Last week Cliff, Kelly, Winnie and I took a little trip to Seattle. Traveling with Winnie has forced us to make some changes. Staying in a hotel is no fun. With only one room and a child that goes to sleep at 6:30 just does not work. Instead we have been renting condos. So, at least we can hang out in the living room watching a movie or playing games while Winnie sleeps. We have some great family friends in Seattle that we were able to stay with so that is even better than renting a condo. They were terrific tour guides as well. We packed so much into the 4.5 days we were there. And yet, there is still so much I want to see (and eat). Seattle quickly rose to the top of my favorite cities list.
Oh also, we were thisclose to missing our flight. They were closing the door when we got to the gate. I didn’t even have time to put my shoes on after security. I had to pretty much run to the gate in my socks with a 16 month old strapped to me. Good times! But, we got awesome bulkhead seats. Now that i’ve gone bulkhead I can never go back.
The first thing we did when we arrived was get some quick lunch. We went to this great local bakery called Macrina. Cliff, Kelly, and our friend Jenn all had sandwiches but I got macaroni and cheese with spicy broccoli. I definitely think my lunch stole the show. It was beyond delicious! I’ve put broccoli in macaroni and cheese before but never spicy broccoli. Genius!
After lunch we went to visit the Space needle and Chihuly Garden and Glass. We didn’t actually go up to the top of the Space Needle but we saw it and snapped some pics. The Chihuly Museum and the Space Needle are right next to each other. Dale Chihuly is a famous glass sculptor. If you have ever seen the ceiling in the lobby of the Bellagio- that is Chihuly. The museum was beautiful but Winnie is a little too young to appreciate the art. I pretty much chased her around and hoped she didn’t break anything. There is also an outdoor garden with sculptures that was a little better for a 1 year old. She was able to run around and I didn’t have to worry too much about her breaking priceless art! Cliff really loves Chihuly though so we had to stop at the museum while we were there.
After visiting Chihuly Garden and Glass we drove to the capitol hill neighborhood of Seattle to get some ice cream sandwiches. We went to Hello Robin. We had mixed feelings about this place. First off, it is in a really cute neighborhood with free street parking. So, that is a plus. The store was ridiculously cute. There is a counter to order ice cream and a counter to order ice cream sandwiches/cookies. Then there is a big island with seating. The island faces the work station where they make the cookies. You can watch them scoop the dough and bake the cookies. The cookies are absolutely delicious. I would definitely go back for the cookies. The concept of the store is great. There are about 10 different cookies you can choose from and about 10 flavors of ice cream. You can make your sandwich with 1 or 2 different cookies. We got 2 ice cream sandwiches. 1 with s’mores cookies and vanilla bean ice cream and 1 with chocolate chip cookies and salted caramel ice cream. There were 2 problems though. We were not crazy at all about the salted caramel ice cream. Between the 3 of us trying it, none of us liked it. It was too strong a flavor. The vanilla bean ice cream was fine. But it was just really hard to eat the sandwiches. They give you a little wooden spoon but we ended up taking the sandwiches apart and eating the cookies and picking at the ice cream. The ice cream sandwiches are made with Molly Moon ice cream, which is a local Seattle ice creamery. It is very popular so maybe we just chose the wrong flavors. I would definitely go again but I wouldn’t get the salted caramel ice cream. The cookies were to die for though! There was also a little general store connected to the shop with specialty food items and gifts. Cliff was able to get a drink over there while us girls enjoyed our ice cream.
We were pretty much exhausted after our early flight and the sight seeing we did the first day. We headed home, put Winnie to bed, ordered Chinese food, and that was the end of day 1 of our Seattle trip. Check back on Monday for details about day 2- Kerry Park, Pike Place, Fremont Troll, and the Ballard Locks.
