(March 28, 2017 | Spring Break Road Trip: Day 4)
More like Dreaming of McSteamy…but…title purposes, ho ho ho. And irrelevant detail to note: while we were still on the outskirts of the city, Chasing Cars randomly started playing in the background when the skyline popped up. The car knew. Shout out to all my Grey fans, whaaat.
I loved Seattle from the moment I saw it’s skyline. Haha, just kidding. The first thing that came out of mouth through chattering teeth when I stepped out of the car was “I definitely can’t live here.” It was cold, windy, and sprinkle. I’m a SoCal girl, can you blame me? I later learned that today was colder than usual for this time of year. 10-15 degrees colder than the previous day. After that initial freak out from the weather, I couldn’t stop saying how much I loved this city. I can’t even pin point why, but something about it clicks with me. It’s cleaner than most, if not all, of the metropolises that I’ve been too. It’s quirky but still clean and classy. The marketplace is a gem. The views of the water are great. Art everywhere.
We didn’t do too much today, just a few things to maximize our time in Washington. It was only a few hours away from our Airbnb in Portland, so we went straight to Seattle and spent the afternoon there after checking out (still have to write an awesome review for Mary and her husband!).
We started with the famous Pike’s Place Market. Flowers everywhere. Food everywhere. Trinkets everywhere. I loved it. There was so much fresh produce and different types of snacks and food. All the samples I tried were delicious. I wish I could buy it all. A really cool aspect of the marketplace itself other than the food was that most of the things that I was looking at in the stores were in the spectrum of locally produced or hand made. Cool tid-bit. I could walk around there looking at everything for hours, but only 2 hour parking so… I was limited. It’s okay though. Lots of other things to see that I needed to cross of my bucket list.
Next stop was, of course, the gum wall. And it was perfect since it was right under the marketplace through an alley. I mean, the gum wall was an alley. Gum alley. I don’t know if not knowing that it was an alley makes me dumb, but I definitely just thought it was a singular wall. I preferred that it wasn’t though, ahah. There was a lot of room for everyone to take photos. Also, side note: I didn’t contribute a piece of gum to the wall because I forgot my gum pack in the car. I’m ashamed. Also, another side note: if you’re like me and directionally inept, don’t be afraid to ask someone. That’s what I did. I asked this lady I bought souvenirs from where it was because I went on a crazy goose chase when I put it into Google Maps. When you’re facing the market, go towards the end of your far left and walk down the path next to it that goes under the market. And bam. You can’t miss it with all the people walking towards it. Make sure you take photos on the part of the wall that actually gets light!
Oh, and it’s a given that we had to do some coffee stops while in Seattle. We hit up 2 places today. Again, I’m not the best judge to say anything about “real coffee,” but if you need some ideas for coffee places in the city, then here ya go. One of them was across Pike’s and the other one was next to the gum wall.
And on the note of coffee, I do love myself some “fake” coffee. Per tradition of this trip, we stopped by a Dutch Bros on the way home to the Airbnb. I’m trying something new everyday. Gotta get through my stamp card before I never see a Dutch Bros ever again. Sad. Tonight’s treat? Chocomocha. Was it good? Obvi.
Insert: Wow, I finished writing this and almost forgot that I also went to the Olympic Sculpture Part. HOW DID I FORGET? I was adding photos and saw a bunch that I took there. Again, more art. I didn’t take that many photos of the actually art since I was too busy looking at it, but the my first impression of it was: clean. I don’t even know how else to explain it. You would think that I’d comment on the art pieces, no. It was…clean. Grass cut perfectly, pebbles in place, chairs chilling. The view of the ocean was serene and the view of the city apartments behind it was majestic. If you live in Orange County and have ever been to the Newport Beach Civic Center, it’s similar to that but the 2.0 version. Make sure to walk through every path, there are a few smaller openings that’ll take you to different art pieces and everything’s really cool. It’d be a perfect place to have a spring/summer picnic. It’s also just a nice place to take a walk with your friends, significant other, dog…whomever really! The great thing about Seattle is that a lot of things are within walking distance from each other, so you can definitely walk down the harbor area or go to Pike’s to grab a bite to eat after. I think it’s also close enough to the Great Wheel if I recall? If you’re down to walk and get your blood pumping a little. Not a bad thing, especially in cold Seattle weather.
Insert #2: WOW, I’m losing my marbles. Also forgot another detail about this day. That’s what I get for writing this posts after the fact. We stopped by Bakery Nouveau per Ana’s recommendation and oh my goodness. One of the best little pastries I’ve ever tried. I asked the employee what the most popular and her favourite was and I decided to go with her favourite which was the Praline Dream. It was a pricey, $5-$6 per small little cake, but so worth the price. The crunch and flavour of the Praline Dream was perfection. I wanted to go back the next day but we were on a time restraint and wanted to try other things in the city. They need to open up one of these in San Diego though. Wow. How did I even forget to put this in? Amazing. I want to try everything.
Until my next stroll in Seattle.
Love always, J.
The Invisible Crown 