Our cruise to Alaska sailed out of Seattle, one of our favorite cities, so we made sure to spend a little time there with my parents when we returned. We got off the boat at 9:00 AM on Thursday and needed to be at the airport around 8:00 PM on Friday for our flight to Orlando. So it was a very quick little visit, but I’ll take all the Seattle I can get.

The day we arrived back to Seattle was Christopher’s birthday so we made sure to do some fun stuff to make it special.

Our first stop was the hotel to drop off all of our stuff, and thankfully they had rooms available for us even though it was super early for checking in.

Then off we went to Pike Place Market for a brunch snack from Piroshky Piroshky.

We obviously had to stroll through the market to see all the flowers, fish, and such, and ending with a trip downstairs to show my parents the gum walls

Then we went to Storyville Coffee for the most expensive coffee of my life. A plain iced latte with regular milk, I think it was 12oz, I don’t remember, was $8.50. EIGHT FIFTY?!?! The latte I’m drinking as I type this was under $4 for 16oz. Christopher and I had been to a different location of this coffee place on a previous trip and I do not remember paying that much for coffee, but then again I wore two different colored shoes yesterday in public for like 6 hours before I noticed, so who knows.

Moving on, my parents got us tickets to go up in the Space Needle and visit the Chihuly Glass Museum & Garden. I was the only one of us that had been to the Chihuly glass museum, and the Space Needle was a first for all of us. It was such a cool experience to go all the way up in a partially glass elevator and see so much of the view. We also got to watch the fog roll in and swallow up the view. Weather is fascinating.

I love Chihuly glass. Dale Chihuly has a way with glass that boggles my mind. How does he make it do so much and look so simple and elegant? There is a decent amount of Chihuly glass in Florida, so I have grown up seeing it in small quantities, but the Chihuly Garden & Glass is the big bad collection. Room after room of incredible art, all leading to a large installation in a giant room with a glass ceiling, then out to a garden filled with plants and glass all mixed together to make one of the most calming and magical places I have ever been. The first time I went to the Chihuly glass museum I was by myself, the weather was perfect, and after completing the audio tour, I spent almost an hour outside listening to Tycho and wandering around. It was no joke one of the best days of my life. I was so purely happy while I was there. It’s a feeling I still think of and chase often. The pictures will not do any of this art justice, so if you are every somewhere with a Chihuly glass installation, soak it in.

Next we rode the Seattle Monorail! We had just watched the episode of Frasier where Frasier and Niles ride the monorail to try and get to Frasier Crane day, which made it even more fun. Plus, the ticket machines weren’t working so we got to ride for free!

We had a late lunch at Potbelly Sandwich Shop, one of our all time favorite sandwiches. If only we could get one to open near us, but I guess if we didn’t get one in Orlando, we probably won’t get one in the woods of Southwest VA.

Next we walked over to see the Amazon Spheres and their banana stand, but the stand had just closed. The spheres are early cool though and one day I will remember to make a reservation or get a ticket or whatever you have to do to go inside, because I want to see the giant plant collection in there. We also went to the AmazonGo store, but I didn’t take any pictures of that.

Then we headed back to the hotel for a little rest time before dinner, because we saw a lot of stuff before 4:00 PM and we were beat.

For his birthday dinner Christopher wanted seafood, so we went to Duke’s Seafood on Lake Union and took exactly zero pictures. I am the picky eater of the family so I had chicken chowder and a chicken sandwich, but everyone else had seafood chowder and seafood dishes for dinner and enjoyed them. We sat outside on the heated porch with a nice view of the marina, which made dinner a little extra special.

For dessert we went to Hot Cakes, a lava cake dessert place. We each ordered our own mini lava cake and ice cream. It was DELICIOUS. You could totally share a lava cake, but we wanted to try as many as possible. I mean look at that lava ooze. Yum.

We had a much slower second day, starting with brunch at Portage Bay Cafe, followed by a visit to The Center for Wooden Boats. They have exhibits on different types of wooden boats, a workshop where they were building a wooden boat, and then a marina filled with antique boats, and boats for rent to take out on Lake Union. It was a really cool place and free to visit.

We spent the rest of the day eating and drinking coffee, and riding the city bus around town until Christopher and I had to go to the airport. It was a short little visit, but nice to get to spend some time in a place we love so much.