Seattle... Day One...

Sorry it took me so long to post... I was crazy busy getting ready for the trip then after our trip it took me several days to get my feet under me... One of my mother's friend summed it up when she said the hardest part of vacation is "re-entry" into daily life! I know some of you travel all the time so this is probably something you are used to but for us it threw us off...

I also know some of you may not be interested in all the minutiae of our trip but since I am not as good as scrapbooking as I used to be these posts will be part of how we remember it! Yes, I did say posts...  seems like too much happened to put it all in one post! (Bear with me!)

The closest (real) airport is two hours from us in Portland (our Portland as I would be saying for the next week!) and since our flight was at 6 AM we decided to spend the night in Portland so we could get a good night sleep. 

HA! 

At 11:50 PM we were awoken by the fire alarm! 

It took us a few minutes to come to and realize what was going on and to follow the instructions on the back of the door (like I thought I'd ever need those!!) and head down to the parking lot... 

The fire department arrived and seemed particularly un-rushed but we all waited out there for over 45 minutes before it became clear that there was no fire and slowly made our way inside...

(Side note: See the guys in the black warm-ups going through the door? At the last minute I thought to snap a picture since they are the members of the Anaheim Ducks Hockey Team! We were out there with the whole team in the parking lot and I didn't take a single photo until this moment... I am such a quick thinker in the middle of the night in a crisis! Anyhow, this just goes to show, you never know who is in your hotel!) 

Anyhow the hotel is under renovation and the alarm was a "false" one that continued to go off for the next TWO HOURS! At least we were warm, but it was so loud and there was no chance at all of sleep. Finally at 3:00 AM it turned off but by the time I finally fell back to sleep it was 3:30 and our alarm went off at 4:00 AM! We had to be at the airport by 5 AM so I stumbled through the motions and we made it. (Just barely since we were the last ones on the plane.) 

Flying is rarely pleasant and this day was particularly bad so I will skip ahead nine hours to our arrival in Seattle...

I truly dislike that feeling you get when you get off a long flight and then have to line up for a cab... The cab line at the airport feels like a game of chance I am too tired to deal with so we booked a driver and private car. Always money well spent! They meet you at the luggage claim, grab your bags, whisk you away to a private, clean car and take you directly to your hotel. 

I had booked us into the Mayflower Park Hotel because of three reasons, location, location, location! 

It is connected by a sky walk to the Westlake Shopping Center which is also the downtown stop for the Seattle Monorail. This takes you directly to the base of the Space Needle... Also it is right downtown and only a few blocks from the Pikes Place Market... Right in the heart of the action! 

The rooms were old school and a wee bit dated but clean and well maintained...

Since we hadn't eaten anything all day we made a pit stop in the bar for lunch and then settled into our room... The day was amazing and sunny so we wanted to get out and see the city (in case the weather forecast of rain for the rest of the week held true) but first we needed a quick nap... By 3:30 we were feeling a bit better and headed over to that monorail for a quick visit to the Space Needle.  

We know it's a cheesy tourist thing but tourists are what we were and so we paid our $19 each to get on an elevator and head to the top... 

As we got in line for the elevator we were forced past a photographer and this was the picture he got! 

Don't we look thrilled??  Ah well, it was free  for a digital download so I figured I'd share!  

Here is the view of Mt. Rainier on this amazing sunny afternoon...

And here is Lake Union which will become important later in trip!

I snapped this picture of Paul but when I asked him to take one of me it was so bad I will spare us both... He got better as the week went on! 

Here is the bird's eye view of the EMP Museum...

Here is the front... We intended to visit it but ran out of time.

After we came down from the Space Needle we made our way back to the Hotel to clean up for the dinner reservation the concierge made us at the nearby Dahlia Lounge...

We lucked into the best week to visit Seattle... Restaurant Week!!! 

Over 160 restaurants were offering a three course menu for a mere $28 per person! 

To put that in perspective, the entree I selected is normally $27 on it own!

(Let's just say we ate GOOD that week!) 

I started with a warm spring salad which had house made ricotta cheese and the most amazing sweet onion jelly hiding under those greens... It was AMAZING!! So much more then a salad!!

Then I had the Lamb Chops... Delish! 

And finished with this chocolate mousse in a homemade espresso caramel... YUMMO...

Seriously though, the food was even better then it looks! (And that is saying something!) 

After dinner we strolled back the block and half to our hotel and called it an early night as we had been up since 1 AM west coast time and had very little sleep! 

Thanks for listening,