Sunless Seattle

What is gray, cold, and below sea level? Seattle...and that is where we chose to spend our first anniversary! Despite the fact that we were there during the coldest first week of June in over a hundred years, we had a great time. We stayed at the Pan Pacific Hotel, who upgraded us to a Junior Suite when they learned we were celebrating our anniversary. The room had an awesome bathroom (especially the tub) and a huge bed. There was also a Starbucks attached to the hotel (go figure) and a Whole Foods Market on the bottom floor. I would have been content to stay at the hotel...but that would have defeated the purpose of the visit.

One of the first things we did the first full day of vacation was head to the famous Pike's Place Market. This is where the fish are thrown. Beyond that, there was an overflow of produce and flowers. I was amazed at all of the beautiful colors...especially against a backdrop of gray! We had great clam chowder and a view of the Puget Sound for lunch. We also dropped by the Flagship Starbucks store which is right across from the market. Very crowded and the coffee didn't taste any different, but it was neat to see where the mega-coffee shop got its start.

We had a great view of the Space Needle from our room. We made reservation to eat there for our "anniversary dinner." The restaurant rotates around the Space Needle as you eat. We got an excellent view of the entire city. Afterward, we went out onto the observation deck and took several pictures...it was pretty cold up there!

The next day, we took a ferry across the Puget to drive out to the Olympic National Forest. Everything was so lush and green and the weather was beautiful. It was a perfect day for hiking.

Our last day in Seattle, we took a tour of the Underground City...Seattle that we know today is actually built on top of the original due to being below sea level. I highly recommend this tour. We had a Norm McDonald clone for our tour guide...it was very entertaining. We also took in a Seattle Mariners game. Not as entertaining...they played the Nationals so we basically watched the two worst teams play each other. Tim and I enjoyed the game from inside the warm club house.

Seattle was a great place to visit, though with the gray, we would never be able to live there. We had great food and lots of exercise from all of the walking. Hope you enjoy the slide show below: