his old company) manufactured. (I am now being told it is called a Sea-Based X-Band Radar.) We walked around a little more afterward, and ended up finding a serene inlet in historic downtown that had waterfalls and tables to take a break and picnic. But after that, it was time for me & Matt to head back to the airport to go home. All in all, it was a great trip and I was so happy to have been able to visit a new city with my favorite guy!